Hal Higdon Training: Back in the Saddle ... 3 Mile Run

Sitting here watching "The Biggest Loser" on DVR. I love this show, however, I don't really care for any of the participants this season. Very weird. The last few years I was cheering for some and rooting against some others. This year I am still enjoying it but they all seem to be a very emotional group and I could care less who wins!

Anyways, we got up early in the cool Texas morning - 58 degrees - and had a decent run. It took me about a mile to find a groove. Which is much better than the usual two or three miles it takes me to find said groove! I finished the run in 26 minutes. My legs felt absolutely wonderful and I could have easily ran 10 more miles, but I jumped back into the Higdon training plan. Today is 3 miles, tomorrow is 7 miles, Thursday is 3 again! On Saturday I am doing a 10K at the Sam Houston Race Way which is 6.2 miles and then on Sunday I am going to do 15 miles! The 10K is at a race track and costumes are encouraged and I own a Ricky Bobbie race suit from a previous Halloween. I keep picturing the end of Talladega Nights when Will Ferrell sprinted to the finish against the Frenchy. I cannot think of a more appropriate time to wear my Ricky Bobby costume!

Whoa ... getting a little misty in the room ... I am now rooting for Abby on The Biggest Loser. No spoilers but this woman lost her husband and two small children in a car accident. Wow!

Tomorrow is a 7 mile run. I have to leave the house by 7am so I will opt to do the run in the evening. Weather is supposed to be great again so it should be fun!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

P90X Hybrid Day 34 & 35: 3 Mile Run + Rest

Went to the gym and did 3 Miles on the treadmill. Puts me at 11 miles for the week with a scheduled 8 miler tomorrow.

I did the 3 miles today at a rather uncomfortable pace: 23:56. Just a tick under an 8 minute mile. I enjoy running outside of my comfort zone and each time I do it I am getting better because of all the base training runs I have been doing.

I wanted to go do Legs & Back afterwards but the Steelers were playing and I needed to get ready for the game. They won but the loss of Troy Polomalu to a knee injury could be devastating.

Today is my Rest Day and then tomorrow is our scheduled 8 mile run. After that I will be going to the new gym to work with a personal trainer for my one complimentary PT session. Should be fun.

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

P90X Hybrid Day 27 & 28: Missed Workout & 30 Minute Run

Last night I got home around 7pm. I was in surgeries all day so I had a bunch of emails on my work laptop that needed to be addressed. I let the dogs outside and sat down on the couch with the computer. The next thing I know it was 9:30pm, I was still sitting on the couch with my laptop on my lap and still wearing dress clothes - I had fallen asleep while sitting up doing work!

The funny thing is that I was pissed that I had not got to the gym to go swim. My gym closes at 10pm so I could not get a late swim or run in. So, I just made myself a protein shake for dinner and by that time Annie came home from work and we just went to bed!

Now, I woke up early this morning completely refreshed and feeling great! I have been really working some long hours the last few weeks so maybe I needed that extended crash yesterday!

Fridays are usually my scheduled rest days but since I missed yesterday I went out for a 30 minute run (3.0 miles) with Annie. Our weather has started to cool some so the early morning runs are now possible and we are really enjoying the outdoor runs as opposed to the indoor treadmill! We kept our pace around a 10 minute/mile since we are doing a 7 mile run tomorrow morning.

I still do not like running all that much but I do like the way I feel after I complete a run. That alone is keeping me going. But in order to have some goals to shoot for I am going to do a few events in the near future. The first is a sprint triathlon on October 18th, next is a 10K run on October 31st, and then a 1/2 Marathon in Austin on February 14th. I might try to find a 5k or two in between a couple of these races as well!

Tomorrow is an early morning 7 mile run and then the beginning of P90X Week 5 in the afternoon!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

P90X Hybrid Day 25: 3 Mile Run

Hello.

Today was another long work day. I got home late and decided to get my running in outside instead of at the gym. It is still hot but the humidity has subsided some over the last few days. I am not going to say it was comfortable out but it was at the least bearable!

I decided I wanted today to be a hard anaerobic run. So I started out at a 7:00 minute pace and just keep on motoring. I did have to pause for about a minute at one point when my iPod headphone got ripped out of my ears. As I ducked under a tree one of the branches grabbed hold of the cord. It wasn't very fun trying to untangle that sucker!

