Triathlon Training Blog

I am not a morning workout person. My alarm went off at 5:45 am today. My plan was to swim with the 6:30 master’s group at the Chapel Hill pool. I hit the snooze button, and didn’t get up until 6am. Then I dragged my feet getting my act together. I was finally heading out the door at 6:20am. Then I remembered I was out of cash. Crap, no time to go to the bank machine first, and I really hate being late for stuff. So I bagged the swim idea.

I went over to my computer and sulked while checking my social notworkingout sites. These are the thoughts that were running through my mind.

I really need a workout. I have my swim stuff together already. Maybe I should go to the pool and just not swim with the masters group. No, that would be awkward. I only swam with them once so far, and they might think I don’t like them. Maybe I should go to the other pool. No, that one is too crowded. Crap. It’s too cold to workout. Maybe I should do some P90X. No, that’s too hard and I’m too sleepy. Maybe I should go running. Nah, it’s too dark out still.

Wow, what a bunch of lame excuses!

I tweeted: did not get up in time for swimming with the group. poop. now feeling very unmotivated to do anything but sit here and sulk. #badmood

I found myself on Youtube and searched for P90X, thinking “Oh, let’s just see what P90X workout videos are on Youtube. Just for fun.” OMG, I found this guy who posted a bunch of the workouts in 4X speed. That was great because I could watch the whole workout and see what it was all about in just a few minutes. So I would know what I was “in for”. I watched Kenpo X, and decided that was too much kicking and punching and I wasn’t in the mood for that. Then I watched Core Synergistics. That one had lunges with dumbells. Yay, I like dumbells! It also included push-ups, but I promised myself I’d do those on my knees so as not to kill myself again.

So, off to my living room I went with dumbells in hand and I did the Core Synergistics P90X workout. It was alot of fun, even at 6:45am. I especially liked the “leaning lunges with dumbells” and the “superman banana rolls” (except not the banana part – ouch). And I did the push-ups on my knees and did not feel guilty one bit.

I am trying to formulate a plan in my mind how to incorporate P90X into a triathlon training plan. You definitely don’t want to start it up in your build or peak phase! It would be too much, and your other workouts would suffer. I cooked myself pretty good last week when I started P90X. When I figure it out, I will let ya’ll know!

In case you are new to my blog, I purchased P90X on ebay for $70 because I wanted an easy way to squeeze workouts into my busy life. And I also wanted to do strength training without joining a gym. It has definitely satisfied those two needs very well.

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I pulled out my old mountain bike – the one I used for my very first tri season – and had a go at some snow riding.   First I rode up and down the flat part of my street, just to test it.  It was slippery, but as long as I controlled my speed, it was alot of fun!   I lowered the saddle so I could put my leg out quickly whenever I started to wipe out.

Moving my legs felt really good on the sore muscles.  So,  ventured out farther and ended up riding for 50 minutes.    It was a beautiful day for a bike ride, and I had alot of fun.   It was more of an exercise in balance to ride on the icey roads, than a hard workout.   The only hard parts were when the snow was thick and slushy.

I brought along my action cam video camera and took some shots.  The camera does not pick up voices very well, and there is no anti-shake.   But it gives a good sense of the fun I had today…

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One of my twitter buddies, @rburns42 , described P90X as “the hurt cave”. I am in the hurt cave right now. My legs are so trashed I am doing ‘the marathon shuffle’ all around my house.  If you don’t know what that means, watch this Youtube.   I had to ask my daughter to pick something up off the floor for me today.  It will be hard to get up out of my chair when I am done writing this blog.   And even harder to walk upstairs to go to bed. I guess I could just typing endless nonsense to avoid all that.  haha.

I’m not sure if this extreme soreness is from the P90X plyometrics workout I did yesterday, or running 6 miles in the snow today, or both. But man, I hurt. Night, ya’ll!

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We got snow!  Lots of snow!  I love running in it, so that’s what I did today.  I ran my usual “To the Lake and Back” 6 miler.  No heart rate, no watch, just bundled up and headed out the door.

I did take my cell phone along and got lots of great pictures, and even a shot some video.    It was fun and hard work.  Much harder on my muscles than normal running, and I was toast by mile 4.   It didn’t help that my legs were already toast from yesterday’s P90X Plyometrics workout!

Nuff, said.  here’s the good stuff:

Video:

Photos:

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I did the P90X Plyometrics workout tonight.   I’d had a busy day and didn’t really feel like working out.  But I had eaten some cookies and felt I needed to burn them off, so I pulled out my P90X workout guide.   Plyometrics was the next one on my workout list, so I got my ass in gear and did it!

It was alot of fun and alot of hard work.  If you don’t know what Plyometrics is, it’s alot of jumping.  You definitely need to wear running shoes for this one!

I really get into the workouts, and I like the things Tony says.  For example, “Nobody said it would be easy” and “I know you’re tired, but so what!?”

I tweeted a bit before, during and after.  The nice thing about tweeting my workouts is that I have a nice twitter stream for including in my blog posts…

• Just picked up my P90X book to see what workout comes next. Hmmm…Plyometrics. Should I do that tonight? #fb
• Half way thru the P90X plyometrics workout. It’s alot of FUN!!!! I think it’s perfect for triathletes.
• not so fun any more but xtra awesome. hr hit 164. 30 more min of plyo
• tony says ‘I know youre tired but so what” #P90x
• done with the plyometrics P90X workout. wow, i am beat! just uplaoded garmin data. it was a whole hour!! time flies when you’re havin fun!
• @triblogcarol have heard grt things about P90X. Wondering about Insanity. Coworkers brought it to fitness ctr and were doing it 2day.
• @frenchiegurl I am loving P90x. I also have turbojam. That is good too, but more dancing. Insanity is by the same folks, so prolly good. 7 minutes ago

This is what I wrote in my BT log:

Did the Plyometrics DVD. First half was alot of fun. Then it got really hard. Totally Awesome! I did not realize I was going for a whole hour utnil I looked at my Garmin data!   HR: 140 avg, 164max.

Here’s my graph – I was busting my ass, for sure!

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