Triathlon Training Day 13: Swimming + Ab Ripper X

Practiced my Total Immersion swimming drills today. I feel like I took a small step back today. For some reason I just didn't feel as balanced in the water today? At times I did, at times I just felt awkward - very weird. I guess this is to be expected when learning something new but it is still frustrating.

Overall, my swimming today was still pretty good. I tried to keep track of my laps and did close to 35 total ... plus or minus a couple. It was a crowded day at the pool and I got caught up in conversations with people and lost count a few times.

Before I did my swimming I went to the weight area to stretch and do Ab Ripper X. I've done ARX so many times now that I no longer need Tony and the video. They have a soft mat there that is much better than the Yoga mat I use at home. I added reps to every move and did a total of 400 in all!

A funny thing happened right after that. I was walking to the locker room and a guy came up to me and asked if my name was "Jeff". I said yes, but didn't recognize him? He asked if I did, "that P90X blog?" .... I started to laugh. His name was Ken, so Ken is you are reading, it was nice to meet you and good luck getting started with P90X!

Tomorrow I have to go help a Doctor with an Implant case at 11am. So, I am going to try and get up early and get in a 20 mile Bike ride before that. I'd like to get in Core Syn or Yoga tomorrow too but I have plans with a buddy in the afternoon and then Annie and I are going out for a friends Birthday. Might have to wait until Sunday!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Triathlon Training Day 6: 400 Meter Swim and Ab Ripper X

Raise your hand if you are glad it is Friday! I had one long week and really need a recharge this weekend.

On my way home from the city I stopped at the Bike shop in Kingwood and they helped me out with getting a new tube for the flat tire and got me setup with a repair kit and CO2. Now I am set to do my Brick tomorrow!

I then stopped at the gym to get in a few laps. Some local swim club was using the indoor pool so I went to the outdoor one instead. This is the first time to go outdoors and I am glad that I did because the water was a perfect temperature and I had the pool to myself. The only bad part was that 16 laps in a big bolt of lightning shot across the sky so that was my cue to get the heck out of there! A couple of minutes later a big time thunderstorm hit and luckily I was back in the gym by that time! I was trying to get in 25 laps but once again mother nature prevented that from happening. The 16 laps were good strong ones though so I am not disappointed at all!

Today was my strongest swim to date. I still have to pause to get my breath every few laps or so but I am getting better. Boomer recommended a book called, "Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way to Swim Better, Faster, and Easier". I picked it up a couple of days ago and am going to try and get through it this weekend. Supposedly, their are a bunch of drills and techniques that really help you with the freestyle stroke. Should be a good read!

After the swim I came home and before dinner I ripped out AB Ripper X! I was moving right along until I hit the Mason Twists -- I got to 40 but I was in pain! ARX will never be easy, ever!

Up early tomorrow - 14 Miles on the bike and then immediately hit the pavement for the 5K. I am not going to set a time goal for myself because I will fixate on it. Instead my goal is to just complete the Brick and not vomit on the street!

Thanks for Reading and I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Jeff

Triathlon Training Day 4: Rest Day (maybe)

Mark it down, April 23rd is the first 90 degree plus day of the year. Seems pretty early to me!

Today is supposed to be my rest day but I am getting the urge to go ride my bike. Tuesday was a not so intense cycle and I really want to get out there and push myself. If it begins to cool off some I might jump on the bike around 7pm.

Also, something different. On Monday this Blog recorded its 10,000th visitor! I stuck a statcounter on the blog after I finished my first round of P90X so it is probably more than 10,000! I do not really check the stats all that often since I don't have ads or anything on the site but I found it sort of cool that over 10,000 visitors have come to this site. In the blogisphere I do not know if this is a lot of visitors or not but it makes me feel good that I might be helping to motivate others achieve their fitness goals.

So, Thanks to everyone for reading and giving me the motivation to keep writing!

Jeff

***UPDATE***
Okay so I went for a Bike ride. It was a little short-lived because after 6 miles my front tire had a blow out! It was loud too -- sounded like a shotgun going off. Darn near made me wreck. The good news was that I was a street over from my house when it happened! It would have sucked if I was 4 miles away! I am not real thrilled with the tires/tubes on my bike. They seem to pinch in the rims and the online reviews said the tires were below average. Hopefully on Friday I will have some time to run down to the local Bike shop and either get a better tires or stronger rim?

