Yeah, I'm not even going to pretend anymore, I'm done with P90X.
I just find it immensely boring and sort of a time-waster. True, I'm seeing results. But I also see results from doing shorter HIIT workouts and Crossfit WODs, and those are more fun, and I feel like they build more functional ability rather than just tone muscles and burn fat.
Also, I'm getting more into marathon training and having a lot of fun with it (still not doing really long distances, just working on setting up a weekly habit of mileage runs, hill repeats, and speedwork). And I just don't have the time in my day to squeeze in the hour-plus that P90X requires, when I'm already doing a half hour-ish of marathon training and an hour of yoga.
And I can't keep saying this enough: it's not FUN. Crossfit is fun. Bodyrock is fun. Running is fun. Yoga is both fun and makes my ADD brain quiet down for sixty precious minutes. P90X? Not fun. Boring. Irritating. Effective, but that's not enough of a dealbreaker for me.
SO I'm back to my shorter, more intense workout style, using mostly bodyweight, and sometimes my kettlebell, jumprope, or "medicine box" (jumbo kitty litter jug filled with rice, which I use for medicine ball moves).
Let's talk about the weekend. Saturday I went to class and then did the Crossfit WOD, which thankfully was suited to a speed workout in the marathon-training category:
Run 1600m
Rest 3m
Run 1200m
Rest 2m
Run 800m
Rest 1m
Run 400m
4K total, and my time was 21:12. Really fun. My last 400m was like running on cement legs, but I still pushed it.
Sunday I went over to Arwen's place for some workout/food fun. We went to a local park and did a Crossfit-style workout I pretty much made up. It was:
3 rounds, 40:20 second intervals
Pushups
Kettlebell swings (20lb)
Jump rope (my jump rope fucking sucks and we basically struggled to make it work the whole time)
Chair dips (on a park bench)
Box jumps (again, park bench)
About a minute rest between sets
It was hard, not so hard we were dying or anything, and I feel we could have easily done another round at the end. But it was quite effective. I can feel it in my back and arms today. Including our warmup (a light jog around the park), it took us about 24 minutes. I was pretty happy with my pushups: my sets were 20, 20, 16, and I maxed out each time at around 12. 12 pushups in a row two months ago would have been madness. So, thank you, P90X.
Then we went to Trader Joe's and stocked up on taco ingredients, and came back to the house to make steak and chicken tacos (lettuce wraps, really) with slaw and cheese sauce. I also indulged with a beer and some gluten-free brownies Ar made. As much as I enjoyed Whole30, and feel it did me some real good, it's nice to have the freedom to indulge the 20 to my 80 now. When I know I can let go a little bit on the weekends, my weeks are so strict and good eating-wise and it's not hard to stay on the straight and narrow.
Today will see an easy mileage run, some bodyweight work (I'm thinking I'll work on my prime weaknesses, i.e. pistol squats, clapping pushups, handstands, and pullups), and my overnight shift at the rescue squad. It's supposed to rain tonight, so everyone in Loudoun County, could you please drive carefully so I can get a full night's sleep? That would be amazing. Two weeks in a row would be a phenomenon.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Tacos, Crossfit and marathon training
Hooray! After a solid three days of feeling like shit (and a very uncharacteristic chocolate binge last night that extended into this morning), today saw me perking up and back to my old self by the end of my workout. If you're a man reading this blog, I apologize in advance for the next paragraph, and maybe skip over it while thanking the Force you don't have lady parts.
JESUS CHRIST, the older I get (and it's not like I'm even close to what could be termed "not young", so I've got a long road of this ahead of me), the worse my special lady friend, as I like to call it, gets. It's getting to the point where I am straight knocked on my ass for like two days before and the first three days of it. I have a couple days of feeling bloated and like a truck hit me, a day of feeling like I'm going to vomit if I even smell food (and I lay around all day trying not to vomit), and then a couple days of cramps and more nausea, all the while SO TIRED and lacking energy that it's a struggle to even get out of bed, let alone work out. Also I cry at the drop of a hat. Like if anyone even mentions children or small animals. IT'S TERRIBLE. I HATE IT. Okay, rant over, because it's really pretty redundant to rant about how much the special lady friend sucks, but CHRIST.
