P90X Rest Week

What??? Rest??? P90X?? Are you crazy??

I'm sure those are the questions that are running through everyone's mind right now. Especially since the X in P90X stands for X-Treme!! Well, the fact is.....Yes, in P90X there is a variation of a "rest" week in your workout routine. No, you don't take the entire week off. That wouldn't be very x-treme now would it. Basically, what it means is that you do a subset of workouts for a week, that will allow your muscles that you've worked so hard (in this case for the past 4 week) get some down time to recover. There are no weights this week, but there is a LOT of Yoga, Stretch, Core, and Cardio.

And by cardio, I mean foot pounding mileage. As a runner, and as I've stated before, you have to log those miles. Since my weekend was hellishly filled with Baseball and Football games, where we left at o'dark early, I did all of my 25 miles during my Monday thru Friday runs. And because I took those two days off last week, this week has started out to be more of the same. On Monday, when I headed out the door, I wasn't feeling all that fresh. I was tired from Sunday, and to be honest, was a tad dehydrated and hung over. Yes, I overindulged in the Adult Beverages on Sunday. But I knew I had to get out the door and just put one foot in front of the other. Well, after my planned 3.5 mile run, it was still plenty early since I started out at 5am, and I was actually feeling pretty good! So, instead of finishing my run by making the turn into my neighborhood, I set out on a trek to check out the new I-10 interchange that is going to open in less then 2 weeks. I wanted to see how far it was to there anyways, and I hadn't been on it in several weeks. Come to find out, it's exactly a mile and a half to the other side of the interstate at which time I made the turn around and headed back home. Total mileage, 6.5. Yesterday, I made the choice to sleep in till 6am, go vote, and head into work. My plan was to run 5.6 miles after work once I picked the kiddos up from school. I got home, threw on the running clothes and headed out the door. It was an absolutely perfect day for running. About 3 miles into the run I made the choice that I was going to extend it. I was in a zone, and running about an 8:40 pace. I made the turn up the hill on Wade Rd, and ran some rolling hills through Continental reserve. I finished with 7.5 miles, and I felt absolutely AMAZING!!!

So today's run I knew was going to be a tough one, since I had run in the evening the day before. But I also knew that if I slept in, that Paul would show up and give me a substantial amount of crap for being weak. So I could not let that happen. I rolled out of bed and met Paul at 5am. And thankfully he showed up, because my legs were saying...Oh no you di'int! But, we persevered and did a nice easy 3 mile clean up run. Paul had run 8.6 with the group Tuesday AM, so he needed the same kind of clean up run.

So, in all, I've put 17 miles on my legs in the first 3 days of the week. Today is also a much needed X-Stretch. Can't wait to get me some stretch on! Again, something else my legs REALLY need!!!

On Monday I officially start my P90X+ journey to the Rock and Roll Half marathon on Sunday, January 16th. It will be 10 weeks from race day. Get ready to BRING IT!!!