Overtraining

"This is the most blantant case of overtraining I've ever seen. God, I love it!"
- David Brainard, to me, climbing Old San Marcos Pass during '98 Tour simulation

Yesterday I woke up with my heart racing. I was overtrained. This was expected, at least to a point. If you never overtrain than you're never pushing yourself hard enough. Sure, being 1% overtrained is worse than being 25% undertrained but you've got to walk that line, and step over it, if you ever want your training to get close to its potential.

During the '98 Tour de France simulation I hadn't ridden a bike in 8 years as I'd basically been climbing full time. I dusted off an old bike and began riding daily. During the two mountain stages in week 3 I was riding most of the peloton's mileage and destroying myself. Sometimes the aim is break mental barriers and let the physical stuff catch up. That was my plan then. This time, not so much.

This time I'm far more calculated. The aim is to improve a lot more than to finish my simulated Giro goal. My hope was/is that I could do both. After 2 weeks of the Giro and P90X (while recovering from a surgery) I've been right on the edge. This weekend I knew I'd be pushing it, as I was upping my riding from pedestrian mileage to racer mileage. Could I handle real training with X? I'd find out.

Sat: Big Cottonwood and Mill Creek

This isn't an easy day even in shape but daunting when you're not. I chose it for its panache—a perfect simulation for with they were riding in Italy. I rolled out under threatening skies. It had been raining on and off and the top of the peaks were cloud covered. Since they were racing in the rain in Italy it seemed fitting, but not particularly fun. I warmed up into a headwind out towards Big. If it meant a tailwind later things would be perfect.

I begin up Big spinning my smallest gear. I suck, but didn't I just see Contador riding a 34X27? Forget tradition; I’m breaking down and getting a compact crank.

The first steep section. There's a rider up ahead. Don't look. Don't chase. It's way too early to blow. I stand and watch the road ahead. Zone out. Don't chase. Long day ahead.

I glance ahead. Sure enough, I'm gaining. I don't want anyone pushing my pace. Should I slow down? Look down. Ignore it. Could I be fitter than I think?

She’s right up ahead. That’s right; I’m not fit. But wait, climbs equalize gender, since it's all strength to weight ratio. Maybe I’m going okay. Maybe it’s Kim Anderson.

Getting closer. She’s old. Well, not old, but in her 40s. Probably my age. Jeannie Longo? No? I’d better pass her quickly; act as though I’m on a recovery ride. But my breathing is too hard. She’ll know. I suck.

I give my best nonchalant “bon journo”. No response. Her eyes are glued to the road; in full concentration. She’s suffering. Maybe I don’t suck after all.

In the false flat, mid climb, I’m cruising. Maybe I’m ready to ride with the team. No, can’t be. It’s too soon. But I’m flying, right? I glance back. Two riders, steadily moving up. Ride smart. Don’t accelerate.

A casual hello. They spin past smoothly. It looks so easy. Must be Louder and Zabriskie to be passing me so easily. Gotta be. But where’s the moustache? Must have shaved it.

Now I’m gaining. Maybe they weren’t going easy after all. Getting closer. Wait; I’m not gaining. They’ve hit the steep section. I’m on it to. They quickly disappear.

I’m standing and using my weight to turn the pedals. Mashing. Old school. I feel like Greg LeMond. I look like him, too. Except that I’m turning a 39X24 instead of a 42X15.

Near the summit someone passes me descending. Wearing a moustache. Zabriske, for sure. No one else would be up here on such a day. But isn’t he injured in Europe? Never mind. It’s gotta be him. That must have been Swindlehurst riding with Louder earlier.

At the summit I see the two guys who passed me, looking decidedly recreational except for their team kit. Will I ever be fit again? But those sure are nice bikes. And one guy’s sporting a $2,000 wheelset. Maybe they can ride a little. They’re waiting for some friends. I think about waiting to get some help on the descent but think 4” rims will be squirrelly in the wind—reason enough not to let this guy pull me. I head down alone.

Spin over to Mill Creek with a tailwind. Nice. A guy passes me as I’m eating and speeds off. I see him turn into my canyon. Another arbitrary rabbit. But who’s racing?

I catch him at the first steep section. “Hello.” “Hi again.” Good spirits all around.

I’m feeling good. Really good. Could I actually have some fitness? I can’t believe I’m this strong. What’s that sound? A guy flies past. “Beautiful day, eh?”

Surviving now. Just a few steep ramps, then it’s over. Up ahead, could it be?

He’s coming back. For sure. I get close. He stands and pulls away. At the next steep section I’m gaining again. Damn. Legs are way too sore to get into it. I slow. He’s still coming back.

I stand, shift, accelerate past. “Hi again.” Jesus that hurt.

It flattens out. I’m alone. A bathroom. Cool. I slow to pull over. The guy flies past. Head down. No hello. Must be going for the time bonus up ahead.

Sun: East Canyon, Little and Big Mountain

Dustin calls and cancels. He’s overtrained, too, and suffered in his race on Sat. He’s needs some time off—a mid-season break while I’m still hairy-legged and getting ready for any season.