Tomorrow morning Annie and I are going to get up early and get a run in and then in the evening I will do Shoulders and Arms!

Triathlon Training Day 3: Swimming 500 Meters and Core Synergistics

I got home from swimming and I am whipped out! Man, it just killed me. My shoulders and legs just feel beat down. I am going to have to adjust my schedule because their is no way I can do Core Synergistics today also! Maybe on my Swim days I can do ARX?

The good news is that the reason I am so tired from my swim is that I did pretty good in the pool today. My freestyle stroke is getting much more consistent and my breathing is taking less effort. I have discovered that I am very comfortable turning my head up to the left hand side to breathe. Which is a little odd since I am right-handed, but oh well, whatever works right? By the time I hit my 20th lap today I was very winded! My heart felt like it was going to beat right out of my chest!! I still wasn't able to freestyle the entire distance. I did like a freestyle crawl type thing every 5th or 6th lap. On Friday, hopefully it will be every 7th or 8th lap and so on and so forth everytime I go swimming.

The thing that is cool to me right now is that for the first time since I started swimming I actually believe that I am going to do the swim portion of the triathlon and be okay. The first time I hit the pool I believed this to be impossible, but I keep improving each time out and am becoming more confident.

I was thinking about possibly doing a cycle-run brick (13.8M Cycle + 5K run) on Saturday just to see how I handle it. The NFL Draft, which is like Christmas morning to me, is now starting at 4pm EST instead of Noon this year so I could do this in the morning. We will see how my body is feeling before I make the decision but as of today I think I might want to try it!

Tomorrow is a scheduled off day for me. Part of me really doesn't want to take off and I might try and do the Core Synergistics I missed today. But another part of me is saying that I need the rest and should take it. Might play this one by feel also!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Triathlon Training Day 2: Cycling & ARX

Hello Everyone!

Day 2 is halfway in the books. I am watching a movie with Annie called, "Seven Pounds" and as you can tell by the fact that I am posting right now - I am really enjoying this movie!

Anyways, I am only halfway done because I am going to do ARX after the movie is over and then get some sleep! Today's bike ride wasn't as intense as I have been used too. A buddy of mine came over with his bike and we did 7.5 miles. He is trying to get into better cardiovascular shape and I have been talking about how much I enjoy biking fr the last few weeks. He was on a mountain bike so he could not maintain the same speed as me. Those mountain bikes don't move as fast as the road bikes. We had a good time and the ride was more pleasant than aerobic. I might actually take Wednesday and get in a hardcore 10-12 mile ride so I don't get behind.

Looking forward to hitting ARX before bed!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Triathlon Training Day 1: 5K Run and Chest & Back

I hope everyone is enjoying the new blog layout and big ass Google Calendar!

Today was my first day of the hybrid P90X/Triathlon training and so far so good!

I woke up this morning and went for a 5K run with my wife Annie. My plan is to gradually increase my distance over the 15 weeks of training as my pacing becomes stronger. I am not focusing as much on my time as I am keeping my heart rate with in the aerobic zone. I have read a lot about running over the last couple of weeks and have come to the conclusion that this is the best way to increase your performance as a runner. My aerobic zone is between 145 -155 BPM. If I start to get higher I back off on my pace and vise verse if I got to low.

So, now that I just went over all that and being the type-A personality that most of my regular readers expect I was looking at my time the entire run! I was a little disappointed that it took me 9:33 to complete the first mile. I was too busy fiddling with my iPod and looking at blown over trees from yesterday's awful storm to focus on what I was doing. When I passed the 1-mile mark my heart rate was at 138 BPM. I then got into the zone and finished out the next 2.1 miles. I had about 3/10ths of a mile to go and looked at my HRM again. I was at 27:50 and my HR was at 149 BPM. So, naturally I sprinted the rest of the way home. I was hoping to get in under 28 minutes but when I hit the finish line and simultaneously hit stop on my HRM my time was 29:01. I missed it by 1 second! Oh well, I goal to shoot for when I run on Thursday!

The good news was that I felt great and probably could have went another mile or two!