However, my month of Whole30 has cut my junk cravings so completely that with this month's SLF visit, I didn't totally break the bank with eating shit. Yesterday I had three dates with salt sprinkled on top pre-workout, which sounds innocuous, but dates are 15 grams of sugar each, and usually I only have a single salty date pre-workout if I'm taking a long run or feeling especially tired. Then in the evening I binged on dark chocolate-covered pomegranate seeds from Trader Joe's. I know, not so bad, but a pretty carby day, and having gone from eating zero sugar besides thrice-weekly sweet potatoes (I didn't even eat a single piece of fruit last month), I'm sure my insulin was like WTF YOU BITCH. Then this morning, I finished off the chocolate pom seeds for breakfast. SO BAD. So unlike me. But that's the nature of the special lady friend. At least I didn't have a donut, and all things considered, I feel okay about it all. Thank you, Whole30.
I forgot to take pictures of last night's dinner and update the blog afterward, but WOW my dinner was so delicious. If you've ever been to Austin, Texas, you have undoubtedly had the pleasure of visiting the following:
Torchy's Tacos is basically the greatest restaurant ever conceived by man. It's not especially healthy (unless you don't eat the tortillas, in which case it's actually pretty good because there's no rice and beans and it's all fresh whole foods), but it's DELICIOUS and cheap. They have a zillion different kinds of really creative tacos and they all taste like heaven. After several Torchy's trips during which I made it my mission to try every single taco on the menu, I narrowed down my #1 favorite to the Crossroads and my #2 favorite to the Brush Fire. Whenever I visit Austin (and I will be moving there quite soon--yay!), I make it a point to eat at Torchy's every single day and work out extra hard to make up for it.
So last night, in the midst of the deleterious effects of my SLF, I was craving Torchy's so hardcore. (Again, at least I wasn't craving doughnuts.) I decided to try to recreate some Torchy's right here in boring-ass old Northern VA. I made two kinds of tacos: my best attempt at the Crossroads, with pre-cooked brisket from Trader Joe's that I simmered in Mexican spices and vinegar for a while, and some fish tacos using the Garlic & Chile fresh halibut fillets from TJ's, with a creamy lime-paprika dressing and homemade vinegar slaw. Instead of tortillas, I used big romaine pieces. I also added fresh minced jalapeno to both
Verdict? FUCKING AWESOME
I ate six of those fuckers. Sweet holy Skywalker, it was satisfying. Not nearly as good as the real thing, but good enough that it made me really happy. And I actually still stuck to the dairy-free thing: the creamy lime dressing was something I whipped up myself, using homemade olive oil/ghee mayonnaise mixed with coconut milk, lime juice, vinegar, and paprika.
Today I woke up still feeling a bit poopy (actually I slept in ridiculously late, and it's not like I chose to snooze that long--my body literally did not wake up until nearly noon--DAMN you SLF!), and I felt nauseous yet still chocolate-craving, so like I said, I polished off those chocolate pom seeds. Then I had a ginormous pot of coffee and worked until just about an hour ago, when I was feeling a bit normal again.
Workout today: Hill repeats (part of marathon training) and the Crossfit WOD.
I warmed up by completing two sets of the following circuit: gently jog 400m, do some P90X-style Military Marching and Knee Raises, some Mary Katherine lunges, and 20 jumping jacks. Really good warmup.
Hill repeats are accomplished on the big hill right behind my house. It's an increasingly quite steep grade, and running up it and back down again is a .15 mile distance. It takes me about a minute-thirty, on average, to run up and back down. What I do is alternate sprinting the repeat and just running the repeat at race pace, with about a minute of rest in between each repeat. I do as many as I can in 20 minutes. It's a hard, fun workout, the weather was GORGEOUS today, and I had a great time. I got in 8 repeats in 20 minutes.
Then I came inside and did the Crossfit WOD, which was 21-15-9 of handstand pushups, ring dips, and pushups, for time. Modifications: I cannot do a handstand pushup, and can barely do a handstand, so instead I hold a handstand against the wall for as many seconds as reps are called for. Also, I don't have rings. So I substitute chair dips. Pushups I do full, but I take breaks in child's pose when I hit failure. I did the whole workout with these modifications (and I was actually really proud of my pushups form and stamina) in 11:14.