Last night I slept like I was dead. Haven’t been so tired in a while. I was surprised how strong I’d finished the day. No bonk. Solid all the way home. Until that night when I was light’s out about 5 minutes into a movie—a boring husband on a Saturday night.

A late afternoon start means I’ve once again missed the rain. Cool. The first pedal stroke singes my thighs. Not so cool.

I nearly turn around on the warm-up. I’d eaten plenty but the tank is empty. At least get to the first real climb. This doesn’t help. I want to turn around. I tell myself how easy this climb is. I still want to turn around. Just turn the cranks a few more times. When can I go home? It’s a stunningly beautiful afternoon; just do some sightseeing. My legs are on fire. Romney’s fasting. For sure she’s suffering worse then I am. I keep going.

Halfway up Big Mountain I cash it in. I’m struggling. This can’t be doing my fitness any good. I’m only still here to get my percentage of the Giro’s climbing in. With under 5,000’ I’m about a third of today but I’ve got plenty in the bank from the last few days. Now to survive the ride home. I do. Barely.

Mon: Mill Creek Time Trial

My heart rate won’t drop; a clear sign of overtraining. Maybe the Giro simulation is too much too soon. Keep a cool head. I don’t need to finish if it’s worsening my fitness. I wake up slowly. Drink water. More water. Plenty of coffee. Feeling better.

It’s pissing down rain. Ugh. That’s okay; plenty of work to do today. Romney gets called into a training session at the last minute. This means she needs to break her fast so we hit the coffee shop. Still raining. It’s getting late. It’s snowing on the top of Mill Creek, for sure.

P90X is on the agenda. Chest & Back would be an interesting “warm up”. Romney heads to Gym Jones. Tony starts yappin’ at me. Still raining. Doing P90X in full kit, waiting on the weather. That’s it, folks. The mother of all P90X workouts. Yeah, great warm-up. I’m about to puke on my first pedal stroke. The rain has stopped.

I can’t believe how well my home stages have mimicked the Giro. Mill Creek is ridiculously similar to today’s time trial. The upper part of the road is even closed, so it hasn’t been cleaned, which makes it more like the gravel section.

I’m dying but at least the weather is nice. Gorgeous, in fact. Still super wet but I can’t complain. Except for that burning in my thighs. Wish I had some dope. Or at least a compact crank. I can’t wait to get home to my wife.

I think about Contador but I can’t spin. I think about Levi. The Giro’s been too much. That’s more like it. Just surviving. Now I’m Bosisio; in the pink jersey on day one of the Dolomites and now missing the time cut and getting kicked out of the race. Sad. That’s me. It sure is beautiful out.

Somehow I’m feeling okay. Must be the nature. I’m 2 minutes faster than I was last week. Astonishing. I run out of ride-able road. Plant my bike in the snow and take a picture. Three “rest days” ahead. Bliss.

Weekend Plans

When I planned the virtual Giro I had no idea that the weather would cooperate so well. It's gone back and forth from hot to cold just like we're on the continent. I've been pretty lucky. It's rained the last three days and I've hardly gotten wet. Today I even began in the rain and it cleared. Now it's looking bad again. With my two biggest rides of the year planned this weekend I'm hoping for some virtual luck

Dustin sent a link today:

www.mapitpronto.com

Though one of the major roads around here isn't working for some reason (perhaps I've not got it sorted yet), it's a generally great tool for concocting rides, especially if you're trying to mirror something that's going on elsewhere. Tomorrow, for example, my ride is very similar to what they're doing in Italy. Albeit much slower and shorter, I'll being doing a similar amount of climbing. Sunday I'll mimick as well but I'm not going to attempt to come anywhere close to all that elevation gain. That, at this state, could be asking for some knee trouble. Sunday's stage is an absolute monster ride. I wish I could mimick their scenery. Check it out:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2008//giro08/?id=stages/giro0815

Today's "flat" ride banked some elevation. Flat is difficult since I live above the flat area of town. According to the above site I did 1,300' of climbing over just under 30 miles. Tomorrow I'm riding Big Cottonwood and then Mill Creek. According to the site, it's 8,200' of climbing in 65 miles. Sunday I'll tag along with Dustin out East Canyon, so we'll do those climbs in both directions. Two longest days in the saddly, back to back. Should be fun, especially if it doesn't rain.

Legs & Back

I think this is my new favorite X workout. I switched my schedule this week so that I could work my legs today and rest them before my big rides this weekend. It's an odd combo from a traditional training standpoint but, to paraphrase Tony, I climb rocks and I ski (and I ride bikes and I run). So what do I need to train? Legs and back.

My legs are mega sore from the Giro/X double. This week could be horribly painful. But having just finished L&B I'm feeling better than I did before the workout. Giro rest day might have helped but so did the slow balancy movements of L&B. The first few legs sets were hard. I did worse on them than ever. Then I began to loosen up and finished feeling good. I did, however, also benefit from a rest day over in Italy.

