Butterflies and Rainbows

I suspect I could be painting a picture of P90X as being all rainbows and butterflies over here. With the exception of an evening last week when it indeed included a rainbow, this is entirely not the case. I, well we, have discovered my own pattern within the pattern of P90x. It's a pattern of whining.

I like to start start with denial which very quickly moves into anger and bargaining before I lie down on the couch in a state of depression. Most evenings I find acceptance pretty quickly after that warm-up. I really like all the back, shoulder and arm workouts. I don't like legs or yoga though. I still haven't seen much in the way of results, in my opinion. I have gone up, and up in the amount I lift and I feel strong and generally less jiggly. I wish and hope for something more noticeable though before I hit the beach!

So there you have it. One rainbow and no butterflies. I must be holding out for the latter though because I still show up every night.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Bananas.

Though bananas are abundant at every grocery store I visit, to me they are elusive. They are the day lily of fruits. Okay, maybe I'm just particular about bananas. If the peel won't come off they're clearly under ripe, but if they taste "bananay" enough to be Laffy Taffy then they're too ripe. That means when I get a bunch of perfect bananas I gorge on them for a day. I'm wiling to share but I don't advertise that there are new bananas in the house. Once they've passed my version of their peak, I let others in the house have a few before the speckled ones are banished to the freezer for baking. Yesterday was a banana day and I thought they'd last into today but sadly, no.

We have a new addition to our house this week, well, in addition to Phase 2 of P90x. Her name is Vera. She's an adorable 5-month old black & white kitty. She's super sweet. J has been able to scare her a couple times but for the most part she lets him hug her and pet her and play with her. Considering she's only lived here three days I think that's awesome. Last night our other kitty stopped hissing at her too. I'm thinking this is because she has secured her place as queen and a not-so simple look of smug superiority is all she needs now.

After nursing a calf injury during P90x's recovery week, we're back into the meat of things. My mantra for Phase 1 was "survive" but I didn't see the results D has (shocker there) so my mantra for Phase 2 is "doubles." I'm going to try to get in as many double workouts as possible. Today I ran again after I was rained out yesterday morning. I had an epiphany yesterday which was a really just a realization of the obvious. The epiphany was that while I need to take a day off in-between lifting, I can run more often with fewer days off. In fact, I need to be running more often if I want to conquer this once and for all. I've wanted to be a runner for years - since high school track I suspect. I'm finally getting there, and though my 5ks are not that impressive I couldn't be more pleased. I really want this and I have my eye on a few 5ks and maybe even a mini triathlon this summer. So yeah, I'll need babysitters. Feel free to use the comments field below as a sign up sheet.

P90x is all about muscle confusion (oh and X-treme!). There are 3 phases and 2 recovery weeks between phases. Each phase uses some different DVDs. Monday was Chest, Shoulders, Triceps and I wasn't sure I was going to finish the entire workout. In all honesty, I completely gave up on all push-ups 3/4 of the way through. I'm still rocking the abs workout though (So where's even a hint of the six-pack I should be starting to see?!?!? Still looks like the only six-pack related to my body is St. Paulie Girl). Tonight is Back & Biceps which sounds like pull-ups and curls and some other sort of crazy added in for fun.

I think I'd better go get a cup of tea. Since starting this workout caffeine has become a necessity. I believe I can thank my misfiring thyroid for that. But I have to leave with one last thing, my dream last night. This is really for anyone reading this who's related to me. I dreamt last night that I was headed down Grandma's street in Masury and where the house and extra lot were was now a HUGE mansion. I think the driveway alone was bigger than Grandma's house and it had many points on the roof as if it was trying to look like an Eastern European castle. Maybe it's a message coming through in the dream and we're Hungarian royalty. ;)

Recovery Week

This is recovery week. However, I've managed to injure myself. I'm limping. I'm not sure what happened considering my workout last night was repeatedly turning my head away from the TV to avoid disturbing Black Swan scenes. I need cliff notes for that thing. Maybe my inner Black Swan went for a crazy run last night or something because I woke up limping. My calf is either pulled or just in a perma-cramp.

I actually suspect it's a delayed response to Krav Maga. I felt like P90x wasn't X-treme enough and I needed to add in some hand-to-hand combat skills. I actually really enjoyed Krav class and if I had time I would pursue it but clearly I do not. It was a good workout, but unfortunately between taking turns and taking instruction, I wasn't able to keep my heart rate up the entire hour. I cannot do doubles 4x a week and P90x is only 1/3 done. Oh and there's that little thing called running that I want to keep doing.

In fact we did a 5k this past weekend - Cook Forest 5k. I have really only two complaints (since I'm clearly in a little bit of a complaining mood). The first is my fault, I should have read the description as being relative. Clearly the only "significant" hill to someone living in the Allegheny Mountains is at mile 2 but to the flatlander I've become, I beg to disagree. The second complaint is that I didn't look at who the run supported. I would have loved to see it support the park or some other non-profit or cause. That could keep me from participating in the future.

I did finish the race though! I ran all but that significant hill (about 20 yards) and my time was not great but not hideous. I have room for improvement and I plan to improve! We have a couple future 5ks in mind but I'm not sure which will work out. There's the EcoThon which I've done before and is pretty tough, plus the Race for the Cure. We'll see. First I need to stop limping.

Next week we start phase two of P90x. The workouts will change a little and we can add more whole grain carbs back (ha! as if I was good at doing low carb). I suspect D will go back to low-carb again to jump start phase two. I may also. I'm excited to see how this month goes. I already see a little difference in myself both in how I look, how I feel, and my strength. P90x - I hate it, but I love it!