Day 99: 5K Race!

Today is Father's Day and the Run 4 Your Life 5K to benefit a local prostate and breast cancer charity. It was rainy and the race started at 8:30am, so my parents, Robin and Emily M all bailed on racing with me. Luckily, I connected with Kristen, a fellow Philly Knottie and we met up and ran together which was a lot of fun.

Overall, the race went really well - the course was fairly flat and I was feeling great and I finished in 27 minutes and 20 seconds, which is a full 2+ minutes faster than my last 5K!! Though I didn't manage to stay with Kristen the entire time, she came in less than a minute after me and then we had some bananas and soft pretzels together before heading home.

I am really proud of myself for increasing my running time and really appreciative that Scott came out to support me in the rain when everyone else bailed on me. I am also really thankful that I got to meet Kristen and Tom because they were both awesome and hopefully Kristen and I will begin running together on Sundays from now on!

SO all in all, it was a very great day and I am feeling good :o)

Day 98: Chest and Back X, Ab Ripper X

I woke up early today to get my work out in and was really not feeling in the mood to work out since it was dreary and raining outside - BUT of course, I did it anyway! I was not in the mood to do ARX so I did a 20 minute ab video from On Demand to switch things up a bit before starting on chest/back and it was actually pretty challenging. Then for Chest and Back, I pushed myself hard, despite feeling tired and got in a great work out. I am continuing to use the pull up bar for modified pull ups and I definitely feel as though I am really improving my ability to strengthen my back that way. 470 calories and an hour and 20 minutes later and it is time to go and enjoy my Saturday!

Day 97: Kenpo X

Since I ended up making Wednesday of this week my rest day, today is Kenpo X. I am going to the Phillies game tonight which means I had to wake up at 5:45am to get the work out done and even with feeling sleepy and Scott trying to convince me to get back in bed, I still got up and brought it! I used weights, repeated sections as usual and I was tempted to go for a short run too but I resisted because I need to rest my legs for Sunday's race.

I burnt 483 calories after a great work out and now I am ready to start my day. GO PHILLIES!

Day 96: Core Synergistics/Short Run

After lots of running this week and a 5K coming up on Sunday, I have decided that doing Legs/Back X today is not a good idea since I don't want my leg muscles to be sore for the race. I did Core Synergistics instead since this is a great work out and focuses on the core which is a weak area for me. I am starting to hate this work out a little bit less since it now does not COMPLETELY kick my ass.

After Core I went for a short run around the neighborhood and ended up burning 528 calories total. I was pretty exhausted by the end of this work out but still feeling good! I also got 2 new pairs of work out shorts at Kohls for a great price so at least now I have some shorts that are not hanging off of me while I work out!

Day 95: REST

Wow, my entire body is sore today. My arms are still sore from Monday's work out and my legs are sore from yesterday's run. SO for the first time pretty much ever, I am actually going to listen to my body and rest today. I will just have to skip my rest day on Friday and go for a run in the morning before work since we are going to the Phillies game at night. Rest days are boring but I don't want to overtrain and then not be able to keep up with my running.

Day 94: Run, Baby Run!

In place of Yoga today I went for another run, but this time around Manayunk. I ran 5.7 miles in 60 minutes and I felt great afterwards. I wore my knee brace this time which definitely helped a lot and having my new iPod Shuffle with me instead of that gigantic iPod was also very helpful. I think I am going to be in good shape for the 5K race this weekend!

Also, I should probably mention that my arns are VERY sore today from the arm work out yesterday - especially my bis and tris. I guess it was beneficial to increase my reps so much!

Day 93: Shoulder, Triceps and Biceps, Ab Ripper X

I was a little limited today while doing ARX because my hip was sore and the hip rock and raises were irritating it so I added in some extra planks. I have to admit, I am getting a little bored with ARX and my start switching up some of the moves or adding in extras.

Shoulders, Tris and Bis continued to be as challenging as ever though! I used the 10 pound weights for pretty much every exercise, since I want to continue to tone but not get too much more muscular. I did a lot of reps with the 10 pounds though so I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to hurt!

Day 92: Long Run

As I mentioned before, I am going to be modifying the cardio days of the program to incorporate running and Sundays will be the day of my long run each week in place of Plyo (I will move plyo to later in the week). I went for a 6.5 mile run all around Upper Dublin and OH MAN was I tired afterwards. I think 6.5 was probably a little too much for me because after I got home from my nephews party I felt extremely fatigued and took a very long nap. Also, my right knee is sore and so is my left hip, so I might have been a tad ambitious on this run. Next Sunday I will be running a 5K so I will give my body plenty of time to rest before attempting another long run like today.

Also, I should note that I am SUPER sore from modified pull ups yesterday! I guess this means that even with using my legs to help, I am still getting a good back work out!