Tony had a great line that's cut out because, well, it's not all that PC. Halfway through he's fired up and says, "This is not #$%(. This is something serious." Unfortunately, I'm not at liberty to disclose what it was but it was classic Tony. I hear, though I've never actually asked him, that he came to LA to do stand up. The guy is funny; no doubt about that. But, as is the case with many comdeians, his material is far more suited to a comedy club than family home video. Rehearsals with Tony are a non-stop stream of politically incorrect observations. One of our crew members, Stef, kept saying "wow" at the audacity of some of these. Finally, he made a cue card that just said "wow" whenever Tony was walking the line with a joke. He even used it during the real shoot. I think the only place you might get hear some lines like this are in his "One on One" workouts, if they get released.

No Pain No Gain

This morning I'm extremely sore. It's a good sore--the kind of blissful all over soreness that comes from a big day out. The problem; I had no big day out. The old no pain no gain adage is a misnomer for most aspects of training. But the adaptive phase always causes soreness. Working through this phase is the hardest thing for people trying to change their body composition. They hear that exercise will make them feel better. During adaptation you feel worse, which often forces the uninitiated to quit. Unfortunately I'm not adapting as quickly as I'd hoped. Fortunately, I've been through it so much that I actually like it.

Looking ahead at the race and other summer projects seemed absurd yesterday as I struggled on the friggin' approach trail. Then I did three routes in the sun and pretty much melted (nothing melts you like granite cracks off the couch in the direct sun). The skin on both my hands and feet were so bad that I could barely stand. They recovered enough for an easy spin later and a couple of dog walks but it was a slap in the face on how far I've slipped. Hopefully, my years of experience will make this adjustment happen quickly. But as has been my war cry all this year goes, it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Week one of the virtual Giro was "easy". Not a single hard ride. Yet each day I'm sore from my one hour or so spin around town. 90X has still been abridged. I'm back to about 3/4 workouts. Certainly not recovered from my surgery--and this certainly is why I'm not recovering as well as I should--but it's making progress daily so I don't think I'm overdoing it. Therefore, I'm ramping up on all fronts. Yesterday's issue were certainly exacerbated by the hot weather. It was my first day in the heat this year and my first time climbing since I got married. All providing myself with a fine array of excuses for this morning's pathetic hobbling. But still...

Week two I move to 25% of the Giro stages and 50% of the climbing. This means big days on the bike next weekend. 90X will get back to 100%. And after yesterday's "successful" climbing trial I can now throw a little of that back into the mix. It's a lot of stuff but I badly need the latter if for no other reason than to condition my hands and feet. Skin training should not be underestimated. In long mountain adventures it's often the key to success or failure.

pic: The Giro is the most beautiful bike race. Star of the first week, Riccardo "Il Cobra" Ricco, shadows last year's winner Danilo "The Killer" Di Luca. The Killer's form was suspect coming in but he's looking the best of all the favorites, save Ricco. But Il Cobra is untested and young and all the big time trials and mountains loom. Astana's big three, Contador, Kloden, Leipheimer are all quitely gaining form and biding their time until the first TT. Look for a huge shake up on Tuesday.

Doubles

While I was concocting the doubles routine for the 90X book Tony asked, somewhat rhetorically, "does it really do you any good to train longer than an hour or so?" He was hesitant about adding a doubles segment to something so intense and it was a good question. For most situations you can't benefit much from training more than an hour a day at all out intensity. In almost every case you can come up doing one workout well is far more effective than compromising two workouts. And if workout one is hard enough than compromising workout two is inevitable. So why did we do it?

There are, basically, two scenarios where adding a second workout can be beneficial. Both have caveats attached to them. One is to improve your body's ability to utilize stored fat for fuel. The second is to train for specifically for an endurance sport. Since 90x is designed to train for endurance sports (it's better used as an off-season conditioning program) we added it for the former.

While we were designing 90X I was running groups of our members through various programs using our existing workout programs: Power 90, Pour Half Hour, Slim in 6, Slim Series, and a few other odds and ends. During these "test groups" we found a scenario where most of our members, at one point or another, could benefit from a phase of training designed around improving fat mobilization. But keep in mind that they earned it by maxing the regular program the first time. For most people, adding doubles to the X won't be beneficial until you've gotten so good at it that you adapt very quickly. So most people don't need doubles. They should be earned by plateauing on a program first.

It's the type of training a lot of highly trained athletes will try when they need to lose weight. It's done by, essentially, adding an aerobic workout (low intensity consistant output that's always under one's AT) to a training program. This session is best done after a period of fasting (such as in the morning) when the body is low on stored glycogen. There are other ways to accomplish this as well. Cyclists will often do intense sessions sans nutrition to force the issue. While effective it's a bit more dangerous. Our version is easier and safer. The only danger is that some muscle mass will be compromised unless the diet is perfect. Doing doulbles one must always be willing to lose a little size for a trade off of building a better engine for more intense training later.

For myself, I'm doing it for sports specific training. All of my objectives are in the endurance realm. If I don't ride, run, or climb than I won't have the specific strength to do these things no matter how strong my engine is. In theory, I should only do X in the off-season. But my seasons are weird, and different each year. Right now I need build some aerobic base and I can't run, hence the virtual Giro. And while I'll certainly compromise some strength gains by adding this I need some long days to get ready for long days. One thing about training an hour intensely is that it doesn't get you ready for doing 12-24 or more straight hours of intensity. And that's what I'm ultimately training for.

pic: Romney learning the art of drafting on stage 2 of our "giro".

