Saturday was my Long Run day, and it seemed to go pretty well. I was able to keep my pace fairly consistent for the whole eight miles, and actually felt pretty strong in the end. The Garmin data is available here.

I only did pushups and Ab Ripper on Wednesday, so I will be restarting Week One of the Hundred Pushup Challenge tonight, followed by Ab Ripper X. This is my first recovery week for half marathon training, so it's just three days of easy mileage.

-Matt

I think I've finally gotten a somewhat solid routine down, after six months of irregularity. I'm doing six days of workouts, with either Saturday or Sunday off, depending on when I have more time to get my long run in.

I'm following a modified Runner's World SmartCoach training plan to get myself ready for the Oak Brook Half Marathon on Labor Day. I've taken the SmartCoach printout, and changed it from four to three days a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) due to time constraints, but kept the same mileage. I'm also going to be modifying the paces with the help of the Daniels Running Formula.

On the days I don't run (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) I'll be doing the Hundred Pushups Challenge again. Once I complete my pushups for the day, I'll do the 16 minute Ab Ripper X (part1 part2) routine from P90X. All of that should help me regain some of my core strength, which should help with my running as well.

I also hope to start using this blog again as a training log, to keep track of how each of my runs are going.

-Matt

Last time I wrote, I thought I had about two weeks until I became a father. Well, it turns out I only had a few days, so a lot of the plans I had written about got changed. My Fit Test which was planned for the Saturday after I finished P90X turned out to be the day my wife went into labor. Then the first two weeks at home were spent just trying to survive with our new little roommate, without much thought of working out.

Now that our son - Gavin William - is 8 weeks old, my wife and I have both been able to get some workouts in. We started a couple of weeks ago with some P90X Yoga, which I despised when I went through P90x, but is much more bearable when not doing it alone. We also did Legs and Back, and Shoulders and Arms. I've been trying to get a few runs in, and have also gotten in some time on the stationary bike.

I signed up for the Shamrock Shuffle at the end of March, so I'm going to try getting in some quality running workouts over the next few weeks as the daylight lengthens. My PR for the race is 34:08 (8K), so ideally I'd like to beat that, but I'll have to see how much time I have for training to see if that's a reasonable goal. I've got 8 weeks until race day, and the longest I've run so far this year is 10K, so I've got some work to do. But I feel like I've maintained a decent level of fitness, so hopefully it'll come back quickly. I'll try to make some more regular updates as I hopefully run more frequently.

-Matt

Today was my last day of P90X! It feels great to have gotten all the way through something like this, and I’m definitely looking forward to moving on, but also incorporating the ideas into my future workout regimen. Tomorrow is a rest day, and Fit Test Saturday morning. Then I have to figure out what to do for the next 3 months or so.

I like the idea of just taking a half hour to do some strength training a couple of days a week, and knowing that I can now get a much better workout in that half hour than I would have 3 months ago. I’ll probably do a lot more running, with some cycling thrown in, and some maintenance strength work. And I know I’ll keep doing Ab Ripper 2 or 3 days a week as well – still plenty of progress to make with that.

-Matt

Thursday was the Dan Gibbons Turkey Trot 5K. I didn't really know what to expect since I haven't been running as much, and hadn't done any speed work when I did run. However, Megan had taken a class for PTs to treat runners, and the instructor preached the importance of core strengthening. She mentioned a stat about a significant improvement to running times by changing nothing but adding core strengthening. So I though that maybe I had a shot with all of the core work during P90X.

I lined up race morning with the 6:00 pace group (they had signs out), and waiting for the start. It was a fair amount of people, so I wasn't surprised to not move right when the gun went off, but I was surprised to find people walking with strollers lined up in front of me. Apparently they just let people stream in from the sides, and everyone got in at the front, making it extremely difficult for me to get a good start. I spent the first half mile weaving in and out of people, and only being able to go 7:30-7:45 pace. When I was finally able to pick up the pace, I was pretty steady at about 6:15, but the damage had been done, and my first mile was 6:55. After that, I was in the 6:00 range, and kicked it in hard to cross the finish in 19:45. Had I been able to start unobstructed, I could have easily cut off another 30 seconds, and maybe a minute - which would have been a PR.