Day 91: Chest and Back X, Ab Ripper X

Well, after a few days of rest I have decided to jump in to ROUND 2!! This time though I am going to be a little more flexible and make some modifications in order to incorporate running into my work outs since I am toying with the idea of running a half marathon in September.

Today was Chest and Back and I decided that I am going to stop using the bands and start using the pull up bar this round, even if I have to significantly modify. While I was doing the work out I wasn't sure if my legs were doing too much of the work on the pull ups for my back to feel it, but by the end I was already sore so I am guessing I got in a good work out.

I had some excess energy after the work out too and felt sooo good to get back in the swing of things after taking a break so I also went for a run for about 25 minutes.

I ended up burning 725 calories today which means I better get started on eating or I am going to have a huge caloric deficit for the day!

Day 90: Yoga X

I sprung out of bed to do my very last work out at 5:30am and as of right now I AM OFFICIALLY A P90X GRADUATE! Tomorrow I will post pictures and my thoughts about the whole experience!

Day 89: Core Synergistics

UGH this work out is so tough! I was really dreading it because it just totally kicks my butt and it was no easier for me today than it was the first time I did it this week. I was able to keep up pretty well, despite sweating like a pig and feeling like I might die! At the end of the work out I did muster enough energy to go for a 20 minute run and I burnt 623 calories - wahoo! I worked out for a full 90 minutes doing intense cardio and I feel like I am in great cardiovascular shape at this point.

Only 1 more work out left until I am a graduate!!

Day 88: Rest/Stretch

Today is rest/stretch day and I was planning on getting up to go for a run but that just didn't happen. I definitely didn't rest either since I spent the day drinking and eating cake for dinner. OOOPS! Well, we all have days where we get off track...I just wish mine wasn't so close to the end of the program where I am going to take pictures with my shirt off!

Day 87: Kenpo X

I finally let myself sleep in today and woke up to find out that the weather was gorgeous. I quickly got dressed in my work out gear and went for a 20 minute run before starting Kenpo X and then I still repeated a section and used 3 pound weights for most moves! I was a total animal today! In all I burnt 723 calories and since I am going out to dinner and for drinks later, I am sure I will be using up most of those calories quickly.

Day 86: Core Synergistics

Today is Scott's 26th birthday which means that tonight will be filled with birthday stuff leaving me no time to work out. SO I had to wake up at 5:45am again to get my work out in. I always thought I was a morning person, but when that alarm goes off I am really nto interested in waking up a working out.

Core Synergistics is still the hardest work out for me and really gets my heart rate up. I kind of hate it but only because I am not that good at it. I did notice that I could use heavier weights for the exercises that require them but I still felt frustrated that I couldn't do the walking push ups without stopping once and same with the plank runs (didn't even attempt chatarunga run). In the hour that I worked out I burnt 423 calories and had a tough time picking myself up off the floor to get ready for work!

I think for next round I am going to alternate subbing Core and running on yoga days since I definitely want a stronger core and it is hard to conquer this work out when you only do it 6 times total during the 90 days.

Day 85: Yoga X

Oh Yoga, I just can't seem to like it. A long exercise routine that does not burn a lot of calories just doesn't appeal to me no matter how hard I try. I got home pretty late last night from work so I really had a tough time squeezing this in, but I am so close to the end and I wanted to finish strong. In the end I burnt 200 calories and managed to work up a light sweat before eating dinner and starting to take care of the massive amount of errands I have to do!

Day 84: Kenpo X

I woke up at 5:30 this morning, mainly because that was when Scott was actually getting in bed for the night(?) so I decided to just drag my ass out of bed and get started on Kenpo. Kenpo has gotten a bit easy for me throughout the program so I have been modifying to increase the intensity. Today I used 3 pound weights for the punching exercises, repeated a section, added in some plyo moves too and ended up burnign 563 calories - wahoo! This concludes week 12 and now on to recovery week!

Day 83: Legs and Back X, Ab Ripper X

Today is the very last weight training day of my first round of P90X and unfortunately I was not feeling great. I have been having stomach problems all day and so I just was not feeling 100%. I pushed through anyway despite feeling crappy and I got in a good work out. I used 10 and 12 pounds for every exercise and was able to increase my reps of lat pull downs with the blue band. I definitely feel like I have made a lot of progress since my first few times doing this work out and my legs are SO much stronger and more muscular than they were when I started. Overall I burnt 463 calories and now it is time for some Muscle Milk Light and dinner!

Day 82: Yoga X

Since I pushed my work outs back a day by taking my rest day early, today was Yoga X. I still really dread this work out and just find it too slow and boring for my taste. I am dedicated to sticking with the program religiously during these first 90 days though so I sucked it up and did it anyway! I did all of the moving poses, then some stretching while I talked on the phone to my dad, completed yoga belly 7 and then finished up with about 20 minutes of Cardio X to burn some extra calories. In all, I burnt 356 calories and I am happy that I got yoga over with for today - too bad I have to do it two times next week during recovery!