Virtual Giro

In spite of my precarious situation I began my virtual Giro yesterday. What this includes is riding each day of the Giro that the riders ride. This means I'll be on my bike each day but two over the next three weeks. Romney and Reed have both joined in and I imagine will put their own spin on it. My rules are as follows:

Each day I must ride a minimum of 10% of the race distance or time.
I do a time trial on TT days.
I climb on climbing days.
I ride each of my bikes at least one day per week (road, CX, fixie, SS, 69er).

If I can finish this and make progress through it will build some base for my objectives during the latter half of the year. 10% doesn't sound like much but given I can barely ride at all I'll be happy with it. Plus, this is my "second" workout of the day. Plus, as soon as I can run I have to start doing some preparation. I wanted to make it harder but after day one I'm going to be happy to just finish this.

Day One - rode a time trial up Emigration from the zoo. 36 minutes. Pathetic, yes, but I'm also super sore today and was too tired last night to ride to bike film festival. Regardless, it felt nice to be out on my bike. I'm very much looking forward to the rest of it.

The Giro course is brutal this year. I wish I had more time to do a better mimick. There are no big climbs until stage 7 so I've got a few days to get my legs going. The last week is absurd. I'm psyched to concoct some big circuits here in the mountains. Since I've never timed myself up Emigration I have no idea how much time I'll shave off but I'm thinking it will be a lot. We'll see. Right now I've just got to stay healthy and get on my bike.

Of course the US doesn't cover the Giro too well anymore. This is a shame since it, for sure, has the best field of this year's grand tours. It's going to be an epic race. Cycling TV on the web has daily live coverage for $30. Rai sport has free daily coverage on the web in Italian. The race seems more appropriate this way anyway. Check out:

http://www.cyclingfans.com/

for daily live streaming coverage and cyclingnews.com and velonews.com for more in depth info.

Now off to ride my bike.

Abridged Workouts

While my recovery is going a little slower than I'd hoped the design of the P90X workouts has made it easy to continue with my program. I won't be making the same progress but I'm not sliding backwards either. I'd never done abridged X worouts (except yoga) and hadn't even really thought about it since we have so many shorter workouts to choose from. But every workout in the X rotate is set up so that it works well if you can only do it in parts.

This is particularly true with the focused body part resistance workouts. I've been warming up, doing half of the sets, then doing the cool down. It's plenty of training. It ain't X, but no one is wasting away doing this many sets on the given body part. Since the more cario intensive workouts have an intensity over time component they are less effective when abridged--more like maintenance work.

All in all, my two week off period has me in a similar fitness state to where I left off. I'd be exstatic about this if I could jump back in full bore but I don't think I've recovered enough yet. Hey, wasn't I supposed to start doubles tomorrow?

pic: bikes clean and ready for simulated Giro. Am I?

Good Pain vs Bad Pain

With new clients it's generally a challenge teaching them to sort out good pain from bad. Good pain is the type associated with "no pain, no gain," while bad pain is more associated with "no pain, no brain." The former is the type that exercise induces that is your muscles and cardiovascular system working against the forces of your workout. The latter is bone, joint, connective tissue or other signs your body is giving you that you're doing something harmful to it. It's often not easy to sort out the difference. To max your body's potential you need the ability to fight through pain, but if you fight through the wrong kind of pain you'll never be able to reach your potential.

New clients often think that the standard soreness from a hard session is the sign of an injury. Conversly, seasoned athletes tend to feel that they can ignore and fight through anything with enough willpower. This often leads beginners to give up training altogether and athletes to be chronically injured or, only slightly better--to spend most of their careers in a state of being overtrained.

How hard is it to get right? Well, I've been around this block a bit and I often can't tell. Part of it is from sheer manicness. If I can't exercise I'm a bad person to be around. My doctor recognized this straight away, telling me "you're going to f@$% this recovery up, aren't you?" And in spite of his warning and my own knowledge, I'm probably bordering on pushing too far. I've regressed a bit in the last two days. It may be a normal part of the recovery but I had just inceased my exercise level as well, so I'll blame myself. Today I'm back to icing and sitting in front of a computer.

There's a saying amongst the endurance athletes that goes "it's better to be 25% undertrained than 1% overtrained." This is because 1% overtrained means injured, or at least a state of cumulative microtrauma. It means that you can't train or can't compete, productively. It means that racing someone 25% undertrained will be frustrating because they will have their emergency fibers ready for use while yours are extinguished. And then you'll be racing someone that you know damn well hasn't put the work in that you have, and they will beat you. This is a horrible feeling. It happens all the time.

I always tell myself that if I don't feel like training then I shouldn't. I try my best to stick to this rule; I still often fail. I just had a surgery. I hurt. But it's beautiful out. My bikes are all clean and beggin me to ride them. And I want to. I want to bad. But I'm not going to. I'm going to sit here and ice and work and read and maybe watch a movie. I'm not going to ride. And making myself do that hurts a lot more than any pain I'd face on the bike.

pic: good pain: the only thing more painful than time trialing is not time trialing.

