Off-season track & field training

I'm often asked when I go to masters track & field meets what I do for training. I'll go through my in-season training that I do on the track in a future post, but for the off-season the answer is pretty simple; P90X.
The reason I started on P90X was to improve my core strength and flexibility. I used to fight through some sort of hamstring injury every year. I tried a number of things to keep this from happening without much success. I happened to be at a sports medicine symposium where the presenter was talking about research studies that found that the greatest method for reducing the risk of hamstring injuries was to improve balance and core strength. I remember watching the P90X infomercial and Tony Horton said "This is balance, flexibility, strength, the whole frickin nine yards." Those words stuck with me as I thought about what I could do to improve in these areas.

I did some research on the program and it looked like it would be a good fit for my off-season training. It would help me keep my weight down during the winter as well, which has been an issue for me.
I've been doing the P90X program on and off since February of 2010. I'm happy to say that I have now gone two full outdoor track seasons without having a hamstring injury.

I have also started incorporating a new program into my in-season training It is called Insanity: The Asylum and is more sports specific training. Shaun T is the trainer and he is a former track & field athlete. I now am doing a hybrid of P90X and Asylum that came with the Asylum program. I'm about halfway through that program and I'll keep updating how that is going.

I've become such a big believer in these programs that I decided to become a Beachbody coach so I can help others. If you are interested in having me as your Beachbody coach or you want more information about the programs, email me at 400MeterDad@gmail.com or go to http://www.promisetobefit.com/.
Thanks.