I spent the rest of my Sunday working around the house and yard and took about a 30 minute nap which was glorious! Then an hour before dinner I decided to go upstairs and do Chest & Back. This is always a good workout and my arms are always pretty whipped afterwards and today was no exception. I didn't really max-out today on any of the exercises. My second time through the workouts I stopped about a rep or two short of failure because I don't want to overdo it since my shoulder has been feeling so great lately.

Another reason I am not going to crush myself during the weight training this round is because of what fellow P90Xer and soon to be Triathlete Boomer said on one of his recent posts. Basically he said that P90X is secondary to the Triathlon training. And this really struck a cord with me because if I am going to be successful with the Triathlon - swimming, running, and cycling need to be my primary focus and where most of my energy needs to be exerted. The main reason to do P90X now is to maintain the muscle and core strength that I have gained. Now once the Tri is done I more than likely will start another full round of P90X.

Thanks for Reading and let me know what you think of the new layout and if the calendar is easy to use!

Jeff

P90X Round 2 Day 87: Kenpo 10-Mile Cycle

Happy Tax Day! Happy Tea Party Day!

Crazy day today with work but I ended up getting home about an hour before dark and got a nice 10-miles in on the bike. Nothing special to report. I burned about 350 calories and the wind was blowing AGAIN. It was about 78 degrees today so the ride was just perfect and I am really enjoying riding my bike. The only thing that I am mad about is that I accidentally reset the odometer on my bike computer. I was trying to reset the trip meter and I hit the wrong button -- oh well, not a big deal.

The ride was a little difficult initially because I was very sore today. Probably because I did swimming and Core Synergistics yesterday. If you read the comments from yesterday's post you will see I am not alone in the "soreness from Core Syn" thing. It is just an awesome workout that brutalizes your whole body!

Tomorrow I am more than likely going to take the scheduled rest day. Mostly because I am short on time, but if I can squeeze in a little time I may go for a run!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

P.s. -- Yes, I am going to add a few more pictures. I'll do it over the weekend when I have time to edit them all together.

P90X Round 2 Day 86: 625-Meter Swim and Core Synergistics

First, I want to thank everyone for your kinds words about my pictures that I posted yesterday. It helps to stay motivated when others support you so THANK YOU! And in the same vein of support - check out these Final P90X Pics of my buddy Boomer at his Project Exercise Blog. Great job Boomer!

Onto today's dreaded swim. If you read about my first adventure into a pool last week I am happy to report that today was a much better experience.

I need a sidebar here for a minute to address something that is bothering me. And that something is the blatant male nudity at the gym. Seriously, if you are reading my blog today and you are that guy that walks around the locker room back-and-forth for prolonged periods of time buck naked --- STOP! They give free towels out at the front desk - please use them. Especially use the towel if you are over the age of 75. And another thing, if you are the above mentioned offender do not strike up a conversation with others in the locker room, especially me. Thank you, that is all I have to say about this.

So, today's swim was much better. I watched a bunch of videos on YouTube and eHow.com on how to do the freestyle stroke. First off, I slowed down considerably from last week and focused on my form and breathing. It also helped that I had goggles - easier when your eyes aren't burning from the saltwater! The pool has 25M lanes and I ended up doing 25 laps. Which is 625 meters. I was completely exhausted about 15 meters in but I rested for a little and then did 5 more laps and still felt good so I did another 5 laps. I was very pleased with today's swim and actually cannot wait until my next one.

I got home and ate dinner and about an hour later I was feeling pretty good so I jumped upstairs and did Core Synergistics. This is just a great workout. About midway through I was feeling a little fatigued but I sucked it up and superman-banana'd my way to the finish line.

So as I sit here right now my arms, shoulders, thighs, and abs are feeling quite tired but I am happy I decided to to Core Syn.

Tomorrow's schedule has me doing Kenpo. Kenpo is rather boring to me at this stage of my P90X training so I will probably either cycle or run instead. Thursday is my scheduled rest day and I might take it because I have a convention starting in downtown Houston all day and then a HOA meeting later that evening. Those two events will more than likely wear me out!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

P90X Round 2 Day 85: Yoga X and Final Pictures

I know I should wait until day 90 but with a few cardio days things aren't going to change much.