Block II

After a recovery week of dog hikes and a few sun salutations I'm moving well enough to begin my second block of training. Today I'll ride--not for too long--for the first time in a while, which will hopefully allow me to line up virtually with the start of the Giro on May 10th. In prep for Speedgoat, some big rides and climbs I've got planned for the summer/fall, block II begins with some extra focus. In spite of the forced time off block I was successful in that my overall body condition has improved a lot. I've gained some size (probably more than I want)--enough that some of my shirts are much tighter--and evert aspect of my fitness has improved. On to block II.

This block will have a lot of double days as riding, running, and climbing will get into the mix. But the main focus will still be on the X workouts. Since block three will be even more sports specific, II will look more like a traditional block III. It's four weeks long, which is mainly because week one is going to be abridged. Rather than using different workouts to ease back in, I'll stay with X workouts and abridge them each day and only do enough as my body allows. Since most of these are repetitive circuits it's pretty simple to do this.

Here's the plan for the next for weeks. X only--sports training will vary and I'll list this plan later as I'm actually able to do some running, which I still can't.

Week 5

M - Chest, Shoulders, Tris & ARX
T - Cardio X
W - Back & Bis, ARX
T - Yoga X
F - Legs & Back
S,S - outside stuff--begin Giro simulation (more on this later but Sat begins virtual Giro--fun fun)

Week 6

M - Chest & Back, ARX
T - Plyo
W - Shoulders & Arms, ARX
T - Yoga X
F - Legs & Back, ARX
S,S - outside stuff--begin Giro simulation (more on this later)

Week 7

M - Chest, Shoulders, Tris & ARX
T - Plyo
W - Back & Bis, ARX
T - Yoga X
F - Legs & Back
S,S - outside stuff--begin Giro simulation (more on this later)

Week 8

M - Chest & Back, ARX
T - Plyo
W - Shoulders & Arms, ARX
T - Yoga X
F - Legs & Back, ARX
S,S - outside stuff--begin Giro simulation (more on this later)

Week 9

M - Core Syn
T - Yoga X
W - X Stretch
T - Core Syn
F - Yoga X
S,S - outside stuff--begin Giro simulation (more on this later)

Periodizational Dieting

Answering a question on the boards this morning I realized that I haven't talked about the P90X diet yet. This is because I haven't addressed my own diet yet at all either. I eat okay most of the time but my diet varies drastically over the year as I train for different sports and events. The bottom line is that you should always eat for what you are doing. Since most of us don't do the same things every day it doesn't make sense to eat the same foods every day.

Periodizational training has been around for a long time and most people are sold on the fact that it's the most effective way to train. You can periodize different ways but the objective is the same: to train one energy system at a time until it plateaus and then move to the next one in a way the reduces the plateau and keeps the perfromance curve moving skyward. The schedule generaly depends upon your goals. A periodized training program can be a few weeks or an entire year. Most fall somewhere in between.

"Training" your diet works the same way. The most famous phase-oriented dieters are bodybuilders but most athletes do some form of it, either planned or serendipitious. The 90X diet is just one plan that was written with our clients and this program in mind. It's not perfect for everyone but every one can use its aspects to suit their needs. Because we don't all have the same level of fitness, goals, or agenda it's impossible to write one diet that works for every single person. With X we used the most generally effective system that had worked for the largest group of our client population. There is leaniency written in, especially in regards to how long to stay in each phase.

A periodized diet, like an training program, targets different areas in each phase. With new clients I generally follow the same path. First reduce carbs until your energy stalls out, then add carbs back in until your energy peaks, and then adjust the amounts of carbs you eat based on exercise. Within the simple plans there are many variables, from obvious ones like reducing junk foods and ensuring you are getting enough nutrients from proper foods to the more subtle, like balancing weight gain/loss with performance goals. No matter what the end goal the phases attempt to work towards that goal an efficient manner. The general path is to establish a good nutrient base, target this towards a desired weight, then get the most performance out of the body at the given weight for the desired goal.

I'll talk more specifically about the X diet, and about my own diet for my upcoming goals, as the program moves along. It will all follow the above principles.

More Time Off

The changing status of my health care forced me to undergo a minor procedure prior to the end of the month, which will cause another set-back in the program. This offers up a few interesting challenges, the primary being that Speedgoat is now less than three months away and I'll probably have no real training for the event until its two months away. Matching last year's effort could be a little tricky. So I've got about a week of nothing, followed by a week of creeping back towards X intensity. Two weeks will require a little planning.

In a week off or less you don't actually lose fitness. In fact, you gain fitness as your fast-twitch muscle fibers heal up. This is why athletes taper prior to competition. After a week you need to be careful jumping back into full blown workouts because of this because you do have the ability (with no lost fitness and a full store of fast-twitch and "emergency" muscle fiber to play with) to cause a ridiculous amount of breakdown. Once back in college (before I knew this; or the way I learned it, really) I had a week off and hit the gym. I couldn't believe how strong I felt--one of the exercises I remember doing was calf raises with a full stack and a 200 plus pound guy standing on the bar. I think I broke down every type II a and b (fast twitch) muscle fiber I had. For two weeks I could barely walk around campus and that over-exuberant workout definitely slowed my overall progress a lot more than than the time off. So the rule is that after close to a week off you should begin easing back into things and, certainly, should not be attempting records unless you're in a competition. And, btw, the reason why you don't usually finish a competition totally broken down is that a comp is only about max intensity and not volume, intensity, and progressive overload as a training session would be.

