Obstacle Courses

I recently developed a new interest that I will be pursuing in the coming months of summer...OBSTACLE RACING!!! Yes, this is a type of running/racing event that IS as awesome as it sounds. Monkey crawling under barbed wire through mud pits? CHECK! Jumping and running in, on, and around old junker cars in what is affectionately called "The Junkyard"? CHECK! Leaping (and possibly falling onto) burning hay bales? CHECK! Engaging in hand-to-hand combat with American Gladiator-esque event staff prior to crossing the finish line? CHECK! This type of racing has it all and promises to stimulate my interest and command my squirrel-like attention span through the grueling (but probably necessary) training period leading up to the events.

For my money, anticipating and training to overcome such obstacles is much more satisfying and interesting than simply pounding out mile after mile on pavement, wood chips, or space age rubberized running track. And as my previous blog posts can attest (sigh...P90X...such a shame) I can quickly lose interest in an exercise regiment if I am not constantly entertained or given a reason to push myself. True, most of the blame lands squarely on my shoulders but I feel secure in assigning some of it to my previous exercise goals, mediums, and methods. I mean, seriously, there is only so much interest a man can garner from a DVD pack of workout sessions lead and narrated by an egotistical He-Man (also known as Tony Horton). There comes a point when you can only do so many "Rock Stars" and "Pot Stirrers" on your living room carpet.

An therein lies my interest in obstacle racing and my new goal set. I want to train both aerobically and anaerobically to prepare my body for the rigors of running a distance of between 5-10 miles while simultaneously completing a number of strength based obstacles. This being said, I will shortly post a training routine and schedule I am developing as both a challenge to myself to complete this enterprise (by making it public I will hopefully be more motivated to not only maintain my workouts but also my blog) and a way to document this "adventure".

Wish me luck!

Fell Apart

Well, as anyone who read my previous blogs can tell I quickly (and man-o-man do I mean quickly) lost interest in blogging. I also lost interest in P90X, though that infatuation lasted a little bit longer than the blogging thing. Well, I'm back up on this bull and we're gonna go for another ride (though hopefully it will last longer than 8 seconds). What to write about though? I don't think a theme would be appropriate at this junction. I've only just begun and I don't want to stifle my creative juices from flowing in every which direction. So, until I reach a point that I find a riveting topic that I really enjoy writing about I will simply write what comes to mind any particular day.

So keep thoses readers tuned-in and hopefully I'll have something funny, earth-shattering, or relevant to say...or I'll just ramble and rant.

Happy Thanksgiving too...yeah.

Me-oh, My-oh, Plyo

Today Jered and I got to experience the wonderful world of P90X PLYOMETRICS! I started this workout with Jered's catch phrase in mind...BOOM BITCH!...in order to psyche myself up after a vigorous swim this morning and a wonderful time of ab rippers yesterday afternoon. After about 15 minutes, however, I was starting to feel the edge wearing off of my excitement and began to realize why it is called a WORKout. I was starting to sweat and breath heavily and we had just gotten through the warm-up drills! How was I going to survive another hour of this hell? Only one thing kept me going...my sheer awesomeness! Just kidding. I was actually motivated by being with someone else at a higher fitness level than myself to whom I could compare myself and push myself to match. That is something I've really been missing in my workouts lately and I believe will be one of the biggest determining factors in this exercise program. It's so easy to slack-off during workouts and not push yourself if you're not being challenged and don't have someone to compare yourself with. When you have someone else you can try to match them and even have a little mental competition going on with them so that you push that little bit harder to finish the set or time limit.
The exercises were actually pretty good, though they focused A LOT on squats. I wasn't really surprised by this, although I had honestly expected much more long and high jumping than there was. Most of the exercises were short span and height, which I suppose helps in fine-tuning the workout and maintaining proper form. Nevertheless, I was sweating bullets, drank a 32 oz Powerade Zero, and swore at Tony quite a bit (sorry mom!). I haven't done a complete plyometric workout since high school and forgot how easy it is to get tuckered out just jumping around. I have a feeling I'm going to be walking like a penguin for the next couple of days after all those squats, and I've already almost face-planted several times while walking up stairs.
Tomorrow is shoulders, biceps, and triceps and I can't wait to see what P90X has in store for us! Hopefully I won't whine too much during the workout but I can't make any promises.

