Life After Round 1 of P90X

 

So as you probably read in my P90X Results post, we made it through the first 90 days of P90X and are absolutely ecstatic with our results! Now what?!

Marathon Training Mileage Increases

Well, with 6 weeks until the Rock n Roll marathon, we are ramping our mileage significantly. On Tuesday I ran a 6 miler before work and Thursday I ran my first “Medium Long Run” of 8 miles after work. Next week we’ll ramp up this mid-week long run to 9 miles, then 10 and then we’ll begin the taper. Our long run this week is 16 miles, 18 miles next week, and 20 miles the following week. We are truly in the home stretch!

P90X With Marathon Training

As for P90X, we plan to incorporate Legs & Back (and Ab Ripper) and Yoga for sure each week. Then, we plan to get 1-2 upper body workouts in, if possible. Ideally, we’d do P90X Legs and Back Monday mornings, and switch off between Chest & Back/Shoulders & Arms and Chest/Shoulders/Tris and Back & Biceps on two other mornings. Then we’d run Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and cross train (spin for me, biking to work for Mike) on Wednesday. Oh yeah and Yoga on Sunday! If we can’t get both of the P90X upper body workouts in, we’ll sub in the P90X Upper Body Plus workout DVD which we tried for the first time this morning. More on P90X + in another blog entry.

My Workouts This Week

 For example, my first week as a P90X Grad and a Marathon Runner will look like this:

• Monday: P90X Legs and Back
• Tuesday: Run 6 miles (1 mile easy with 4 mile lactate threshold intervals with recovery jog and a half mile or so cool down)
• Wednesday: Plyometrics (I wanted to spin in the morning but got home so late Tuesday that there was no way I could convince myself to wake up at 5 to get to class in time)
• Thursday: P90X Plus Upper Body Plus AM, 8 mile Medium Long Run PM
• Friday: Rest (first day of rest in 10 days…oops!)
• Saturday: 16 mile long run
• Sunday: Yoga

An Ideal Workout Schedule

Here’s My P90X/Marathon Training Schedule during an ideal week (ie no social/work obligations holding me back, getting enough sleep and feeling GREAT). I know it’s a little excessive but I think I may be addicted to exercise!

• Monday: P90X Legs and Back AM; 4-5 mile run PM
• Tuesday: 6 mile interval run & P90X  Chest and Back with Ab Ripper (times dependant on schedule)
• Wednesday: Spin Class at 24 Hour Fitness AM
• Thursday: Chest Shoulders & Tris/Chest and Back AM; 8-10 mile mid-week long run PM
• Friday: Biceps & Back/Shoulders & Arms AM
• Saturday: Long Run
• Sunday: Yoga (I consider Yoga active “rest”)

Ok now that I’ve written it down I realize how ambitious it sounds. I don’t intend to stick to this plan every single week – this would be an ideal to work off of. I am figuring that I will probably miss spin class, the Monday run and/or one of the upper body workouts every single week, more likely two of these. Basically, the main P90X workouts I want to get in are Yoga, Legs & Back and one upper body workout per week.  I think these are essential to preventing injuries, making me a stronger runner, and maintaining my upper body muscle tone. Ideally, we’ll get more workouts in than these, but these should be the bare minimum. My running schedule calls for runs 4x/week. I am going to dedicate myself to getting 3 in, as I have consistently throughout my training. If possible, I’ll add the 4^th.  

And we also plan to add a “recovery” week of P90X into the mix. This will be the week after our highest running volume week (ending with a the 20 miler on Saturday). We will probably do Yoga twice and Core Synergistics twice that week. I also plan to take the intensity way down the week directly before the full marathon.

What Happens After We Run the Marathon?

Now AFTER the marathon…that’s another story that is TBD for now. I am pretty sure that I am going to sign up for the Solana Beach Triathlon which takes place July 24. This will be my first sprint distance triathlon (1/4 mile ocean swim, 9 mile bike, and 3 mile run) so I will probably start adding in swim and bike workouts as soon as the marathon is over. I think cardiovascularly I will be prepared for a race (it only takes a little more than an hour), but I need to focus on the swim and bike technicalities. I swam in high school so I know the technique and I have taken spin classes before, but I’ve never ridden a road bike and I’ve certainly never swum a race free-style through the open water ocean before. So, this will be an adventure to say the least!

I will also be training for the America’s Finest City half marathon which takes place August 21 in San Diego. This is the third half marathon as part of the San Diego Triple Crown. I have already raced the previous two half marathons, Carlsbad and La Jolla. Mike and I plan to incorporate P90X into our triathlon and half marathon training plans as well, but they will be far from the focus. We are considering picking up P90X from day 1 and completing it all over again but that probably won’t happen until late August (or we may wait for MC2 to come out!).

Potential Roadblocks

All of this training is going to be difficult to squeeze in to say the least as Mike and I have been invited to 8 weddings this year and Mike is graduating from his MBA program in June. Additionally, Mike has a bachelor party in Vegas in June and I have a bachelorette in July. Also, we will be attending a wedding and  staying at an all inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic for the first week of August.  It’s going to be hard to keep up with the diet and the exercise during these busy months!

Start with One Foot in Front of the Other

On that note, I better finish with a  motivational quote because I’m getting a little overwhelmed just reading what I just wrote! Luckily, I bizarrely enjoy working out (as you can probably tell), so this is all kind of “fun” for me.

“Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as you mind lets you. What you believe, you can achieve.”

Mary Kay Ash