The Return of “Operation Bring it!”

Hola Bloggies:

You will remember some time ago I commenced what I called “Operation Bring it!” Basically my attempt to do a full cycle of P90X. I got off to a great start and then work  life got in the way. And although I kept doing most of the workouts I wasn’t doing them on the basis of the original plan and so I stopped telling you about them. But I’m not a quitter (no sir!) so it’s time I start updating you on the drops of sweat I’ve shed with Tony Horton.

This week I’ve decided to re-start the program where I left off. To make-up for the fact that I started it and then took a break I may add an extra week at the end. Either way I’m back on the band wagon and feeling rather proud of myself.

Want to know how I’ve fared in my return to “Operation Bring it?” Read On!!! 

 

Day 8 – “Operation Bring it!” - June 5th, 2010

My first official day back called for a return to the good old Chest and Back routine. I had done this DVD enough times that I knew what to expect – a massive amount of push ups!!

I have to confess that this time the DVD didn’t feel as long. The push-ups were still hard but somehow it didn’t seem to drag on (like the first time I did the workout). One thing that quickly became evident was how quickly I improved! On Day 1 I did a grand total of 162 push-ups with all but 26 of them on my toes. On Day 8 I did a grand total of 216 push-ups (!!!!!) with all but 27 of them on my toes. I was amazed at the difference!!!

I still say this is my favourite of all of the P90X workouts. There’s just something about the variations on a simple push-ups that I love. And the dive-bomber is still my fave!

Aside from P90X, I also went on a short two mile trail run (it started to rain so I had to turn around) through a local hiking path. It was glorious! My joints were pleased that I was nowhere near pavement and they rewarded me with a pace of 10min/mile. Which for me is basically blistering! I was one thrilled cookie!!!

 

Day 9 - “Operation Bring it!” – June 6th, 2010

All too soon it was time for the “Mother of All P90X Workouts!” The dreaded plyometrics day.

On Day 1 I felt like I was going to die during this workout. I had to keep on pausing the DVD to take longer breaks. Consequently it took much longer than an hour to complete the DVD! On Day 9 I didn’t have to pause for any extra breaks and I didn’t feel like I was going to die. In fact, I don’t know if I confessed this during my first recap but I got dizzy a couple of times. That’s seldom happened to me during workouts so I knew I was massively pushing myself. This time I still felt challenged but in a much safer and healthier way.

One additional change this week was my use of a heart rate monitor; I wanted to make sure I stayed within my calorie burning zone. I was thrilled to discover my heart rate stayed in the zone for the whole time with the exception of a few moves that caused me to head into my lactic acid build-up zone. It was an awesome workout and I could definitely see an improvement.

My goal for the end of the cycle? To be able to do the moves with the same absolute explosive energy as the peeps on the DVD. I believe I can totally get there!!

 

And then She Rested

What would have been Day 10 fell on a Monday – which as you know is the day I have my standing doggy hike date.

On this particular occasion we headed out on a two hour hike in the Rockies. Sometimes we take our hikes at a rather relaxed pace but on this occasion we were going at a really fast clip! In fact a really fit member of the group proclaimed it a death march! lol While I don’t think it was that bad I will confess to falling quickly asleep that night.

As if Monday night doggy hikes weren’t fantastic enough already we have decided to take on a group dinner at the end of each hike. This week one of our hike participants treated us to a lovely bbq featuring sockeye salmon, a mixed greens salad, rice, a dill yogurt sauce, and wonderful white wine. It was simply lovely! Unfortunately, I was so starved I neglected to take any pictures. But I promise to make up for it in spades!!!!

 

So there you have it – you’re all caught up now! Tonight I will be doing another of the P90X workouts but first I have to bake some “I Don’t Want to be a Lawyer Anymore Cookies” for the winning bidder in Bobbi’s bake sale and then of course I have to watch glee. Oh glee . . . how will I ever survive a summer without you . . .

 

Hasta Pronto!

A High-tech Running Toy for my Wrist – like the cool kids have (plus a P90X weekend wrap-up)

Hello Friends:

So I thought I better get to writing my weekend wrap-up of P90X before Coco (Sleepless Again & blog “taste” talk) started bugging me about slacking! lol She promised she would if I didn’t update. No worries – though I have remained faithful to my P90X workouts!

