Training and more Training

I've been off the air for the past 2.5 weeks and doing double secret training. What am I training for you wonder? Well, the answer to that would be the 113th Boston Marathon. This will be my 24th consecutive running of the race. As my wife always says "Stupidity repeats itself year after year".

Anyway I've been able to get in 1 hour runs almost daily since my last snowshoe race. With a long run of 13 miles last Saturday on the course. What a beautiful day it was. In fact there were so many people out on the course that day it almost seemed like the race was going on. I ran from Wellesley to BC and back. The carriage road through the Newton hills was packed with runners.

So what the double secret part of the workout?

A couple of weeks ago I made the decision to get into really good shape. I noticed while running the Snowshoe series that my upper body was not holding up to the pounding my legs were giving it. I found that I was leaning over quite a bit and just didn't have the strength to drive to the finish in many races. My core muscles were just not fit. In addition I knew that I was at least 10+ lbs over weight.

So the question was how was I going to get into good shape? Well I was watching TV and flipped to an Infomercial and saw something that caught my eye. P90X. Now this was not the first time I had ever heard of this program but now I was watching something that really made sense to me. Their program goes on the premise of "Muscle Confusion". This is where you do exercises and before your muscles plateau as they get used to the exercise they change it up and push you to another level. I made a couple of phone calls to people I knew who had done the program and everyone raved about it. But they also warned me that you have to stick with it for 90 days!! I did a whole bunch of checking on the web and read countless reviews and almost every one of them was positive. The only negative ones were from people who just couldn't stick with it for the full 90 days. One other factoid I found out was that you needed to be in fairly decent shape to begin with. If you're a couch potato this is not a good program to start with. Lastly, they have a nutritional program you have to stay on. If you don't like chicken or fish you're in trouble.

So the day after my last SS race up at Kingman Farm I began the program, February 22, 2009. Day 1 went well for the first hour of arms and chest then I was killed during the final 16 minutes and 7 seconds. During this period you do an ab workout called "The Ab Ripper X". Holy S#!%!! What a workout!!!!!! The ab workout consists of 11 exercises that just blow your stomach apart. Of the 349 moves I think I was only able to handle 150 of them at best.

Now before starting this program I had a waist of 35 inches, I was at 175lbs, I had a constant sore back that was always on the verge of blowing out. I couldn't put socks on without sitting down, my right Achilles tendon was always barking at me, and lastly my neck was in constant pain.

Fast forward 17 days. My waist is now 33, I weigh 161lbs, my back feels super, socks are not a problem putting on while standing up, and my neck is loose as a goose (I don't know how loose a goose, but it works for me). Lastly my Achilles tendon is MUCH BETTER. Why do I think it's going so good for me? The program doesn't just have you lifting weights. Your also doing lots of exercises where you stretching muscles and improving flexibility. Yoga is one thing I've never done before and I thought that I was breeze through it. NOT!!! The first time I attempted it I was falling all over the place, couldn't do 50% of the moves and barely made it through the 90 minute workout. Tonight will be attempt #3 at Yoga. My wife is joining me, she should get a good laugh tonight. However I am getting better at it.

How am I doing on the "Ab Ripper X" workout these days. Well I'm not able to do 100% of it yet but I guessing that I'm hitting 334 of the 349 moves.

So has this helped my running? Yes, absolutely without a doubt.

More to come. Or as they say in P90X....Bring IT!!