I followed up the workout with a glass of coconut water and my usual protein shake, only I was running low on spinach and used some frozen kale instead. Discovery: I can actually make the kale palatable (i.e. blended finely enough, with which a shitty blender is difficult) by just blending it for a REALLY long time. You just have to be patient, and then it's great.
JESUS CHRIST, the older I get (and it's not like I'm even close to what could be termed "not young", so I've got a long road of this ahead of me), the worse my special lady friend, as I like to call it, gets. It's getting to the point where I am straight knocked on my ass for like two days before and the first three days of it. I have a couple days of feeling bloated and like a truck hit me, a day of feeling like I'm going to vomit if I even smell food (and I lay around all day trying not to vomit), and then a couple days of cramps and more nausea, all the while SO TIRED and lacking energy that it's a struggle to even get out of bed, let alone work out. Also I cry at the drop of a hat. Like if anyone even mentions children or small animals. IT'S TERRIBLE. I HATE IT. Okay, rant over, because it's really pretty redundant to rant about how much the special lady friend sucks, but CHRIST.
However, my month of Whole30 has cut my junk cravings so completely that with this month's SLF visit, I didn't totally break the bank with eating shit. Yesterday I had three dates with salt sprinkled on top pre-workout, which sounds innocuous, but dates are 15 grams of sugar each, and usually I only have a single salty date pre-workout if I'm taking a long run or feeling especially tired. Then in the evening I binged on dark chocolate-covered pomegranate seeds from Trader Joe's. I know, not so bad, but a pretty carby day, and having gone from eating zero sugar besides thrice-weekly sweet potatoes (I didn't even eat a single piece of fruit last month), I'm sure my insulin was like WTF YOU BITCH. Then this morning, I finished off the chocolate pom seeds for breakfast. SO BAD. So unlike me. But that's the nature of the special lady friend. At least I didn't have a donut, and all things considered, I feel okay about it all. Thank you, Whole30.
I forgot to take pictures of last night's dinner and update the blog afterward, but WOW my dinner was so delicious. If you've ever been to Austin, Texas, you have undoubtedly had the pleasure of visiting the following:
Torchy's Tacos is basically the greatest restaurant ever conceived by man. It's not especially healthy (unless you don't eat the tortillas, in which case it's actually pretty good because there's no rice and beans and it's all fresh whole foods), but it's DELICIOUS and cheap. They have a zillion different kinds of really creative tacos and they all taste like heaven. After several Torchy's trips during which I made it my mission to try every single taco on the menu, I narrowed down my #1 favorite to the Crossroads and my #2 favorite to the Brush Fire. Whenever I visit Austin (and I will be moving there quite soon--yay!), I make it a point to eat at Torchy's every single day and work out extra hard to make up for it.
So last night, in the midst of the deleterious effects of my SLF, I was craving Torchy's so hardcore. (Again, at least I wasn't craving doughnuts.) I decided to try to recreate some Torchy's right here in boring-ass old Northern VA. I made two kinds of tacos: my best attempt at the Crossroads, with pre-cooked brisket from Trader Joe's that I simmered in Mexican spices and vinegar for a while, and some fish tacos using the Garlic & Chile fresh halibut fillets from TJ's, with a creamy lime-paprika dressing and homemade vinegar slaw. Instead of tortillas, I used big romaine pieces. I also added fresh minced jalapeno to both
Verdict? FUCKING AWESOME
I ate six of those fuckers. Sweet holy Skywalker, it was satisfying. Not nearly as good as the real thing, but good enough that it made me really happy. And I actually still stuck to the dairy-free thing: the creamy lime dressing was something I whipped up myself, using homemade olive oil/ghee mayonnaise mixed with coconut milk, lime juice, vinegar, and paprika.
Today I woke up still feeling a bit poopy (actually I slept in ridiculously late, and it's not like I chose to snooze that long--my body literally did not wake up until nearly noon--DAMN you SLF!), and I felt nauseous yet still chocolate-craving, so like I said, I polished off those chocolate pom seeds. Then I had a ginormous pot of coffee and worked until just about an hour ago, when I was feeling a bit normal again.
Workout today: Hill repeats (part of marathon training) and the Crossfit WOD.
