If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been miserably failing at attempting to half marathon AND triathlon train while also completing 90 days of P90X3. Despite the fact that I’ve dropped one workout from the week (doing 5 instead of 6), and the workouts are only 30 minutes long, it’s just not possible for me to adequately train for triathlon while focusing so much attention on the other two. Now that the San Diego International Triathlon is only 5 1/2 weeks away and I’m only 9 days out from my big goal half marathon at Rock n’ Roll San Diego, my motivation is shifting away from completing all my P90X3 workouts.
Originally I had planned to actually make P90X3 last one extra week and end just before 4th of July when we jet off to Cabo for the long weekend (I’m a bridesmaid in a good friend’s destination wedding). The reason I added the extra week was because I knew I’d want to taper and recover from the half marathon, plus we have a 5 day trip to Nashville planned in early June. But, I didn’t really do the math and realize that the taper/recovery and Nashville trip would set me back so much. I also didn’t account for the fact that the leg workouts would leave my legs tired and heavy at times, therefore affecting my running. I didn’t anticipate backing off P90X3 so early before the half marathon, but at this point, my body is telling me to lay off and rest as much a possible before the race on June 1.
As of now, I have not swam a single yard and my biking has been pretty pathetic. You can’t do well at a triathlon by just training for one sport. Although I don’t have intentions of getting on the podium at this race, I did commit to racing it and paid money to do so, and it’d be a waste to ignore my training. At one point completing P90X3 was more important to me than the triathlon but when I really started to think about it, I realized that I’ve just put pressure on myself to complete the 90 days consecutively since I had such fantastic results with P90X. I was proud of finishing P90X in 90 days and I wanted to repeat that.
So, for now, P90X3 is on hold. I started the first week of Phase 3 this week but only got through two workouts. I’ll be out of town this weekend for my Sister in Law’s wedding so I would have had to cram in 5 P90X3 workouts Monday-Friday. My motivation just wasn’t there and I obviously put my focus on running and biking over P90X3. I started to stress myself out over fitting in all the workouts which is not what it’s supposed to be about! I also wasn’t giving each workout my all – the workouts are really intense for 30 minutes so when I do back to back workouts, I find myself lagging during the second one. They are meant to be completed on separate days, not crammed into an already packed schedule. I plan to start fresh with Phase 3 after I return from Cabo and it will be perfect timing as it’ll give me 5 weeks to finish it just before heading to Vegas for Asia’s bachelorette party!
June will be filled with swimming, biking and running. I may throw in a few of my favorite P90X3 workouts or even go back to Club Pilates for a few classes, but I won’t have a strict training schedule outside of triathlon. I plan to mostly focus on the bike and the swim, since I clearly have the run part down. Plus, I will likely start marathon training in August, and it’ll be good for me to give myself a little break from high mileage running for a while.
I feel relief!!! I had a very good final tempo run tonight and now it’s time to get some rest before the big race on June 1!
Have you ever changed your training goals or plans mid-training cycle?
I have a feeling this is eventually going to happen with me and crossfit once my training runs for the Portland Marathon get longer. I’m hoping I’ll at least be able to keep it up twice a week.
I struggle with trying to do it all!! I think periodization is key- your cross fit will help a ton during base building but during peak I think we all just have to focus on the main goal!
I think you are being smart here! I had to do something similar, by giving up crossfit. It made me really sad to give up the crossfit, but I was finding that it was making my muscles very fatigued and it was hurting my biking! I have realized that unfortunately, you can’t do it all… and you need to listen to your body. I think when you are on that podium you won’t regret this decision! It’s so hard to give up the fun strength training though… it can be downright depressing! I look forward to getting back into crossfit after my Ironman 🙂
Yeah during ironman training I did zero strength and I missed it so much!!
Your weekly recaps have sounded so challenging with all the running and P90X3- my legs would’ve fallen off from exhaustion!
Good for you for keeping up everything for so long; I think it’s smart to listen to your body and trust your instincts. You’ve been running so well, it would be a shame to have tired legs come race day!
Have a blast and your sister-in-laws wedding!
I must say I mostly don’t follow a training plan for races, BUT next time I have a big goal race I want to!
Hi, I started to read your blog couple of weeks ago. I realized we were in the same phase in P90X3. Like you I’m also training for triathlon (my first, it’ll be a olympic distance). So glad to read your post today! I’ve also struggled to fit in all training in my schedule. However I wanted to continue P90x3 since it’s fun, I like the strenght workouts in it and I started to see the results). I like running ( previously ran couple of marathons and some halfmaratons) and easily fit in 3-4 running workouts in one week. I’m new to biking but immediately figured I enjoy that too. Aiming at 2 biking sessions a week. Currently I don’t swim and I struggle to keep up with P90x3 workouts. I think I’ll put P90x3 on hold as well, and pick up swimming instead. Since triathlon is my main focus this summer I need to do that. Funny that a person from the other side of the world (I’m from Finland) can be in the similar situation as oneself 🙂 thanks for an inspiring blog!
Haha wow what a coincidence! I’m glad I could help- I’m seeing results too but I know I won’t lose much strength with triathlon training and can pick it up soon!
Good luck with the race!!
Ahh that has to be so hard to accept. Props to you on realizing now that you need to do it and aren’t pushing yourself too hard later though!