The Start of my next 90 Day Adventure.

So as my "rest" week came and went by in a FLASH. I managed to log 34 miles of running for the week and finished SUPER STRONG with an 11 mile run on Sunday...

Yesterday, I officially started Round 3 of my P90X adventure. With anything, in order to finish successfully, you must have a plan. That includes building a house, starting a business, and even your P90X exercise workout plan. So, on Sunday, I spent the afternoon, going through my nutrition guide, and mapping out the next 30 days of eating habits. I broke down everything into the recommended groups, and then went through the list of foods to come up with a meal plan for the week. On my previous 90 days, I didn't really lose a lot of weight. In fact, I think overall I gained a couple of pounds. I didn't really do phase 1 of the eating plan, I stayed in phase two for the first 60 days, built some crazy muscle, and then went into phase 3.

This round, I'm going back to the basics. I'm going to start with the Fat Shredder phase, and really get the most out of the plan. At my 201.6 pounds, they recommend that I eat a 3000 calorie diet. Wha wha what?? Yes, you heard it right, 3 THOUSAND CALORIES. Well....I did that the first time, and I couldn't actually put that much food in my stomach during the day. So, I'm going to stick to the level 2 guidelines that put me around 2400 calories, still adhering to the 50/30/20 ratios of Proteins/Carbs/Fats respectively. To be totally honest, I need to lose some of that fat that I've gained over the past 15-20 years. Especially looking at the "after" pictures on Day 180 and me still having that same 'ol belly. Sure, it's smaller, but it's not GONE!

Well, in order for me to reach my next goal, of running a half marathon in under 1:40 minutes (beating my current personal best of 1:41), I need to shed 15-25 pounds. And right now, it's a plain and simple caloric deficit scenario. So, based on my caloric needs, I need about 2000 calories to sustain myself every day. (Weight * 10 gives you a BMR). That's the energy it takes to pump your blood, walk around throughout the day, breathe, and sleep. Next, I know you have have about a 3500 calories burn to lose 1 pound of fat. I also know that running I burn about 150 calories per mile when I run. So here's the quick scenario. Furthermore, P90X+ workouts expend about 500 calories per workout. I've seen as much as 600, but for my body, my heart rate monitor says ~500.

(2000 calories *7 day) + (150 * 35 miles wk) + (500 calories * 6) = 22,500 calories burned during the week.

2400 calorie diet * 7 days = 16,800 calories taken in.

That's a net weight loss of 1.5 pounds/week over the course of the next (at least) 8 to 12 weeks. Later on in the training program, as I ramp up my mileage, I'm going to have to up my calorie counts. But for now, this is what I intend to lose. My hope is that I can lose the full 18-22 pounds of fat along the way. If that goal holds true, I should be ~175-180 pounds on race day.

Now, the engineer in me also likes to equate how excess weight reduces your running times. Right now, I'm running my speed work sessions at an 8 min/mile for half mile repeats. They were faster, but I'm using 8 as my target. That's approximately a 1:47 half marathon. Knowing that my goal is sub 1:40, how will the lower weight help get me there. Well, studies have shown that the reduction of every pound equates to approximately 2 seconds per mile. If I was to lose 20 pounds by race day, that would equate to approximately 40 seconds/mile. That's a 7:20 min/mile. That equates to a 1:36 half marathon, and therefore meeting my goal of a sub 1:40!

So, now that I have my plan, it's time to EXECUTE and use P90X to get me to where I want to be!!!!!! Be sure that you click the follow button on the right hand side so that you can get updates as I post my results from each week here. BRING IT!!!!

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!!!