I warmed up by completing two sets of the following circuit: gently jog 400m, do some P90X-style Military Marching and Knee Raises, some Mary Katherine lunges, and 20 jumping jacks. Really good warmup.
Hill repeats are accomplished on the big hill right behind my house. It's an increasingly quite steep grade, and running up it and back down again is a .15 mile distance. It takes me about a minute-thirty, on average, to run up and back down. What I do is alternate sprinting the repeat and just running the repeat at race pace, with about a minute of rest in between each repeat. I do as many as I can in 20 minutes. It's a hard, fun workout, the weather was GORGEOUS today, and I had a great time. I got in 8 repeats in 20 minutes.
Then I came inside and did the Crossfit WOD, which was 21-15-9 of handstand pushups, ring dips, and pushups, for time. Modifications: I cannot do a handstand pushup, and can barely do a handstand, so instead I hold a handstand against the wall for as many seconds as reps are called for. Also, I don't have rings. So I substitute chair dips. Pushups I do full, but I take breaks in child's pose when I hit failure. I did the whole workout with these modifications (and I was actually really proud of my pushups form and stamina) in 11:14.
I followed up the workout with a glass of coconut water and my usual protein shake, only I was running low on spinach and used some frozen kale instead. Discovery: I can actually make the kale palatable (i.e. blended finely enough, with which a shitty blender is difficult) by just blending it for a REALLY long time. You just have to be patient, and then it's great.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Phase 2 - Day 3
Uuuuuuugh I am hating P90X. I don't know if it's just my mood today, or if I've completely hit the wall with how long the workout takes/how annoying Tony is, but it took everything I had to get through Back and Biceps just now. Lately I'm looking at the P90X for the day and thinking "Guuuuuuuuh... an hour and ten minutes... let's just do the Crossfit WOD and call it a fucking day." Part of me is really resisting P90X and I'm not sure why, because I'm seeing results. It definitely works. It just takes a huge chunk out of your day and is BORING.
Back and Biceps is sort of like Shoulders and Arms in that it's really isolated movements targeting specific body parts. So, lots of curls and pullups, and many variations of both. It's both hard and mind-numbingly boring.
I had a two-mile run beforehand, for which the weather was nice but I felt really tired.
I have no idea what tomorrow's P90X will bring. If I'm in this same mood I'm not even gonna do it, just gonna do a fast interval workout. I'm also doing the 100 Pushups Challenge over on the Mark's Daily Apple boards, so that's fun.
Today is sort of blah, if you can't tell from this incredibly unmotivated blog post. But I do have a really great dinner planned! I'll update later if it goes as it's supposed to.
Back and Biceps is sort of like Shoulders and Arms in that it's really isolated movements targeting specific body parts. So, lots of curls and pullups, and many variations of both. It's both hard and mind-numbingly boring.
I had a two-mile run beforehand, for which the weather was nice but I felt really tired.
I have no idea what tomorrow's P90X will bring. If I'm in this same mood I'm not even gonna do it, just gonna do a fast interval workout. I'm also doing the 100 Pushups Challenge over on the Mark's Daily Apple boards, so that's fun.
Today is sort of blah, if you can't tell from this incredibly unmotivated blog post. But I do have a really great dinner planned! I'll update later if it goes as it's supposed to.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Aaaand derailed
Well, I can tell you right now there won't be any P90Xing today. I was waylaid by my boss for three hours, then when I got home, I discovered that River had had a little gastrointestinal issue all over her crate, requiring me to give her a bath, scrub out the crate, and launder all her bedding. Now I'm (blogging) trying to finish up a piece of work with enough time left to maybe take River for a run, or do a quick interval workout, either, or both.
P90X will be done tomorrow after I sleep in, go to the office for a quick meeting, come back, and sleep some more.
P90X will be done tomorrow after I sleep in, go to the office for a quick meeting, come back, and sleep some more.
Weekend of crazy
This was a fun weekend. Thankfully, I actually got in most of the working out I had planned to finish off Recovery Week, even though I was suddenly and unexpectedly busy. Guess what I didn't do, though?*
Friday I finished off the week with a 15-minute burpee chinups session (I can't actually do a dead hang chinup, so the jumping up from the burpee helps), then an hour of yoga. Felt great.
