Still Fits

I had a red carpet premiere event of a video I worked on recently. I decided that I should probably wear a suit to the event. But wait, I have a tux that I had to buy back in 1992 when I was in my college Concert Chorale. I have no idea when the last time was that I wore the tux, but I thought I would try it on to see if it fits. Sure enough it fit just fine. I was able to wear the tux for the night pretty comfortably.

At the time I purchased the tux originally (1992), I had been through my first season of college cross-country. I wasn't able to put weight on if I tried, so it's pretty impressive that I am able to wear anything that I used to wear at that time. It's a great feeling to know that even after all the weight I put on since college, I have been able to get myself back to my college shape.

I've started up my second week of Insanity: Asylum this week. I feel like I've hit it pretty hard and I'm really feeling strong right now. I weighed in today and I'm down four pounds from my weigh-in last week. Some of that is probably water weight, but it's still good to be back down under 170 again. That's pretty low for me, but I think I can probably still drop about five more pounds by the end of the 30-day program.

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”

—Jim Rohn

Time to get serious

Enough time off from workouts. Enough Reese's peanut butter eggs. Enough spending nights and weekends at work. It's time to get back on a program.

I finished up P90X2 and now I'm ready to get into my track training. I had a choice between doing the new 21-day Ultimate Reset or get myself back on a consistent workout schedule and eating plan. The reset seemed like a good option to reset my body since I've been slacking these past few weeks, but you're not supposed to work out while you're doing it. There is a group of coaches that are starting the Ultimate Reset so this would have been a good time. I just feel like working on my cardio and strength is a better option right now.

So here's my plan. Insanity: The Asylum for 30 days. I took new before pictures and statistics. I also video recorded my fit test and I will record a workout each week. When that's done I plan to do the P90X2/Asylum hybrid program that's included in the P90X2 guide. I'll have some track meets in there so hopefully those will fit in between the three phases. I think I'll stick with one or two track workouts each week and I'll try to do those on days that won't mess up the rest of the workouts. I should finish up around mid-August which will be right after the USA Track & Field National Masters Outdoor Championships. Then I'll think about doing the Ultimate Reset.

Sounds ambitious, I know. I'll just have to adjust and adapt my workouts based on my track schedule. This is the time to get serious. What I do now is going to have a big effect on what happens in August, so let's get out there and do this. No more messing around.

Peanut Butter Eggs

The Reese's peanut butter egg is my nemesis. It's a love/hate relationship. I love to eat them and I hate when I have to stop eating them. I know they are not good for me, but there is just something about them that makes me want them so badly. If I pick up a six-pack I will probably eat all six in one sitting unless I have to give some of them away. I have intentionally not picked up any peanut butter eggs for quite a while now. I know that once Easter is over they will not be available for a while so I thought I would pick some up. I bought four packs of six. The Easter Bunny also delivered some to us. There is one pack left and I'm pretty sure I ate most of them.

I also haven't been working out very regularly since the USATFONMC. I am going to do my last week of P90X2 this week and then switch over to Insanity: The Asylum for 30 days. It's easy to think of being either on or off a program and right now I feel like I am off. My diet needs to get back on track so I don't undo the progress of all my hard work over the winter. After all the peanut butter eggs are gone I won't have anything else to worry about. There is a great chocolate-peanut butter Shakeology recipe that I think can get me through until next Easter.

So I guess what I'm trying to say here is it's time to start working out again.

What to do now

The USATFMNC threw a bit of a wrench into my normal training schedule. Since this was the first year with a big track meet in the winter, this is the first year that I have had my 90-day workout schedule interrupted. Even last year when I hurt my back I was still able to continue on with P90X with just a bit of modification to the schedule. My real problem with not being on a program where I know what I will do each day is that I am more likely to skip a workout. It's too easy when I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do for a workout to just pick the thing that is short or easy.

I also remember someone posting a comment on a blog at TeamBeachbody.com where he said that if he is not following a program where he knows exactly what he's supposed to do, then a bowl of ice cream goes into his belly while he watches TV instead. That's kind of how I feel too. It's easy to think that you're either on a program or off a program. When you're off you can sit around and eat anything you want because you're going to get back on in a week or two. Or three. Or four.

So what have I been doing these past couple of weeks? I've been continuing on with P90X2 for the most part. We decided to switch things up a bit for or Friday morning workout group. We did an Insanity Plyo workout last week. Insanity takes it's toll on my calves. With my compartment syndrome I am not able to do things like jogging for more than a few minutes without pain. For some reason the newer Insanity: The Asylum does not bother my calves. I actually find it better than trying to run on the track.

With my calves already sore from Insanity, I wanted to play basketball on Sunday since it was the last opportunity until next September. Between Insanity and basketball my left calf was not happy with me. So I had to take it easy for a few days. I've taken this opportunity to play with the kids every night this week. It's still active and I think it sets a good example that you can still play when you get older.

We did another Insanity workout this morning and I don't think I will have any calf issues this weekend. My plan is to do two more P90X2 P.A.P. workouts and then start back up on Insanity: The Asylum. That's a 30-day program so I will either go back to P90X or P90X2 after that along with starting one or two track workouts each week. I've just got to get back on to something.