Anyways, I don't have that option. After a week I can ease back in depending on how my recovery is going. In general, it takes about as much time as you've had off to get back to where you were. My goal will be to do enough volume of stretching, yoga, and stabilizer muscle exercises that I don't lose much at all. I'm hoping for barely a blip in my overall progress.

However, a week lost is still a week lost and it's hard to make up with an event on the calendar. I'm going to be going into Speedgoat so undertrained that most experts would probably advise against it. I look at it as just another physical experiment--another way to alter the template, understand the body, and prove those wrong who dish out words like "impossible".

pic: last year's title in serious jeopardy

Shoulders & Arms

"12" arms don't drop nobody." - a saying used by some of my steroid/bouncer friends in college.

I began this program with a shoulder problem that's been around ever since the Hans 50,000 challenge which featured, in part, doing 10,000 push-ups. When I began that contest I could fire off push-ups as if they were nothing. When it ended I was injured and push-ups hurt my left shoulder pretty bad. Dumb? Well, yeah... but whatever. What's life without some silliness?

Since that time push-ups have been tough, even though I've fairly thoroughly rehabed my shoulder a couple of times. During my fit test I did a pathetic 30 push-ups. I once could do 100. During my first yoga session every vinyasa hurt like crazy. Now, thanks to S&A I'm feeling better. I've done 30 push-ups during one set of a workout.

S&A is not a rehab workout. Not even close. It's a ridiculous assault on some smaller muscles groups, given all those sets, that would make most physical therapists wince. So I was a little surprised that after the first time I did it my shoulder felt better and hurt less during yoga. The second session followed a chest and back workout that had my shoulder feeling tentative by the end. I had a feeling it might help with this and it did. Since that workout my shoulder pain has nearly ceased.

Rebabbing shoulders is always tricky and most athletes, especially as they age, have some shoulder issues. Rehab exercises tend to be high volume with very light weight. While essential to improve stabilizer muscle strength they are only part of the solution. In order to fully rehab your shoulders you need to get back to pushing heavy weights too, otherwise your large muscles become out of balance and big full-body movements like push-ups and pull-ups force excessive strain on the area. Since most PTs don't recommened heavy exercise I had to find this out by trial and error. This round is proving my theory correct. I'm guessing that my shoulders will be back close to full strength for the first time in years. We'll see, but basing things on my ability to do push-ups sans pain it certainly seems to be working.

I love Tony's intro where he talks about wearing tank tops as if they were invented for guys to show off their biceps. Perhaps this is true but it's also funny as hell. It's certainly true of Hollywood. We've always referred to curls as actor exercises because actors love to show off their arms when they've been in the gym. A no one I can think of moreso than The Shat. The good captain loved wearing tight-fitting clothing when he was in shape. So much so that in one press release my brother and I were reading the main comment for an episode with that Bill had been spending a lot of time in the gym and requested a scene where he take his shirt off. No wonder he got all those women. I'm fairl certain that as soon as he took off his shirt the producers allowed him to improvise his lines as well.

"You're too beautiful to ignore. Too much women."

Chest & Back

Ran into Marc and Suzanne at the dog park yesterday. Suzanne--in week 3--asked "when do you stop being sore?" Sheesh, I dunno. In most programs you adapt within a couple of weeks no matter what because that's how long it takes for your fast-twitch muscles fibers that get blow out in the first few days to fully recovery. The X is slightly different because it changes pace so often that you continually adapt over the first part of the program, meaning that you could stay sore for much longer. And then you factor in workouts where adaptation is just one aspect and trying to master it later on can tear you down even further. Case in point: Chest & Back.

Supersetting these two body parts for an hour is rugged. So much so that when I first showed this workout to my friend Bob--a guy who can knock off 60 pull-ups in a row--his comment was "I couldn't finish that". Getting used to it is only step one. Mastering it could take a long time and you'll never do it unless you're in peak condition.

Because C&B works two large muscle groups so thoroughly that there’s a huge amount of lactic acid in your system, leading to the feeling like you're about to vomit--or, many times, actually vomiting. When I was in the office I could always tell when someone was really pushing in during C&B because you’d hear them pacing around the office and trying to force enough air into their lungs to flush the lactic acid bath that was attempting to extract their lunch.

SCENE VII: INT BEACHBODY OFFICE

STEVE EDWARDS, Beachbody’s Director of Results, sits in his office typing on his computer. In the background, we hear a door open punctuated by two men hyperventilating. We hear this sound get louder as one of them approaches STEVE’S office. KIP MARTIN, actor/BB marketing dude/Clark Kent look-alike passes STEVE’S doorway waving his arms in a ballistic stretch referred to as huggers, desperately trying to control his heaving chest. STEVE smiles, knowingly.

STEVE

Chest & Back day, huh?