Saturday morning I took River for a nice easy 3-miler. No hills, no worries about speed, just smooth ambling along. My pace was slow and the run was highly relaxing.
Then I stopped by the fire station to sign my County insurance forms, and lo and behold, my Monday night crew was there on their 24-hour shift (we have to do one 24-hour shift every seventh week). I wasn't officially supposed to start until today, but they were like, oh who cares, come run with us tonight! So I did. It was awesome. It was actually a pretty busy night, but we were able to squeeze in dinner at Dave's Famous BBQ (I had a salad and tried to keep things as Whole30 as possible, but it's clear that my EMT shifts are going to have to be the 20 to the rest of the week's 80, because these people eat like shit and the captain chooses where we go. Apparently there is a lot of hitting up the 7-eleven and cramming Slim Jims down their throats [that's what she said] between calls. That kind of thing). Thankfully, the night was pretty quiet after about 1am, and our sleep in the bunks was largely undisturbed.
Sunday morning I got back around 6:30 and went back to bed for a few hours. Then I got some food at Silver Diner, took River to the dog park, did some random shopping, and went to my dad's place to have dinner (I didn't actually eat his food because his idea of a meal is pasta topped with potatoes, beans, and tofu). We watched The Social Network and listened to some new banjo music he found.
Today I have a 6pm-6am EMT shift, so I'm going to squeeze in whatever P90X workout I'm supposed to do (today begins Phase 2!) and then settle in for the night at the station. A shift is in and of itself a bit of a workout. Lots of running, climbing in and out of the rig, carrying the stretcher up and down stairs, and hauling giant heavy bags of supplies and a heart monitor.
Will probably update later with a review of the P90Xing.
*If you guessed Core Synergistics, you win a pound of bacon! That's right, I just never got around to doing this workout, and I don't feel bad about it. I'm pretty sure the workouts I did instead were more effective and I KNOW they were about 5000% more fun.
Friday I finished off the week with a 15-minute burpee chinups session (I can't actually do a dead hang chinup, so the jumping up from the burpee helps), then an hour of yoga. Felt great.
Saturday morning I took River for a nice easy 3-miler. No hills, no worries about speed, just smooth ambling along. My pace was slow and the run was highly relaxing.
Then I stopped by the fire station to sign my County insurance forms, and lo and behold, my Monday night crew was there on their 24-hour shift (we have to do one 24-hour shift every seventh week). I wasn't officially supposed to start until today, but they were like, oh who cares, come run with us tonight! So I did. It was awesome. It was actually a pretty busy night, but we were able to squeeze in dinner at Dave's Famous BBQ (I had a salad and tried to keep things as Whole30 as possible, but it's clear that my EMT shifts are going to have to be the 20 to the rest of the week's 80, because these people eat like shit and the captain chooses where we go. Apparently there is a lot of hitting up the 7-eleven and cramming Slim Jims down their throats [that's what she said] between calls. That kind of thing). Thankfully, the night was pretty quiet after about 1am, and our sleep in the bunks was largely undisturbed.
Sunday morning I got back around 6:30 and went back to bed for a few hours. Then I got some food at Silver Diner, took River to the dog park, did some random shopping, and went to my dad's place to have dinner (I didn't actually eat his food because his idea of a meal is pasta topped with potatoes, beans, and tofu). We watched The Social Network and listened to some new banjo music he found.
Today I have a 6pm-6am EMT shift, so I'm going to squeeze in whatever P90X workout I'm supposed to do (today begins Phase 2!) and then settle in for the night at the station. A shift is in and of itself a bit of a workout. Lots of running, climbing in and out of the rig, carrying the stretcher up and down stairs, and hauling giant heavy bags of supplies and a heart monitor.
Will probably update later with a review of the P90Xing.
*If you guessed Core Synergistics, you win a pound of bacon! That's right, I just never got around to doing this workout, and I don't feel bad about it. I'm pretty sure the workouts I did instead were more effective and I KNOW they were about 5000% more fun.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Friday Food Porn
I just made myself this gigantic plate of food (first meal of the day; I generally don't eat before noon).
That's three pieces of the baked curry chicken thighs left over from last night, two bacon-wrapped asparagus pieces also left over from last night, and today's Morning Mashup (haters to the left, that's what I'm calling it) of grassfed beef, spinach, onions, and cayenne pepper sardines, cooked in ghee with a little salt and TJ's 21 Seasoning Salute (heretofore known as 21SS because that is a bitch-ass long name to type).