I guess I just need to take it up a notch...TO THE X FACTOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(This is Tony the P90X guy and believe it or not this was actually not the stupidest picture of him. But, it summarizes the guy quite well without any words...)

Day One: Piece of Cake...

...except for the fact that my chest and abs feel like I got bitten by dozens of rapid mongooses (or is is mongeese?). We did chest/back and abs yesterday and I've got to say, it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. We started out doing standard push-ups which I have no problem with. I mean, not to brag or anything but I'm pretty darn good at your regular push-ups. Small break and it was on to some military push-ups...again, no sweat right? Then they just kept making-up new variations of push-ups until I thought Tony (that's the a-hole leading the P90X tapes) was just messing with us. He was not, however, and my chest began to flounder, giving me about as much support at the end of the work-out as a limp noodle.And just when I though it was all over...round two! That's right...a-hole Tony make us do all the same exercises again, but this time as a higher intensity level. To top it off, we had to listen to that cocky Tony talk about how the camera needed to focus in on him so we could see what perfection looked like during the exercises. Now...I know that being arrogant, cocky, and generally awesome can be a good thing--Heck, I am those things ;-). However, it has been my experience that it's more believable if you have others mention how great you are. If you do it yourself it just comes across as desperate...

Anyway, I'm getting off topic. Once we finished the chest workout I thought we had done. I mentally high-fived myself and make some jokes to Jered about how easy that workout had been. Then...duh duh duh...AB RIPPER X!!! It is appropriately named because today it feels like my abs are being ripped out by an army of midgets. The only other name that could possibly describe this workout and how it makes you feel would be AB SHREDDER X!!! because it also feels like that same army of midgets are using a cheese grater on my poor abdominal muscles. Luckily, they only hurt when I move and breathe. Naw...I'm just kidding. It's not really THAT bad but I can definitely tell I did a workout yesterday, which is something I've been missing with my old routine.

Today is PLYOMETRICS to the X-Factor, which I have been warned by both Jered and Ashbar to look out for. Apparently Ashley almost puked the first time she did this work-out. I'm really looking forward to it though, cause I've always liked plyos since they really wear me out and don't hurt my knees as much as running.

Speaking of cardio...I began my first in an additional new series of cardio routines! I went to the YMCA at 7:00 this morning and swam laps for 30-45 minutes!!! I'm saying that I'm doing this to increase my cardio and get healthy but truth be told I just want to be more like Julie Bird...Once I get really good at swimming I think I'll challenge her to a race...maybe across the English Channel...

So, I'll let you know how plyometrics goes and hopefully Julie accepts my challenge!

P.S.--That's hilarious about the verification code Rachel...how appropriate it's on my blog...

A new leaf...Now that they're all falling

For the past few weeks I've been noticing that I've been getting really bored with my exercise routine. I generally: 1) Go to the YMCA, 2) Run on a tredmill for 10 minutes to warm-up, 3) Lift heavy things for an hour, 4) Run on the tredmill for another 20 minutes, 5) Go home and repeat. Every once in a while I will run with Jered, Alli, and V at the nature center to spice things up, but for the most part my workouts are very routine.

And the result of this routine? Boredom, Maintenance, and lots of yawning. I've noticed that my body isn't really responding to the exercise anymore because it has adapted to this constant barrage of the same. I don't really wake-up feeling sore in my muscles unless I did something wrong, at which point I promptly plug-in my heating pad and think, "Man, this really sucks. Now I have to walk around with my head tilted at an awkward angle so everyone thinks I'm confused about something..."

My solution to this problem has been to throw some variety into my life. I'm planning on doing some lap swimming at the Y this week, going biking if the weather permits, going to PETRA with Chris Cantwell on Friday, and the coup de grâce...I'm starting P90X with Jered TODAY! That's right! All the hype, all the promises, and all the pain will be mine to experience in a mere 15 minutes! Yes indeed, in 15 minutes I will be doing all sorts of push-ups and ab crunches to mix it up and whip my body into shape.

And this, my friends, is why I've resurrected my blog. I'm going to describe in excruciating detail how I like my work-outs, how I feel afterward, and any changes I've noticed in my level of fitness. So wish me luck and here goes nothing...