So, go ahead and click here to see my photos. I did Day 0/Day 90/Day 180.

Overall, I am very pleased with the results. My major gains from Day 90 to now were made in my waist. Actually on Day 1 my waist was a 36 and I weighed 182 lbs. Today my waist is a 32/31 and I weigh 157 lbs. It is hard to tell in the photos but my shoulders, lats, tricpes and biceps are also much more defined than after my first round. I attribute this mainly to using dumbbells during round 2 and resistance bands during round 1. I also lost a lot of weight in my face which you can clearly see in the pics!

I'll write up a complete review of Round 2 in a few days but let me know what you think!

Today I did the scheduled Yoga Day. It was hard because the weather was 75 degrees and sunny and I really wanted to go for a bike ride, but I sucked it up and did Yoga. I am planning on doing Yoga during my Triathlon Training but I may have to reconsider. Yoga really works your legs very hard and today was no exception. Every time I finish Yoga my body always feels a little whipped and today I finally figured out what that exact feeling is: Have you ever been hit from behind in your car a a fairly low speed? You know how when it initially happens you feel fine but when you wake up the next morning your whole body feels weird and just sort of off? Well, that is how I feel after I do Yoga. Just a little off ... but unlike the fender bender it is a good feeling!

Tomorrow I am going to give swimming another shot - eyes slightly up, shoulders straight, cup hands, kick legs .... I got it all figured out! If I am not too exhausted I might do Core Synergistics also!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

P90X Round 2 Day 81: Yoga x

This was a missed workout folks! I started my day out the door at 7am and didn't finish up my work until after 10pm. By the time I got home all I could think about was sleep!

I still ate very clean so not a completely lost day!

Anyways, today is an off day for my company but I have a few things I still have to do this morning. I should be home in the early afternoon and I am going to try and do Yoga. Then when Annie gets home in the evening we are going to do Legs/Back and ARX.

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

P90X Round 2 Day 80: Back & Biceps

This is such a great workout! Annie joined me today again for Back & Biceps and we both worked it out. This was her first time doing the Back & Biceps and she did really well. Just like the rest of us she wasn't a huge fan of the corn cobbs!

We worked out pretty late tonight and were starving by the end and decided to not do ARX. We are going to do it tomorrow before Yoga. Well, at least I am going to do that. Annie is not a fan of Yoga (I feel like I am on a P90X Yoga island all by myself- and sometimes Steve stops by) and will probably do Cardio X or go to Spin Class.

We had an awesome day weather wise today and I really wanted to go for a bike ride or a run! But I need to finish this round out and start my triathlon training next week.

A buddy of mine is going to do the triathlon also. He went to his gym last night and tried to do a 25M swim. He completed it but said his ass was dragging by the end and he doggie paddled alot. He is a runner and should easily complete that portion of the Tri but neither of us have much swimming experience. So, it will be interesting to see how I perform when I get a chance to swim because I have been doing the P90X. I already know the P90X prepared me for cycling because that has been a breeze. I struggled some running but that was more because of poor sneakers than conditioning. So the next test is the swimming portion. I am probably going to join a gym on Saturday so maybe that will be my test day!

Tomorrow is Yoga and ARX!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

P90X Round 2 Day 77: Ab Ripper X & 12 - Mile Ride

Sunday is my normal rest day but since I missed a day on Wednesday when I hurt my foot I was going to do Kenpo today. Yesterday I did a 10 mile cycle and Legs & Back. I figured this morning I would be sore as hell but for some reason my legs felt great! I guess this means P90X has passed the bicycle part of my triathlon training.

So, since I felt so good and it was 75 degrees outside another bike ride was in order. First, I did ARX and brought the hell out of it. Then I jumped on the bike and did a 12-mile ride through the neighborhood. I did it in 49 minutes but I decided I need another place to ride because the amount of stop signs and turns slows me down considerably. However, my legs felt great again after the ride. I burned 410 calories.

Another thing I realized today is that my hypocrisy knows no bounds. I used to be that guy who was driving down the road and would get behind a dude on a bike and get agitated. Now I am the guy on a bike who gets agitated at the people behind me in the cars. And amazingly I have no problem justifying this to myself. Hmmm?