After that little pause I continued to haul butt and ended up with a time of 22:47 for the 3 miles. This is a personal best for me for the 3 mile distance. When I returned to the house I was soaking wet from sweat and started to wonder how in the heck people can do a mile in 5 minutes? That is just crazy run times!

Tomorrow I am back in the gym for some lifting. My schedule has me doing Legs & Back but I think I might substitute that with Shoulders & Arms. My legs are still feeling a little sluggish and I want to run a couple more times this week - 7 miles on Saturday!

Oh, btw, in case some of you were wondering what ever happened with my broken down Grand Prix - the transmission is done! They are replacing the entire thing and it is all still under warranty. The good news is that I will be driving around a big ass Dodge Ram 4 door pickup for the next week or two compliments of my company. I owned an F150 Super Crew a couple of years ago and miss that truck everyday!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Couple more Triathlon Pics + 3.1 Mile Run

A couple more pics from the Tri on Sunday!

Today I went to the gym with Annie and we ran on the treadmill. Separate treadmills, not the same one. My legs were feeling a little tight today so I was going to plan on just doing an easy 5k run maybe at like a 9 minute per mile pace. Well, I ran my first 2 miles in 14 minutes flat. This was not exactly the easy run I should have been doing. So when mile 3 started I backed off and slowed it down considerably. I ended up going 3.5 miles total. Good run.

Also, today is day two of taking my BSN Supplement Stack and I already feel like it is kicking in. I can't wait to start hitting the weights again!

Tomorrow I am going to rest up again. I have decided to start my new round of P90X on Saturday instead of Monday. The main reason is that the rest days will be on Fridays. It always seemed that in the past Fridays are always tough to get a good workout in.

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Triathlon Training: 3 Mile Run + Nutrition Review

Started the morning off with my usual 2 scoops of Whey protein with ice, a banana, and fat free organic milk in the blender for a tasty vanilla shake. I also had a whole wheat bagel with 2 teaspoons of organic peanut butter. Around 10:30am I had a chocolate chip cookie dough flavored Balance Bar for a snack. For lunch I changed it up a little and had an Almond Mocha High Protein Shake from the Smoothie King. The thing has like 50G's of Protein so it really feels me up. I had a banana and some almonds for a midday snack and for dinner I had whole wheat pasta with 8oz of scallops using extra virgin olive oil as the sauce! I probably had 15-18 cups of water so far today.

I haven't talked much about nutrition since I finished P90X, but this is pretty close to what I do daily. Except I usually have a turkey or chicken sandwich for lunch. I usually take in between 150-200 G's of Protein and at least that much in complex carbs. If I add up the calories each day I am always between 2400-3000. So, basically I am doing phase 2 and sometimes phase 3 of the P90X diet.

The reason I bring this up today is because it has been awhile since I weighed myself in the morning and my weight is 152 lbs. When I began P90X I was 181 lbs and 6 months before I began P90X I was over 195 lbs. Since I began training for the triathlon my weight has dropped about 4 lbs. The real kicker is that I feel absolutely wonderful.

If you are reading this post and are considering doing P90X or have already started but you haven't really committed to the nutrition plan you might as well just stop right now. Sure the P90X workouts are hard, but you will not see results like you do on the infomercial or even on my blog if you ignore the nutrition plan. If you are going to half-ass it then why even do it? Commit fully or not at all!

I am living proof that the P90X nutrition plan doesn't have to end after 90 days. My intention was not to get on my soapbox here, but I get so sick of hearing people make excuses about nutrition. (Yes, I had this conversation with someone today!) None of us are perfect when it comes to clean eating. I have made poor choices at times, Tony Horton probably has too. The key is to make a hell of lot more good choices than poor and you will succeed at this. But it is up to you and you alone. Do not blame the restaurant, the party, the friend, the family member, the co-worker, the busy schedule .. blah, blah, blah. If it was easy everyone would do it. So suck it up, quit crying about it, and just make some sacrifices.

Alright, I am done. Ended up hitting the treadmill today again instead of running outside. We had much welcomed rain showers, some violent, popping up all over the place! This was my 3rd day of running in the last four and I must admit the legs felt a little rubbery today. I ended up running 3 miles in 26 minutes. A couple of minutes slower than I'd like but overall not too bad. I used the heart rate monitor on my Garmin today just to see how it was going. The Garmins GPS function is rendered useless indoors so I can only use the timer and heart rate functions. I stayed around 165 bpm and ran at a 7.o mph pace.

Tomorrow I am going to swim 1500 yards and on Saturday a bike-run brick is in the plans!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff