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 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.
I just stumbled onto your website. I am thinking about signing up for and doing my first triathlon this year. I’m not a good swimmer. Is the masters group helpful/worth going to?
I have’t yet figured it out, Nelson, but I’ll do a post if/when I do. Work is keeping way too busy. Brian, I agree, P90X along with tri training is too much. My initial thoughts thus far are: I think you’d want to take 4 weeks of real easy stuff after your season is over. No P90x then at all, because it is HARD. After that, do maybe 4-8 weeks of P90X to build up to your season. Then cut that back a bit to just a maintenance mode while you hit your build and peak phase. Gale Bernhardt’s book has strenth in her plans. I will look at that and she how it lines up with P90x. She even has plyo! I am really excited how the P90x stuff is strengthening my weak spots.
Hey Carol. I have been a looonnnnggggtime user of your calorie calculator but recently started reading some of your blogging. I have sent a comment or two before. Anyway, I am a peer P90X user and I am coming up on 6 months of doing it. I don’t always follow the plan and here’s why. I don’t think the kenpo is a good workout. I think you have to have had a lot of training in martial arts to perfect the movements to the point where they lend cardio benefit…so when it calls for that one, I pop-in cardio X or a pop-in Biggest Loser Cardio max and do level one once and level two twice and it is a fine substitute. Core Synergistics is fun. Lots of mixing it up. But I’m a guy so I really like all the strength training exercises. I can and do use Plyo X as scheduled but for me, although it is a good workout, it dosn’t require the same focus or concentration as the weight lifting so I actually look forward to it since to me, it is easier than many of the other workouts. Conversely, if, like you, I don’t do my workout in the morning, I try to get it in later in the day. A number of hours of self-flogging can generally get me going again by afternoon time after I get home from work. Ab Ripper is now presenting more of a challenge as I’m doing more of the moves using more difficult set-ups. Tony Horton is a hoot. I’ve been hearing him almost every day for six months and his cheesy humor never fails to keep me motivated.