On the Track Again

This would be mainly a recovery week based on my P90X2/Asylum hybrid program right now. I would still have a few more intense workouts to start the week since I started in the middle of a week originally. After the MN Masters Championships my legs have been pretty sore. I'm especially having issues with my left calf so I am going to try to be careful with it. I am quickly realizing as I try to get back to running more that this is going to be an issue for me all summer. To help this I picked up some new shoes for my Beachbody workouts.

On my way from from St. Paul I stopped off in Rochester and tried on a lot of shoes. I need a pretty specific type of shoe which is not as common because I tend to supinate when I run, meaning that I run on the outside of my foot. This limits my shoe choices since more people pronate or run on the inside of their foot so there are more shoe options for them. I picked up a pair of Reebok RealFlex shoes for my training. I also tried on some running shoes and found a pair that would work well, but were pretty expensive at the store. I will probably check online to see if I can get a better price.

I was scheduled for X2 Plyocide tonight, but I decided to run at the track instead. The kids just started tennis lessons and wanted to play that evening. I figured I would do a quick workout at the track and then play tennis in place of the Plyocide workout. I had a workout in my training log from last year where I did a quick 300, 200, and 100 with a walk recovery in between. The pace is not fast, but the intent is to simulate the end of a 400. With a warmup and cooldown I could get that done in about a half-hour.

So here was the workout:
Distance         Time         Rest
300 meters     43.35       200 walk
200 meters     28.03       300 walk
100 meters     13.11       Cooldown

Then we played tennis as a family for about an hour. The kids have these low-speed tennis balls that I had never seen before, but I love them. They don't go very far and me and my son were able to get some pretty good volleys in. I could run down just about anything he hit to me because the ball moved so slow so it was a pretty good workout. My calves are feeling it now, but it was pretty fun.

Now I'll follow through on my recovery week which will consist of a couple of core workouts, yoga, and stretching.

A Windy Track Meet

We had the USA Track and Field Minnesota Open and Masters Championships today and boy was it windy. The meet was in St. Paul which is about a two hour drive for me. Since it was forecast to be in the 90s we decided to have the rest of the family stay home so I went up by myself.

For anyone who knows me, there is one thing that I really dislike and that is wind. I guess it's all those years up in the flatlands of the Fargo/Moorhead area. It's also an issue I have with losing my breath when I run into the wind. I don't know if it's the way that I breath while I am running, but it is very difficult for me to catch my breath when running into a strong wind. Today's wind up in the Twin Cities was between 20 and 30 miles per hour.

For the 400 meter race there was a cross wind where it really hit me at the final turn. The worst part was there were a bunch of small buds on a couple of trees that were blowing right into our faces. They were going into my mouth and eyes while I was making the turn so I had to put my head down and take short breaths. Very frustrating going into the final 100 meters. My time was a little over a second slower than my time at the Indoor National Championships. World Champion Antwon Dussett was also in the race and it didnt' seem to affect him, so I need to find a way to do better despite the conditions.

The 200 meters wasn't any better. The wind shifted to being in our faces for the entire home stretch with a big gust hitting us with about 30 meters remaining. I ended up running over 25 seconds for the first time in a long time, so that was disappointing. I still came home with two gold medals, but it's the clock that's my main opponent right now.

In the end, considering that I have only been to the track for one workout so far this year I guess I can't be too hard on myself. It is an eye-opener that I have some work to do before the National Championships in August. The good thing is that there is enough time. I have another meet in two weeks so I will shoot for some better times. I've got a good plan for the next two weeks which will include 3-4 track workouts, P90X2, and the Asylum.

Time to focus and stay on track, no pun intended. As someone once told me, "Don't be defined by the past and don't underestimate the potential that you have." I've got a new goal to run under 53.5 seconds for the 400 in two weeks and under 24.5 for the 200.

First Real Outdoor Track Workout of 2012

I'm falling behind on a lot of stuff right now. It's hard to stay motivated when my mind keeps shifting to other things I should be doing. One key that I heard one of my workout buddies on Team Beachbody say was that motivation will only last for so long. Then discipline needs to kick in. I've been doing pretty well with the P90X2/Asylum hybrid, but getting out to the track and posting to the blog have suffered lately. Since there are two recovery days each week on that program I will try to work it in where my track workouts and meets take the place of a recovery day.

I do have an outdoor meet this weekend. It's the Minnesota and Regional Masters Championships. I always thought it was unusual that the Championship meet is the first outdoor meet of the season, but they use the same venue as the MN State High School meet, which is Friday and Saturday. I assume that they have staff and equipment already from the High School meet so that is the best time for our meet.

