Last Back and Biceps

Yesterday was yet another day of a double. In the morning, I met up with my running partner at 5am and we did a nice easy 3 mile run. This wasn't a run for distance or speed, it was just a nice and easy clean the junk out of the legs from the previous 3 days of effort. Sundays 9.5, Monday's 5.6, and Tuesdays 5.6 had left my legs tired and lackluster. But the key with running is consistency as I've posted before. And sometimes you just need a shorter run to get the blood flowing to the muscles.

After our quick run around the short loop, it was get my butt to work. Once work was over I picked up the boys, made my way home for my most favorite workout of all time.....P90X Back and Biceps. Absolutely LOVE that workout. Biceps are definitely the glamor muscles as Tony calls them. I'd have to agree. In my south end zone craziness, you'll always seem me showin' off the GUNS.....Well, before P90X they were kinda in that small pistol category. Well, after 2 rounds of P90X, and double the weight that I originally started with 170 days ago......I can now put them into the CANNON division. Not quite A-DUB style, but I'm damn proud of them at this point of my workout life. And the sad part of this whole story is that this is the last time I get to do this workout for quite a while. Who knows, maybe in my craziness of P90X+, I'll squeeze in a little Back and Biceps for some nostalgia. What makes it the greatest workout ever....In my opinion its the strip set as your very last exercise. You've just gone through close to an hour of double back, double biceps. You're SHOT. If you brought it, you've got nothing left in the tank already. The final strip set really shows you haw much of a man or woman you really are. Me, I like a good challenge. 4 reps of 8.....it's 32 curls. BRING THE 25s to start with!!! The last 3 were just willing those weights up. Then on to 22.5 with my BowFlex SelecTech Dumbbells. Again, the last three were just BURNING!!!! Then 20s. IT BUUUUUUUUURNS!!!! Finally, finished up with 17.5s. You'd think that 7.5 pounds lighter would be a huge recovery. It's NOT. And that's why I absolutely LOVE that workout. By the end, my arms were THROBBING! My shirt was drenched with sweat. I could barely make the X with the arms.

So when you say to yourself, how did you make yourself better today. Look deep inside your inner self, tell yourself I CAN....Don't say I can't. Remember, DO YOUR BEST AND FORGET THE REST!!!!

And down the stretch we come!!!!!

I am rapidly closing in on the end of my 2nd round of P90X. My journey has been one of resilience and strength. My first 90 days on my journey through P90X plus, there were a LOT of flaws. This round, I looked at the training plan and followed it to a T. I've hit every single planned workout, and replaced a few so that I could incorporate my love of running. As I've seen incredible gains, as I did just this past weekend, I felt a strength that I've never felt while out running. My Sunday long run, I planned a course that included some very serious hills. After the normal 3 mile route, I started making my way up the "Hill". Wade road is a gradual 1.5 mile long hill that peaks just towards the end of the run with a straight up beast of a hill. It's not the Mt. Lemmon marathon, but it's still nice and steep, and has always created a burn. Once at the very top, I get to make the right turn that's a long stretch of roller coaster style hills. Fall and roll down type steep on the down....seemingly steeper on the ups.....Once you've crested through roller coaster alley, I made the right hand turn for the nice easy dirt road decent back into the neighborhoods.

The thing about this course......It's advanced. It's the one that we normally run towards the end of marathon training. It's the one that proves you have the "it" factor. And yesterday I was amazingly STRONG!!! Normally, this is where I'd tell you how my back seized up. Normally I would tell you how I struggled but beat the hill. Yesterday was different. yesterday was 166 days in the making. Yesterday was all about RESOLVE. Resolve that I will NOT fall back into my old self ways. You know, that guy where you make the decision NOT to wake up at 4:15am when you alarm goes off for the morning run. Yah....Definitely not THAT guy. So much NOT that guy that I followed up yesterdays RUN with an AMAZING 6 mile run while my running partner snoozed his way to those old habits that I'm leaving behind.....

Life's all about the choices that you make every single day. Do you want to be STRONGER or do you want to sleep in and be soft. I choose to be stronger each and every day! There's NO WAY I'm going back to that 'old' life!