Tomorrow starts week 12 of P90X. This is the last resistance week before I begin the last recovery week. Annie is beginning week 5 so we are doing the same workouts again so it will be nice to have a partner. I plan on hitting it very hard this week so I can finish off this second round in style.

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

P90X Round 2 Day 72: Plyometrics Run

Plyo was my scheduled workout today. After a long day of work and an even longer month I decided to get out of the house and go for a 3.1 mile run -- seemed like it would be therapeutic or something!

On Saturday I ran 3.1 miles and when I woke up Sunday morning the outside of my left foot was killing me. Very sore and felt like a muscle was strained. I went to The Academy and bought some new running shoes because I was pretty sure the ones I had were the reason for the pain. Yesterday the foot was feeling a little better and today it felt a lot better. So, I put on the new shoes and went for a run. About a mile in the same place that was strained on the left foot cramped up on me. Bad. It actually hurt to put pressure on it. I sat down for a minute and tried to stretch it out and it seemed to feel a little better. Being the meathead that I am I decided to to keep on running. I went about another mile and it cramped up again.

So this time I limped my sorry ass home and took some advil and am sitting here now with some ice on the bottom of my left foot. It is already feeling better since the muscle cramps have subsided. I mentioned in yesterdays posts that my body is just beat up and this latest little speed bump is sort of the epitome of that. I'll be fine and should have no problems doing Back and Biceps tomorrow. But I might have to lay off the running for a week or so!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

P90X Round 2 Day 71: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, and ARX

Good day everyone! Sorry for the late post but I had my fantasy baseball draft tonight - yes I am a geek and completely comfortable with it!

Today was Chest, Shoulders and Triceps -- I freaking love this workout. My arms always feel like a couple of pieces of spaghetti when I am done. Oh, and Steve, I did 15 reps on the Pike's Peaks today and damn near collapsed on my head on the last rep! I took the NO Xplode about an hour before my workout and I was still buzzing hard when it came time to workout. This stuff in conjunction with the Nitrix and Cell Mass is just giving me awesome results. The creators (BSN Labs) of the supplements recommend doing 12 weeks on and 4 weeks off so I only got about 12 days left and I am interested to see how I feel off the supps!

I cranked out another solid nutrition day. My total cals were right around 2400 and my ratio was about 50% Carbs/30% Protein/20% Fat.

Something else I realized/admitted today: My body is REALLY beat up. I am sore everywhere. My left shoulder is a mess, my legs and feet are aching, my right shoulder seems to have a nerve pinched or something, my butt hurts, my left wrist has some tendinitis going on ...etc, etc, etc! And yet I can't get enough of this abuse P90X is putting me through ... very weird!

I am going to take full advantage of the couple of weeks off between the end of P90X and the Triathlon training program !

Tomorrow is Plyo again!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

P90X Round 2 Day 69: Kenpo/5K Run

Yesterday was the scheduled Kenpo day. I decided to skip it and do a 5K run instead. Annie wanted to do Kenpo together so we will do it later today and just not take a rest day this week!

I wanted to do the 5K since I am going to be training for a triathlon and felt like I need to gauge my fitness level. Throughout the years I have always played explosive type sports that require quick burst of energy and action. Long distance running has never really appealed to me. And even though P90X has put me into excellent physical condition, it is still different then running!

So on Friday I jumped in the car and mapped out a 3.1 mile course in my neighborhood. Since it has been years since I have even attempted a run of this long my expectations were rather low. I got up at 6am and upon realizing that it was pitch dark (forgot about Daylight Savings) and freezing (42 degrees!) outside promptly returned to the warmth of my bed! So, once it got light out I tried again. It was still freezing (46 degrees) and very windy but I still wanted to run. To make a long story short - I did the entire 3.1 miles and only stopped once when the wind blew my hat off! I wore my HRM and did the entire thing in 29 minutes and burned 375 calories. Since I really wasn't sure how to pace myself I used my HRM as a guide by keeping myself in a range of 155-165 BPM. If I went over this I would just slow my pace until it went back to range.

Overall, I was pleased with my run. At times I felt winded during the run but never felt over matched or tired. I am now confident that I will be able to do the running part of the triathlon. Once I do this a few more times and figure out pace and tempo I am sure I will be able to knock a few minutes of the overall time.