A beat, with more breathing, as KIP moves up and down the hall. He seems to get control of himself, enters STEVE’S office, where he doubles over, hands to knees.

KIP

Killer session. That workout is intense—

KIP shudders somewhat violently, and then moves towards that door.

Back in a minute!

KIP runs out the door towards the men’s room.

CLOSE UP: STEVE sitting at his desk, smiling and nodding.

FADE OUT

Pic: climbing in Mexico about a decade ago. My back will look like this again soon.

Finally An Event To Train For

This weekend I dropped my application in the mail and am now official entered in something this year. It's one of the most difficult races on the ultra calendar. While short, for an ultra, it's the most difficult course profile there is--last year it had over 24,000' of elevation change in just under 30 miles. Here's my race report.

Wasatch Speedgoat 50k

This should be an interesting experiment. Last year I'd been doing a lot of running--well, run, hike, long mountain adventures anyway. This year I've done almost none. Not a single "run". Quite a few dog hikes. Not one long day in the mountains. I have almost exactly three months to train.

My training will start slow. Like I stated earlier in this program I don't always heed my own advice. Here's an old post from a runner doing Power 90. I tell him to stop running for a while. He reluctantly does and his times improve when he starts again. As for me, my legs are feeling good and I don't want to slow this progress. So I'm going to resist the temptation to start pounding right away and ease into this slowly so this will also serve as a "Running and P90X" example.

I'm easing into the diet too (I always eat okay, btw). When are we getting those beers?

Reboot

I get asked questions all the time about how to get back on a program when you've missed some days. The answer is always different but the one thing it generally has in common is not to overdo it trying to get back in a hurry. Of course, I don't always listen to my own advice. I've missed the last 5 days of training because I've been moving, cleaning, getting my old house ready to rent, keeping up on work, trying to keep the dogs' legs stetched, etc. It doesn't feel like I haven't been training because I'm more tired than I was before it started. Still, fitness feels like it's slipping 'causing me to tell Reed that I'm thinking of doing double days to catch up. "Didn't I read that if you miss a few days you should not try and catch up but just pick up the program as if you hadn't missed any workouts," he said knowing that I'd written it in the guide. Right, I should take my own advice sometime.

So in deciding that I'll listen to myself I'm jumping right back in. What I will change is that I'll consider this week a bit of a recovery week (though I don't feel very recovered at all) and go for three hard weeks before my next transition week. The transition (or recovery as they're called) weeks in P90X can always be altered a bit because the adaptive and growth phase of each block might take anywhere between 3 and about 6 or 7 weeks depending on one's fitness state and the intensity of each workout. Since 90X was meant to be extreme we kept the blocks short. People not in peak fitness could extend them until they begin to plateau. I have no risk of plateau-ing any time soon. Right now it's all about adaptation.

pic: marriage eiger art: our newly-framed kleine sheidegg retro print looking for a home

Yogi Tony

It seems pathetic that I'm more sore after yoga than any other workout. I've done yoga, off and on, for more than 20 years but never enough to get good at it. This round I'm coming off as long a break as ever and it's silly just how bad I am. I mean, it's great, too. During every session I ask myself why ever don't do yoga because it feels so good. A also tell myself it's hard and that I'll never get any good at it. My main problem is that it's boring. I'd rather be outside climbing, riding, exploring. But yoga makes those things easier, so I'm pretty committed to getting on a more regular schedule. Day two and I've already made progress but have a long long way to go.

It's not exactly an excuse but I find myself falling out of postures because I'll laugh. Not at the dvd, but at the recollection of Tony's test group sessions. Tony loves yoga, does it religiously, and is a good teacher. But he also played football and enjoys competition. He can't help this from coming through in his style. In the final vidoes we edited him a bit and he also knew to tone it done on camera--still, he can't help using words like "fight" that you don't normally associate with yoga. With the test group, however, yogi Tony was more like drill instructor Tony. Some of the original test group yoga sessions were like a skit on SNL.

"Cohen, you miserable piece of @#%! You call that a @#$%*-ing downward dog?!" is one of my favorites but there were plenty of them. I would usually do the original workouts right after they'd film them and we'd make adjustments as necessary. The only adjustments to the yoga routine that I vividly recall is the elimination of stuff that had me laughing most of the way through it.

I once told Tony we should consider a yoga studio aimed at a male audience. Instead of peace and mediation we'd get aggro, berate clients, kick them out of class for performing poorly... like real sports.

Why is this funny? I love ironic behavior, especially in an extreme sense. Some of my favorite coaches were the ones that could balance teaching with crazy behavior, like Bobby Knight and, unfortunately, they're being weeded out in our politically correct society. I learned a lot playing for people like this. It's not fun when you're the one being targeted but you always knew that it wasn't personal--just your turn. One of my favorite examples is from coach Maz at Mt.SAC. He'd had enough of one player, calls timeout, and runs onto the field screming, "...you're fat. You're fat, and you're slow. You're fat, you're slow (a beat), and you're a disgrace to baseball! Get off the field!" He then follows him to the dugout kicking dirt at him like Billy Martin used to do to umpires before that, too, was declared poor form. I miss that stuff. It gave the games personality. I guess I'm like Paul Newman's character in Slap Shot when he's screaming at the ref for calling a penalty, "what are you running here, a goddamned dance floor? This is hockey!"