The Week After the USATF Indoor Championships

Well, it's been about a week since the conclusion of the USA Track and Field Indoor National Masters Championships. I need to come up with an acronym for that to shorten it up. From now on it is the USATFINMC. That's much better.

I didn't get an update posted after the meet, so here's what happened on the last day. I ran the 200 meter dash. We had preliminaries in the morning. My goal was to make the final if possible. I knew it would be a fast field of runners and only six spots for the finals so it would be tough, but possible if I ran well. I ran my best indoor 200 and made the finals in the 5th spot. My time was 24.04 (so close to being in the 23s). My left hamstring was starting to get pretty tight so mentally I was concerned about it in the final. I tried to stay as relaxed as possible and get a good warmup in prior to the race. My time was not as good as the prelim, but I still managed to get 4th place.

Overall it was a pretty good meet. Since indoor times are usually slower than outdoor I am pretty optimistic about the outdoor season. It's also bee nice enough that I can start some training on the track early this year.

Since I've been back home I did one P90X2 workout of P.A.P. Upper and Plyocide. I also did one Insanity workout and a short workout on the track. The track workout was three 200s with a 200 walk recovery between each one. I try to stay around 27-28 seconds for each 200 so they are not too fast. It's important not to take too much rest in between. This will help to build up to some of the endurance workouts I have planned for next month where I run 4 - 200s and keep increasing the speed and reducing the rest as the season goes on.

My back has been feeling pretty good lately, but I will continue to keep an eye on things and keep stretching and icing. I have been feeling pretty sick the last couple of days. I normally don't take days off from working out, but I think I can afford to take it easy right now and let my body recover before hitting it hard again.

Indoor 400 Meter Dash Results

I just got back from day one of the USA Track & Field Indoor National Championships. Most of today was pentathalon events and the 400 meter finals. After running a little behind schedule, we ended up with two heats for the 35-39 age group.

There were so many amazing athletes, some former Olympians, and outstanding performances. I saw at least three world records broken today. What a great venue for the meet. The USA Track and Field staff does a great job of building the excitement for the events and letting the fans know when something big is taking place. One of the biggest moments was when a 75 year-old broke the world record in the 400 Meters by running 1:03.90. The announcer pointed out that he was on pace to break the record after his first lap and the crowd went nuts. I'm sure that was somewhat of a factor in his great performance.

The other thing that I love about Masters Track and Field is that there is less of a feeling that you are competing against each other, and more that you are there to help each other. I've seen people giving advice to each other in field events where they are directly competing. People aren't keeping training secrets. They encourage each other and want others to do well.

So you're probably wondering how I did in the 400. I ended up getting third place and taking home the bronze medal. It was pretty well known that World Champion Antwon Dussett was going to win the gold, but after that it was a pretty even field. I had not put together very good performances this winter, only breaking 56 seconds once. I knew I needed to run a much better race. I ran 53.35 today which was better than my outdoor championship 3rd place time last year of 53.42. Not bad for only training using workout programs that I do in my basement (and the fire station once a week). Normally it is hard to run a faster indoor time, so I'll have to look through what I did differently for this meet and apply it to the outdoor season. I'm not sure if running on a track would help me or not.

I have a day off and then the 200 prelims (and hopefully finals) on Sunday. There's a chance we could try to get a relay team together, but I'm not planning on that right now.

I Made It

I made it to Bloomington, Indiana after almost ten total hours of driving today. I needed to go down to Iowa for work this morning and then left from there. It looked like the GPS was going to match my printed directions pretty well so I trusted it. Not always a good idea. I went through so many small towns and took so many turns when I should have just stayed on one road for the first hour. After that it was all good. It was about 80 degrees outside so I tried to take advantage of not being in a hurry and made a lot of stretch stops. I also listened to about half of the audio version of Tony Dungy's book - Uncommon. Very inspirational stuff. I must say that I got a little emotional when he was talking about the 400 meter runner in the Olympics who pulled his hamstring coming around the last turn. His dad came from out of the stands to help him finish the race. That's my all-time most memorable Olympic moment.

My legs were getting pretty stiff from all that time in the car so I really had to be deliberate about getting out every once in a while and stretching. My back had been bothering me for the past couple of weeks. I saw my chiropracter and massage therapist yesterday to try to get ready. I've also spent a lot of time with my rumble roller lately. Overall, now that I'm here I feel pretty good. I felt like I should have taken advantage of the high temperatures lately by doing some training on the track, but I didn't want to take a chance on doing anything that would make me too sore, especially with my lower back issues lately.

Tomorrow's the big day for me. I run the 400 meters in the later afternoon. It is set up as a timed final for my age group and we currently have enough guys where there would be two heats. It's nice to not have to run a preliminary round, but I'm not sure how they will set up the heats. We've often had guys who sign up and then don't show so it's possible that we could have one heat.

So my preparation for today was just to try to stay loose. No running and no workout. I'll do a little foam rolling on the rumble roller tonight and then again tomorrow. My diet for today was a couple of grilled chicken wraps for lunch, an apple and Gatorade for snack, and a turkey sub with a lot of vegetables for supper. I'll see what the hotel has for breakfast tomorrow. I have some Shakeology and a shaker cup and I will have that sometime in the morning.