I have set some preliminary time goals for what I'd like to accomplish the Triathlon in. 1/2 miles swim - 8 minutes; 14 mile bike ride - 42 minutes; 5k run - 25 minutes. If you add in the transition times of say 5 minutes I'd like to do the triathlon in an 1:20.

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

P90X Round 2 Day 66: Shoulders, Arms, & ARX ... and Triathlon Plans

I made up my mind on what to do after finishing this round of P90X! Yep, it is going to be a Sprint Triathlon. Jack's Generic Triathlon, on August 2, 2009 in New Braunfels, TX. The Triathlon will include: a 500 meter swim in a lake, followed by a 13.8 miles bike, and then a 5k run. I have been researching the event and it seems like it is a good Tri for beginners and is really well run. And New Braunfels is a fun little town where we can spend the weekend! I love P90X and now want to test the results and feel this is a pretty cool challenge. Thanks to Boomer, Steve, Glenn, Mike and Ryan for your suggestions. It was much appreciated!

So how am I going to train for this sucker? I am stuck between two programs and am looking for some insight from you guys. I am done with P90X on April 18th. I'd like to take a minimum of 2 weeks off and do just light cardio for maintenance. After my last round of P90X I realized that my body needs some recovery time because it is really beat up! This means I would be starting my next training program on May 3rd -- about 9o days before the Triathlon. I have two options. The first is a 13 Week Sprint Triathlon Training Program. It would end on July 31st - right before the event. I like it because it has two off days and I could work in P90X workouts to maintain the strength and muscle I have worked so hard to gain. The second option is an 8 week Sprint Tri program. It is a little more intense as it does a lot of doubles (swim and run or run and bike) but works in actual strength training into the program which is a plus. For this one I would just start it hardcore 3 weeks later and use the time to ramp up on my swimming. biking and running. So, if you guys don't mind, look them over and let me know what you think would be effective.

Oh, one other problem is I have two vacations scheduled in between. The first is to the Outer Banks with my family. This one will actually be good for training because my family is very active and they all workout and I could swim in the ocean. The second trip is going to be difficult. Me and a couple of buddies are going to Pamplona, Spain for the Running of the Bulls. Chances are the only training there is going to be me hauling ass for 2 minutes in front of some angry bulls! A rest week is called for during the middle of the 13 week program so this may be my out.

Anyways, Annie did the Shoulders, Arms and ARX again with me today. We both had a great workout. I actually burned 480 calories and she burned 320! It is really cool to see how good she is doing. She is at that point where she understands all the moves and is just focusing on form and reps and it is cool to see her grunting, sweating, and working her ass off. Also, I used 35lb or 25lb dumbbells for pretty much every curl and press. My strength has increased tremendously in the last few weeks and I am very psyched about it!

Tomorrow is my new favorite DVD -- Yoga!!! One thing for sure is that I will not take NO Xplode before yoga. I'd go crazy with as slow as yoga is!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

P90X Round 2 Day 64: Chest & Back

So, today is the beginning of Week 10 and my fitness guide says that I am to start with Chest, Triceps, and Shoulders. Which is basically doing the weeks 5-8 routines again. Normally I like to follow this program as close to the book as possible. But since my wife Annie is in week 3 of P90X I decided to keep week 10 just like the weeks 1-4 routines so we can workout together. She is starting to really get in the groove of the program and it is something we can do together. She begins the recovery week next and I will do the weeks 5-9 routines up until the end and then in my week 12 and her week 5 will be the same again.

We both did good on the Chest & Back workout again. Annie actually doubled a bunch of her pullups and pushups on a couple of exercises. She hates the dive bombers though! I had some struggles with the close grip overhand pullups and the military pushups because my shoulder is still tweaking so I had to withhold a little intensity at the fear of hurting myself again.

The NO Xplode jacked me up big time again! This shit is great. It is giving me the energy to work harder and I am adding more reps and burning more calories so it is doing the job!

More good news - I found a do it yourself Protein Bar recipe online today and we went out and got all the ingredients. I am going to make it tomorrow and I will let you all know how it tastes and if it is any good I'll post the recipe.