I'm not going to complain about it, but it is good to know that P90X has helped me improve my running. Now I just need to take this gained strength, add in some decent run training, and start kicking some serious butt in the spring.

Also, this is now my final week of P90X. I've done two days so far, tomorrow is basically and off day, then two more days, and off day, and I'll take the Fit Test again on Saturday. I'll post all of my results then, hopefully there's some decent improvements.

-Matt

Today was my last Plyo day of the initial P90X program. While I may still do it again in the future, it's certainly a milestone signaling the end of this round. Since there's nothing I can really compare like reps or weight from the other workouts, I do feel like I have gotten better at Plyo. I'm still dead tired after each set, but I think I'm able to do it with much more intensity, so I'm looking forward to see how it's affected my vertical leap when I retake the Fit Test.

Tomorrow will be my last Back and Biceps, then Yoga, the last Legs and Back, and I'm done with active weeks. Saturday will start my final Recovery Week, and then I'll be all done. It doesn't seem that long ago that we were taking the Fit Test in the Burr Ridge Warehouse, and now it's basically over.

-Matt

This week is a bit off, since I was running late Saturday morning and had to push off Chest and Back until Sunday evening (we were away from home the rest of the time). So everything will be a day off this week, and I'll forgo the rest day to get back on track for week 12.

Week 12 ends on Thanksgiving, and since I usually run in place of Kenpo on Thursdays, I'm looking at running the Dan Gibbons Turkey Trot in Elmhurst. It's a 5K, and I've heard good things about it. Plus it raises money for PADS and the Chicago Anti-Hunger Association - something good for Thanksgiving. The only thing I'm worried about is being able to give it my all in the race if I go all-out with legs and Back the day before. My legs are usually pretty sore the morning after that, so I guess I'll just have to Suck It Up and Bring IT!

-Matt

I started Phase 3 this week, and it's going well so far. It's nice to see progress in both my strength and appearance. I can definitely do more pushups in all of the sets than I did in Phase 1, and I upped the weights with all of the shoulders and arms stuff, and might even need a little more next week.

The diet's been sporadic as well. Most days during the week I'm pretty good about eating "good" foods, but then end up eating out or having lots of cake or something. At this rate, I'll never have a six pack, but that's really ok with me. Also, to combat this, I'm running a bit more. I've run 3 days this week, and hope to keep that up through the end of this thing. I'm going to swap out Kenpo with running from now on, so that's one day I'll get for sure.

-Matt

I finished Week 7 this morning with Kenpo. Wednesday was tough with Legs and Back in the morning, then I went for a long-ish bike ride with some guys from work (20 miles in 1:17 or so), then I still had to do Ab Ripper X when I got home. My legs were hurting pretty good yesterday, and I was more tired than I've been in a while, so I moved my rest day from Friday to Thursday, and did Kenpo this morning.

Tomorrow will begin the Recovery Week of Phase 2, which is the same as the recovery week from Phase 1. I think Kenpo and Core Synergistics are the only things I'll actually by the book. For Yoga, I plan to go for an easy run, stretch real good, and then do the Runner's Yoga DVD. I'll do a run and good stretch for the Stretch day, too. I didn't get much out of the stretch DVD the one time I did it, so I think I'll do my own stretching from now on.

-Matt

Saturday was Chest, Shoulders and Triceps which is pretty good. I kept up my streak of completing the entire Ab Ripper program, didn't even need to rest during the Fifer Scissors this time, either! I do still need to work on getting my legs higher and straighter during those, though.

Yesterday's Plyo was replaced with a run since we weren't at home and I didn't have the Plyo DVD with me. I probably burned just as many calories, if not more, running for 30 minutes than Plyo would have. But as weird as it might sound, I dis kind of miss Plyo. It's such a great, hard workout, that I almost feel like I cheated myself by not doing it.

Back and Biceps was good, but I still feel like I need heavier weights for most of the curls. I'm not feeling the burn at the end of 15 reps quite anymore. I'll probably just deal with it for now, since we don't have room to store any more weights, and I've only got 4 more active weeks left of this thing.