A veritable SHITLOAD of food. Guess how much I was able to eat?
That's right, bitchezz! All of it. I'm now not-uncomfortably stuffed and will probably just have my post-workout protein shake for dinner, then call it a night.
OMG, though. I'm really concerned about all the saturated fat I just ate. I can feel my arteries clogging as I type. And even not a single whole grain, you know, for heart health. Clearly I'm going to be dead in a week. (ahem... note the date.)
That's three pieces of the baked curry chicken thighs left over from last night, two bacon-wrapped asparagus pieces also left over from last night, and today's Morning Mashup (haters to the left, that's what I'm calling it) of grassfed beef, spinach, onions, and cayenne pepper sardines, cooked in ghee with a little salt and TJ's 21 Seasoning Salute (heretofore known as 21SS because that is a bitch-ass long name to type).
A veritable SHITLOAD of food. Guess how much I was able to eat?
That's right, bitchezz! All of it. I'm now not-uncomfortably stuffed and will probably just have my post-workout protein shake for dinner, then call it a night.
OMG, though. I'm really concerned about all the saturated fat I just ate. I can feel my arteries clogging as I type. And even not a single whole grain, you know, for heart health. Clearly I'm going to be dead in a week. (ahem... note the date.)
2011 NYC Barefoot Run
Officially registered for the 2011 NYC Barefoot Run this morning! Last year looked like a ton of fun and I was bummed to be stuck in Canada where there is no cheapo Chinatown Bus to ferry me into Manhattan along with the rest of the broke college kids and unwashed backpackers of the world.
If you register by April 10, you get a $10 discount. Really, at $65, a weekend lecture intensive followed by a run and a party, in New York of all places, is a freaking steal. I've paid 65 bucks just to run 5K with a bunch of strangers for 25 minutes.
Go here to register.
As I told Arwen this morning, I will, btw, be running this in Vibrams. It's New York City (well, Governor's Island, but still). I'm not that brave.
In other non-workout-related news, I'm beginning the process of "weaning myself off the bean", as my yoga instructors call it, in prep for the teacher training this summer. We have to sign a contract saying we won't drink, smoke, druggify, or ingest stimulants like caffeine for the whole thirty days. Thankfully there is no such contract for meat eating, although I will be surrounded by militant yogi vegetarians/vegans and will probably have to get my steak requirements in under the radar, or risk ostracizing (the yoga community, as much as I love and am a part of it, is generally not so good about sticking to the non-judgment yama--bitches can be judgy). Anyway, back to my original point about caffeine: I've suspected for a while that's it's more a matter of the daily coffee ritual than the actual caffeine I am addicted to, so to begin to get off caffeine, I've switched to green tea and decaf coffee in the mornings. We'll see how this goes. I'm giving myself two whole months for the weaning, so really, there's no way I can fail, right? Ha.
If you register by April 10, you get a $10 discount. Really, at $65, a weekend lecture intensive followed by a run and a party, in New York of all places, is a freaking steal. I've paid 65 bucks just to run 5K with a bunch of strangers for 25 minutes.
Go here to register.
As I told Arwen this morning, I will, btw, be running this in Vibrams. It's New York City (well, Governor's Island, but still). I'm not that brave.
In other non-workout-related news, I'm beginning the process of "weaning myself off the bean", as my yoga instructors call it, in prep for the teacher training this summer. We have to sign a contract saying we won't drink, smoke, druggify, or ingest stimulants like caffeine for the whole thirty days. Thankfully there is no such contract for meat eating, although I will be surrounded by militant yogi vegetarians/vegans and will probably have to get my steak requirements in under the radar, or risk ostracizing (the yoga community, as much as I love and am a part of it, is generally not so good about sticking to the non-judgment yama--bitches can be judgy). Anyway, back to my original point about caffeine: I've suspected for a while that's it's more a matter of the daily coffee ritual than the actual caffeine I am addicted to, so to begin to get off caffeine, I've switched to green tea and decaf coffee in the mornings. We'll see how this goes. I'm giving myself two whole months for the weaning, so really, there's no way I can fail, right? Ha.
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