I'm already feeling some soreness and some calf issues so I don't want to push it too hard this week. I wanted to get a little speed work in, but nothing too fast. I alternated 100 and 200 meters at about race pace with a walk recovery. Here's basically my workout and times:

Warmup - 10 minutes

Distance      Time       Rest
100m         13.45       200m walk
200m         27.91       300m walk
100m         12.84       200m walk
200m         26.72       300m walk
100m         12.76       3 minutes

Four practice starts with blocks on the 400 meter start curve.
Cooldown

Here's the quote of the day from Shaun T -
"Sports performance is about combining the strength of your heart with the strength of your mind."

The family that runs together has fun(s) together

I thought I would get a track workout in this weekend. Unfortunately, I trusted the psychics who predict the weather and said it was going to be storming all morning. I got up and did a plyometrics workout indoors and then looked outside to see a beautiful day outside. I'm kind of a fairweather runner. I will always work out, but I don't like running at the track if it isn't nice out. I'm doing this for fun and running on a sloppy track and wrecking my shoes is not fun for me.

The Minnesota State Games has Track and Field events for all ages coming up in less than a month. My son has competed with me for the past couple of years and really enjoys it. My daughter said that she would like to run this year. I told her that if she came to the track with me for a workout that she could run. I want to make sure she can handle the start and stay in her lane. She did very well, even with all of the advice from her big brother.

If any of you know how hard it is to write a blog post while your 5 year-old is asking question after question about what you're writing you'll understand why I'm going to wrap up this post. I think we're going to play some Kinect Sports Track and Field.

Bye.

Relief

Since finishing up another round of the Asylum I have been taking the recommended recovery week. There is an actual recovery week plan on the Asylum workout calendar. Here's what it looks like:


Insanity Asylum Recovery Week
Day 1: Rest Day
Day 2: Relief
Day 3: Speed & Agility
Day 4: Rest Day
Day 5: Speed & Agility
Day 6: Relief
Day 7 Rest Day



My last rest day was last night so I'm back at it tonight. My plan at least initially is to do the P90X2/ Insanity Asylum hybrid program that is in the P90X2 guide book. Since I'm only a couple of weeks away from my first summer track meet I really need to start training on the track. My last meet this summer is in August so I don't want to start too early and burn out, but I do need to get going. I will start with a workout this weekend. That means that my Beachbody program schedule will need to be modified so that I can get the workouts in without overtraining.

I have had nightly events going on all week and my wedding anniversary is tomorrow night. It's been great timing for the recovery week, but it's going to be pretty hectic trying to get back into it again. After our church choir picnic tonight I will get the kids off to bed and do the P90X2 Balance + Power. Then I think tomorrow may just need to be an off day. It's my anniversary and I either need to get up early in the morning after already doing a workout tonight or try to get one in tomorrow night and end up in the dog house. Our Friday morning group is also planning to do an Asylum workout so I would have the same issue of working out at night and then the next morning.

I can't wait to start logging some 400 meter track workouts soon and I'll post my workouts and times to give you a feel for what I'm doing for training. If you're new to the blog, my typical plan of attack is to do most of my workouts at home and then one to two track workouts each week. That keeps my legs healthy while keeping my conditioning at a good level.

Finished Another Round of Insanity Asylum

I recently finished my best round of Insanity: The Asylum. I really tried to push hard this time and follow the program exactly as it is written. I did not do a good job toward the end of P90X2 and ended up putting some weight back on. I think that since the USATF Indoor National meet I let myself slide a bit.

I took a lot of video of this round and hope to put something together soon. For now, here are my new fit test numbers and before and after pictures.

I started out at 174 lbs and weighed in at 165 after the 30 days was over.

Not a lot of difference in the pictures from this round other than my chest hair disappearing, but I was able to cut some fat especially in my midsection. I also feel so much better and don't get tired as easily during the workouts.

As Shaun T says, "I'm smiling because I love it."

One week of Asylum left

I'm on my last week of Asylum. I've actually got a day off today, which is rare. There are relief days, which consist of mostly stretching, but only two actual "off" days. I can tell that I'm toning up and have dropped about seven lbs in the three weeks so far. I sometimes feel like this is the program that was made for me. Even though there are parts of the workouts that I don't do well with, overall it just seems to work for me. There are always those few last pounds that don't seem to come off well without a lot of effort. For me, this is the program that gets me there.

I'm also feeling pretty good about my cardio conditioning. I would still like to get better, but overall I've improved quite a bit through these past few weeks. I've been capturing video of my progress through the workouts and hope to put some recaps up on this blog or over at www.promisetobefit.com soon. One thing about being a video producer is that I edit video every day. Sometimes the last thing that I want to do after doing it at work is to go home and edit video. I'll get some videos posted in the next couple of weeks.

I'm going to quote Shaun T this week. "If your body left it up to your mind, you probably wouldn't do it."