Tomorrow is Plyo day!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Thanks for

P90X Round 2 Day 63: Kenpo X

I am putting another picture up of the NO Xplode because it was awesome. As far as pre-workout drinks go I have used SuperPump 250, Nano Vapor, and now NO Xplode. I also used some tablets called Amped or something like that ... I threw the bottle away and can't remember the name.

Well, today I took 2 scoops of NO Xplode (Lemonade Flavor) with about 10 oz of water and my energy level was scary good! I burned 381 calories doing Kenpo X and that is the most calories I have burned during this workout since I began P90X. Annie and I did the video together and she was annoyed at my energy level. During the breaks doing jacks I was doing them as fas as I could and trying to prod her to race me - she just gave me that look of "stop it now" -- every married man knows this look. I brought the hell out of today and had an awesome sweat and calorie burn to boot. Annie did awesome too. She had to work today and when she got home she was exhausted. She sucked it up and followed the first rule of Tony Horton - Just Push Play! She ended up burning over 300 cals and was happy she got in the Kenpo!

Back to the NO Xplode - maybe my perspective is a little skewed because I have not used a pre-workout performance enhancer in a few days but I was absolutely jacked up for the workout. I am talking jump out of the room jacked up! Since this was only day one of NOX I will continue to use it the next 27 days and report back at the end. But so far I was very impressed. Oh, and it tasted pretty good also -- much better than Nano Vapor or Super Pump250! Both of those gave me a good pump but SuperPump DESTROYED my stomach on a daily basis and Nano Vapor tasted just awful and the after taste lingered forever!

I was a little light on my carbs today for phase 3. For dinner we made grilled chicken breast with on a bed of vegetables and I was going to make a cup of whole wheat pasta and completely forgot. So, I ended up a little light on calories at 2300 and my ratio was around 40/40/20 since I forgot my pasta carb boost. The good news is I grilled up a ton of extra chicken so we are going to have chicken egg white scramblers (from the p90x nutrition guide) for breakfast - they are awesome - and I am excited!

Tomorrow is the beginning of Week 10 and my last Chest and Back workout for this round! It is a very cool feeling when you get to the point of the program where the word "last" is said in front of a P90X video!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

P90X Side Bar: New Supplement

N.O. - Xplode is the new pre-workout supp I will be using for the remainder of this round of P90X!

This product is made by BSN Labs and they also make the other two supps I am currently using: Cell Mass for my post workout recovery drink and Nitrix as a 3-times a day muscles volumizer and vascularity enhancer.

Both have been awesome and I ran out of the other pre-workout tablets I was using and can honestly say I wasn't real impressed ( I can't even remember the name? Amped or something like that?) so I am going to try the N.O. Xplode since I am so happy with the other BSN products and BSN recommends stacking these three products. Also my buddy Mike who is a fellow P90Xer started using it a couple of weeks ago and he loves it. I called him last week and he said he was getting ready to Bring it, he was talking 100mph and was freaking me out and said it was from the NO Xplode -- sold me!

I am mixing the lemon flavored powder up right now and will report back in a few hours!

Jeff

P90X Round 2 Day 59: Shoulders, Arms, & Ab Ripper X

Howdy Fellow P90Xers!

Today was the always awesome Shoulder and Arms video. Annie joined me for this workout and we both brought the heck out of it! I absolutely love this workout and was looking forward to it all day. I got home around 5pm and was ready to go but Annie asked me to wait until she got home from work. Of course she stayed an hour late and got home after 7pm! Then she needed to check her facebook before the workout as I was complaining in the background. Then she decided to go get the mail and when she opened the door the puppy pug we are looking after this week bolted out the door. She chased the pug for about a 1/2 mile down the road before the pug tuckered out! It was pretty funny! So, we FINALLY started the workout around 8pm.

And since I was bitter about the late start time, and soon to come late dinner. I pushed her hard tonight and she did really good. I was proud of her because I remember how hard the second week was. She even did awesome in ARX!

Today was another good clean eating day. I got in about 2700 calories and upped my carbs again today to about 50% and kept the fat around 20%. I can really tell the difference in increased energy level by adding in the carbs - I think I am going to keep it up since my weight is so low. My weight is sitting at 160lbs as I have already burned off most of the rodeo weight!

Well, that is all I got today. Tomorrow is Yoga day and I am looking forward to it again. I might get up early and do it.

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff