This is always a difficult time for people to keep working out and eating right. Everywhere you turn there is a plate of cookies and plenty of reasons to not take the time to work out.
I am as human as anyone else, have the same excuses and temptations, and just plain don't feel like working out sometimes. Add to that an injured shoulder and shin splints that just started creeping up and I've got more than enough excuses to put my workouts off until I feel like doing them again. That's just how it is.
One of the only things keeping me on track right now is knowing that other people are looking to me for guidance with their health and fitness goals. They say that life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent what you do about it. If my example to my family, friends, and people I coach is to give up when things get tough, then that's exactly what I would expect to see from them.
There are also a lot of people who motivate me. People like Jesse, who I coach. Jesse has done three rounds of P90X and is in phase two of his fourth round. Every time he gets done with a round of P90X he jumps right back in and finds ways to work around a busy schedule. My Team Beachbody workout Buddy Lynn, who works nights as a 911 dispatcher. Working out literally paid off as she won the $500 daily prize this week for logging her workout in the Online SuperGym. Fred and Rob, who have shown me how fit and ripped you can be into your 50's. Fred just won the monthly Beachbody Challenge, transforming his body after a total hip replacement, and Rob is still running times in track meets that I wish I could run now. I've mentioned IceBandit before and my quest to match his Insanity fit test numbers. I did the fit test this past week and used his numbers as my challenge again. I don't know that I would have pushed myself nearly as much without knowing that he did it, and so could I.
I could go on and on, but these are just some of the people who are my workout Buddies. They inspire me and give me motivation to keep going and push harder. I know that peer support is a major piece of the puzzle to keep going when times are tough. Hopefully I help to keep my Buddies and people I coach accountable, because I know that they do that for me.
Happy New Year.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Charities Challenge Track Meet
I had my first indoor track meet of the year (or you could say the last meet of the year) this past weekend. They did not have blocks for us, which was a bit of a surprise. Otherwise it was a great meet and very well run. I wanted to see how I could do only using Insanity as my workout program. Last summer I backed off on the training on the track and used Insanity: Asylum. This year it was the original Insanity program.
We only ended up four people in our heat for the 400 meter dash. Just as we were lining up the first heat of the 400 Meters, one of the officials pulled a couple of us out because he wanted a couple of people from the fast heat to run with two late high school aged entrants. They thought it would be better to split up the fast heat into two groups of four than to have the younger guys run against the older men. As it turned out, the other two kids probably would have been better off running with the older heats.
Overall I thought it went pretty well. I should have gone out faster, but I'm just not used to the pacing for an indoor meet yet. I'm going to try to get into a few more of these meets and I should be able to improve my times later in the winter. I'll also be starting up P90X2 as my primary workout program. It is specific for sports performance improvement so we'll see how that goes.
We only ended up four people in our heat for the 400 meter dash. Just as we were lining up the first heat of the 400 Meters, one of the officials pulled a couple of us out because he wanted a couple of people from the fast heat to run with two late high school aged entrants. They thought it would be better to split up the fast heat into two groups of four than to have the younger guys run against the older men. As it turned out, the other two kids probably would have been better off running with the older heats.
Overall I thought it went pretty well. I should have gone out faster, but I'm just not used to the pacing for an indoor meet yet. I'm going to try to get into a few more of these meets and I should be able to improve my times later in the winter. I'll also be starting up P90X2 as my primary workout program. It is specific for sports performance improvement so we'll see how that goes.
Friday, December 16, 2011
First Indoor 400 Meters This Season
I normally don't do indoor races, mainly because I don't have a facility to train and would prefer to take the winter off of the track to recover. But this year since I am planning to really push for a good finish at the Outdoor Championships I want to get as many races in as I can. I'm going to head up to the Twin Cities this weekend to run in the Charities Challenge meet. I will run the 200 and 400 Meters.
I've had some soreness in my legs lately and I'm not entirely sure why. It could be the couple of days I tried to do double workouts of Insanity and P90X2. I had a few days off last week so I was feeling pretty good going into the week. I wanted to preview the P90X2 workouts so I can be ready to jump right in on January 2 when I officially start the program. I also want to make sure I finish up Insanity so I don't want to back off on those too much. So I have been doing both a morning and night workout, but really taking it pretty easy on the P90X2 program. I guess not easy enough though. After the Plyocide workout I have been pretty sore in my left hamstring and both calves. That's not a good thing to have going into a track meet. So last night I did Insanity Max Recovery and the night before that I did X2 Recovery + Mobility.
One thing about the X2 Recovery + Mobility is that it incorporates the foam or rumble roller into a large portion of the video. I can alread tell that the rumble roller is going to become one of my best friends this year. It's all the pain of getting a deep tissue massage on my legs without the expense and time of going to a massage therapist.
Well, I hope to have my brother videotape the race this weekend and I might post the video next week. Unless I do poorly.
I've had some soreness in my legs lately and I'm not entirely sure why. It could be the couple of days I tried to do double workouts of Insanity and P90X2. I had a few days off last week so I was feeling pretty good going into the week. I wanted to preview the P90X2 workouts so I can be ready to jump right in on January 2 when I officially start the program. I also want to make sure I finish up Insanity so I don't want to back off on those too much. So I have been doing both a morning and night workout, but really taking it pretty easy on the P90X2 program. I guess not easy enough though. After the Plyocide workout I have been pretty sore in my left hamstring and both calves. That's not a good thing to have going into a track meet. So last night I did Insanity Max Recovery and the night before that I did X2 Recovery + Mobility.
One thing about the X2 Recovery + Mobility is that it incorporates the foam or rumble roller into a large portion of the video. I can alread tell that the rumble roller is going to become one of my best friends this year. It's all the pain of getting a deep tissue massage on my legs without the expense and time of going to a massage therapist.
Well, I hope to have my brother videotape the race this weekend and I might post the video next week. Unless I do poorly.
Monday, December 12, 2011
How to lose 5 lbs in two days
It's been a different couple of weeks. I've really been focusing on getting ready for our church Christmas program. I had the only adult role in the play with quite a few lines. I haven't acted in much more than a few small video parts since high school. It is a challenge memorizing lines and there were quite a significant amount of lines to remember. I also had a solo to sing, which I also haven't done for a long time. I am the kind of person who, if I say I'm going to do something, I really try to put my all into it. So I really put a lot of time into working on my part and now that it's over it almost feels like a weight has been lifted and I have regained some of that time.
My old shop teacher used to say, "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well." That's why I like to put myself on a workout program where I know what I am supposed to do each day. If I say I'm going to do it, I know I will do it.
I've had a few days off from working out due to an unexpected sickness. It started with this feeling of being really full. I just didn't feel like eating anything for a couple of days. Seems like a sickness people would pay a lot of money to have. I haven't weighed in since last week, but I would just about guarantee that I lost at least 5 lbs over the weekend. Although I hate missing workouts, the stress of being ready for the play and needing to make sure I got better was my main priority. Now that the play is over I feel like my next priority is getting ready for some indoor track meets. I've got the first meet coming up this Sunday and I'm focusing on keeping my weight down and getting my legs recovered and ready for the stress of sprinting on an indoor track. I don't do any indoor training on a track so I depend on my home workouts to get me ready.
My P90X2 program came in last week as well and it was difficult to not just scrap everything else and start it right away. But I started Insanity and I am going to finish it. I may try out a couple of workouts and do some double-workout days with Insanity and P90X2, but I will finish Insanity by the end of the year. I'll need to adjust my workouts a bit this week and may even do a Yoga workout, since that's what I usually do on a meet week.
Maybe I'll have some X2 Yoga to talk about later in the week.
My old shop teacher used to say, "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well." That's why I like to put myself on a workout program where I know what I am supposed to do each day. If I say I'm going to do it, I know I will do it.
I've had a few days off from working out due to an unexpected sickness. It started with this feeling of being really full. I just didn't feel like eating anything for a couple of days. Seems like a sickness people would pay a lot of money to have. I haven't weighed in since last week, but I would just about guarantee that I lost at least 5 lbs over the weekend. Although I hate missing workouts, the stress of being ready for the play and needing to make sure I got better was my main priority. Now that the play is over I feel like my next priority is getting ready for some indoor track meets. I've got the first meet coming up this Sunday and I'm focusing on keeping my weight down and getting my legs recovered and ready for the stress of sprinting on an indoor track. I don't do any indoor training on a track so I depend on my home workouts to get me ready.
Maybe I'll have some X2 Yoga to talk about later in the week.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Insanity Month 2
It's been a busy week with the P90X2 pre-orders coming to an end and working with a whole bunch of new Beachbody customers. I haven't posted here for a while, but I wanted to update a few things and briefly recap the week.
I finished the recovery week and thought I was ready to get back into the regular Insanity workouts. Anyone who has done Insanity knows that month 2 is more difficult than month 1. I did not preview any of the workouts ahead of time. I wanted it to be a nice surprise. Well, the first day has a fit test and a workout. That's the first time that the fit test isn't the workout. So I though maybe the workout would be short. Oh no. It is a full hour. And that's after the 25 minute fit test.
One thing I did for this one was write down the results of one of my workout buddies. I looked at his number right before I started and tried to hit it or surpass it. It was a great help because I know I probably would have given up earlier if I didn't have those numbers to shoot for. So thanks IceBandit. He just finished his last fit test and I don't know how I'm going to match his new numbers, but I guess I'll have to just do my best and forget the rest.
Here are the results for my third fit test with the first two for reference:
1. Switch Kicks
Day 1 - 41
Day 15 - 47
Day 36 - 61
2. Power Jacks
Day 1 - 42
Day 15 - 48
Day 36 - 48
3. Power Knees
Day 1 - 62
Day 15 - 80
Day 36 - 82
4. Power Jumps
Day 1 - 24
Day 15 - 30
Day 36 - 32
5. Globe Jumps
Day 1 - 7
Day 15 - 8
Day 36 - 9
6. Suicide Jumps
Day 1 - 14
Day 15 - 16
Day 36 - 19
7. Push-up Jacks
Day 1 - 25
Day 15 - 30
Day 36 - 33
8. Low Plank Oblique
Day 1 - 44
Day 15 - 45
Day 36 - 62
I had great improvement on some of my numbers simply because I was not just trying to beat my own numbers, but going for something more. That's going to help me get even better results because the brain usually gives out long before the body. So thanks again IceBandit.
"I've got 5 more in my brain. Can my body match my brain?" - Tony Horton (trying to crank out 5 more reps on push-ups)
I finished the recovery week and thought I was ready to get back into the regular Insanity workouts. Anyone who has done Insanity knows that month 2 is more difficult than month 1. I did not preview any of the workouts ahead of time. I wanted it to be a nice surprise. Well, the first day has a fit test and a workout. That's the first time that the fit test isn't the workout. So I though maybe the workout would be short. Oh no. It is a full hour. And that's after the 25 minute fit test.
One thing I did for this one was write down the results of one of my workout buddies. I looked at his number right before I started and tried to hit it or surpass it. It was a great help because I know I probably would have given up earlier if I didn't have those numbers to shoot for. So thanks IceBandit. He just finished his last fit test and I don't know how I'm going to match his new numbers, but I guess I'll have to just do my best and forget the rest.
Here are the results for my third fit test with the first two for reference:
1. Switch Kicks
Day 1 - 41
Day 15 - 47
Day 36 - 61
2. Power Jacks
Day 1 - 42
Day 15 - 48
Day 36 - 48
3. Power Knees
Day 1 - 62
Day 15 - 80
Day 36 - 82
4. Power Jumps
Day 1 - 24
Day 15 - 30
Day 36 - 32
5. Globe Jumps
Day 1 - 7
Day 15 - 8
Day 36 - 9
6. Suicide Jumps
Day 1 - 14
Day 15 - 16
Day 36 - 19
7. Push-up Jacks
Day 1 - 25
Day 15 - 30
Day 36 - 33
8. Low Plank Oblique
Day 1 - 44
Day 15 - 45
Day 36 - 62
I had great improvement on some of my numbers simply because I was not just trying to beat my own numbers, but going for something more. That's going to help me get even better results because the brain usually gives out long before the body. So thanks again IceBandit.
"I've got 5 more in my brain. Can my body match my brain?" - Tony Horton (trying to crank out 5 more reps on push-ups)
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