But before I tell you all about “Operation Bring it!” I should thank you for all your help and advice in my whole Polar HRM vs.. Garmin dilemma! I got all sorts of advice from my readers. Although, I think the funniest comment award has to go to Marathon Maritza for major LOLs:

“Garmin. Hands down.
I have the 305 and it's practically my BFF, but if you can splurge, I would DEFINITELY go for the 405. It's much less bulky. I have impure thoughts about running my beloved 305 with my car just to get the 405. Shhhhh don't tell”

From the comments it was obvious that Garmin was the clear winner amongst bloggies. Still I decided to talk it over with the Fiancé. That night I was trying to outline the different features of each brand for him when it dawned on me . . .  with a Polar I would have to purchase separate GPS units (that you wear on your arm!) to get the same thing that’s already built into a Garmin. So even if I don’t really need the GPS right now I may down the line and I quite like having it integrated into one little unit.

In the end I chose this baby (picture borrowed from GPS Lodge):

While I was tempted by Maritza’s obvious love for the 405, the negatives sealed the deal for me. In the end the price difference (this one cost me about $175+taxes whereas the 405 was in the $300s) plus the negative Amazon reviews were enough to make-up my mind.

I’m very happy with my choice and super excited to be one of the cool kids with special wrist running toys!!! lol I can’t wait until it gets here and I can take it for a test-run. Hopefully the weather will be spectacularly beautiful by then too!

 

“Operation Bring it!” – Day 2 – March 20th, 2010

Okay, so I’ll confess . . . when I first got up on Saturday I thought to myself “Oh! I don’t hurt that much!” lol And as the day wore on I realized I hurt a LOT more than I wanted to admit. My abs had taken an AbRipper X style beating! And I couldn’t be happier about it! Masochist I know! lol

On the schedule for today was Plyometrics X, or as that evil man on my television Tony Horton calls it, “the mother of all P90X workouts!” This is another one of those videos I had done ahead of time so I knew what to expect. It’s seriously intense full out cardio non-stop for one whole hour!

What are plyometrics you ask? Well essentially it’s jump training. Think of doing a lunge or a squat. Now imagine going deep into a lunge only to jump into another one right away. Or doing jumping jacks except that the whole time you’re in a squat position and the only thing you do is move your legs in and out – but still maintaining a squat. Even if you’re not doing P90X, plyometrics are great to incorporate into your workout routines. Let’s check out what a plyo lunge looks like:

The P90X Plyometrics workout is essentially an hour of workout moves like the one above. This DVD pushed me to the limit and I had to hit pause a couple of times and extend the 30 second water breaks built into the program. By the end my lungs were burning – kind of like when I hiked a mountain in the Swiss Alps or like the first time I worked out with my trainer (I thought I was going to die!!!).

I’m looking forward to the day when I can do all these moves with the same explosive energy I seem to muster in the first twenty minutes of the DVD! Needless, to say I think this is a workout that will provide huge benefits and will likely even increase my running pace! Awesome!!

 

“Operation Bring it!” – Day 3 – Shoulders and Arms

This DVD is meant to target what my trainer always referred to as the “vanity muscles!” Those being the ones that you see in a tank top or wedding dress for that matter! Like most girls, I covet awesome triceps and lovely looking shoulders so I was all about this workout.

Like most of the P90X DVDs this one is an hour. But unlike the Chest and Back DVD this one had a super long warm-up; I think that’s because those arm muscles are fairly hard to warm-up and it would be super easy to get an injury!

I don’t know if I should be happy or not but I kind of liked how this DVD didn’t leave me feeling like I wanted to curl up in a fetal position! lol It was a manageable workout that left me appropriately sore without feeling like I was going to keel over. I did notice that it was a bit hard to figure out exactly what weight I should be using. For most exercises I did 12.5lbs in each arm but there was an odd one where that was too heavy. It will take a little bit of tweaking but I’ll get there!

 

On the schedule for tonight? YogaX and the AbRipper X I should have done yesterday but ran out of time!

Have you ever tried plyo? If no – will you try it now? If you have in the past - did you like it? I admit at one point I used to be afraid of it due to my knee and ankle rolling issues. But I’ve now rehabbed everything enough that I can do the moves!