This morning was tight on time again, so I'll do Ab Ripper after work. I'll probably try an easy run beforehand to warm up and tire myself out a little bit. I'm still deciding what to do about Yoga tomorrow. I might do Plyo instead since I couldn't do it yesterday, or I'll try to get to the gym to run and then do the Runner's Yoga when I get home.

We finally finished the 7 pound cake last night, so the diet will be better for a week or so, but my birthday is next week, so we'll have a cake again. This one won't be as big, though.

-Matt

Today was the final day of Week 6. Nothing was too out of the ordinary for this week, except my schedule got messed up a bit, so I ended up making Sunday Yoga day, but didn't do Yoga (long story), and moved Plyo to Tuesday. I ran after work Monday, and hope to run tomorrow morning or afternoon, as well.

Monday morning, since I was running late, I skipped Ab Ripper, and moved it until the afternoon after I ran. For the first time, I was able to complete all 349 reps, and my abs could feel it the next day or two. Yesterday after Legs and Back, I did mostly everything, but skipped the leg climbers due to time constraints, and I feel like I get very little from them compared to how long they take.

Diet's been about the same, not terrible, but could be better. I eat pretty well for breakfast and lunch, but then we have like 3 pounds of cake left so I have a giant slice of cake after dinner which throws everything off. The cake should be gone soon, and I hope to keep running more, so it should get better.

-Matt

I finished Kenpo this morning, which effectively gets me through the first week of Phase 2. I'll be getting to work early tomorrow, so while I'd like to run in the morning, it's not feasible, so it will be a rest day. Saturday starts Week 6, with Chest, Shoulders & Triceps. I won't have access to dumbbells, so it will be all bands. We'll see how that goes.

Today is my wife's birthday, so we'll be eating cake tonight, and then leftovers for a while after as well. So it could be another week of not-so-great food. Someday soon I'll start eating better, I promise...

-Matt

Today was Legs and Back, so I got to use my pullup bar again. I don't know if it was eating less healthy this week (sister's wedding, White Sox games, etc.) or just not having enough in my stomach, but I felt more tired than usual doing all of the lunges and squats today.

I've given up on Yoga X for a couple of reasons. First, I never get up in time to do the whole thing, and second it's becoming increasingly more boring for me. My new plan for Yoga days is to run, stretch, and do the Power Yoga For Runners DVD I have instead. It's more geared toward what I'm trying to accomplish, and it's not as long and drawn out as the Yoga X DVD is. Now the only problem is having enough daylight to run before doing Yoga in the morning.

-Matt

Holy crap this is tough. It's 24 exercises, each max reps, alternating between two back and two bicep exercises - 24 in total. Half of the back stuff is pullups/chinups, and most of the bicep stuff is various types of curls. By the end, my arms were so tired I could barely lift my water bottle to take a drink. I know I'm going to feel this one tomorrow, but I'm looking forward to it.

I did get the pullup bar at Linens and Things yesterday. It's very easy to set up, and it's much better than the bands. The bands are great for a lot of things, but I wasn't getting very much resistance for the pullups. I was doing 20 reps per set of pullups with the bands before. Now, I'm using a step stool for some extra support, and still just barely being able to do 10-12 reps. I hope to be able to wean myself off of the step stool over the next few weeks, and increase my reps.

In other news, I'm going to the White Sox - Rays playoff game tonight. Go SOX!

-Matt

I'm one third of the way through this thing, and it feels good. I'm glad the recovery week is over, it was good to wake up with sore muscles again. Today was Plyo, and I definitely feel like Tony - "I hate it, but I love it!" I was starting to get sick of not really feeling like I was doing anything, except Core Synergistics is a good workout - I wish it was included during the regular weeks sometimes.

I was thinking about taking some Day 30 pictures to see progress, but I had a huge dinner last night over at my parents, and feel like my stomach is exceptionally large. So I may wait until tomorrow when things even out a bit.

I'm hoping to go find a pullup bar today over at Linens and Things. It's very similar to the official P90X bar, but cheaper. If I get it, I hope it will help with my progress a bit, because the bands are not giving me as much resistance as I had hoped for.

-Matt

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