Anyways, that guy wasn't really fat. He was a college athlete. I'm not fat either. But that doesn't stop the screaming in my head as I'm falling out of Warrior III from blaring, "Edwards, you're fat. You're fat, and you have no balance. You're fat, lack balance, and are a disgrace to yoga. Get off the mat!"

pic: the kids in their favorite pose: savasana.

Before And...

I posted my fit test and before pic already but here are some others. Reed has the most upside--though I haven't actually seen if Marc's gained all the weight he says he has--in terms of a traditional before/after. Always a big guy, Reed was probably one of the better climbers in the world who consistantly weighed over 200 pounds. He got down to 185 for one season, which is still heavy for a 6' climber, and was an absolute beast. If he ever rode his bike at the weight it'd be ridiculous. Right now he's tipping that scales north of 230. I think we'll see some changes. Here's his blog, which will also come with a lot of cool biking pics:

Reed's Blog

Romney took her fit test last night and if I posted a before pic she'd kill me (posting one anyway that I'm gambling she won't kill me for--snatching with the Joneses). However, she looks fine and, as you'll see, isn't all that un-fit. Still, we expect some improvement. She won't be doing X but filling X workouts in around her Gym Jones sessions (not exactly a drop-off in intensity--check their site), which are going to focus on rehabbing some knee issue that we really need to MRI but don't have the excess money to pay her current deductable b/c we just bought a new house, etc (insert insurance rant here).

Here are her stats:

Pull-ups: 6
Vertical: 10.5"
Push-ups: 32
Wall Squat: 2:36
Flex: + 3.5
In and Outs: 125
Curls: 21 @ 15lbs
HR: 155, 120, 80(?), 80(?)- we (again) didn't use a monitor so this will be more accurate later on.

Scott didn't send his but he looks thin and I'm sure his improvements will be mainly performance based.

Here's a note for Marc. Please note the our version of "foul shape" means only foul shape for athletic people who are used to being in great shape:

we've been lax due to work, laziness and generalized apathy, but we finally did our fit tests:

measurements: we're big where we shouldn't be and small where we shouldn't be.
weight: heavier than usual (me=a lot heavier, think big fat fuck; do my shoes match?)
fat calipers: utilizing visual analysis and poking and pinching, it's clear that we're gooey! before pics: would be an afront to god and all others who would lay eyes upon them.

resting heartrate: after a night of eating way too much thai and waking up to a lot of coffee: suzanne's=58, mine=62

pull-ups: by default, they were weighted; suzanne=10, me=12

vertical leap: suzanne=14", me=14"

push-ups: knees for suzanne=30, regular for me=30

toe touch: suzanne=+2.5", me=+4.5" (note: i'm +6 ape, long waist and short legs, so this is not an indication of supior flexibilty, but rather of freakish proportions)

wall squat: suzanne=80", me=70"

biceps curls: suzanne with 20lbs=52, me with 30lbs=24 (who wears the pants in this family?)

ins and outs: suzanne=45, me=61 (just stopped out of boredom after losing count at 61, albeit i felt it minutes later)

heart rate maximizer: suzanne: 154, 108, 90, 84, 82, me= (first time, due to inaccurate determination of max) 135, 94, 88, 85, 84 and second time: 120, 88, 80, 84, 84

we're in foul shape!

we start the p90x tomorrow and will stick with schedule prescribed by the guide, allowing for riding days for both of us, climbing days for suzanne and unicycling days for me (by saying allowing for, i mean that we will attempt these activities in spite of having our big fat asses handed to us 6 days a week). we commute by bike (single speed 42x18 for suzanne and fixed 45x17 for me) to the u via wasatch (6 miles door to door) at least 5 days week (except for the past 6 months which has been
more like 2 times every six months) and we walk the dogs at red butte or tanner every day for an hour (we haven't slacked here, but this is the first time in my life i would consider it exercise).

so that's it for now, we're depressed, going into work and then taking the dogs out and then not eating a lot of thai food! thanks for the motivation and good luck with the move and your program.

wait, tomorrow is chest and back, ab ripper x.

peace,

marc

The Test Group

Doing these videos again has reminded me of our test group. No matter how fit you are, 90x will find your weakness and exploit it. We auditioned pretty much every hot shot fitness person and trainer in LA and ended up casting either Tony's friends (who train with him regularly) or members of our test group who up until that time had little fitness training. It was a great testament to how the X works. Tony and I were talking about this as one "famous" trainer and another was getting out performed by some regular Joe whose only advantage was that they'd just finished three months of the program they were auditioning for, "It takes you out of your wheelhouse and exploits your weaknesses, no matter who you are," he said.

I should add that I auditioned too and was one of the latter, which I only did because Tony asked me to. But when my time came around I was in the midst of week 2 and so sore that I could barely wash my hair, much less ace a fit test. I was in such a state of breakdown that I had no clue how long it would last. I was fit; having just finished a full bike racing/multi-sport season. But fit meant nothing. I was out of my wheelhouse and so sore that I could barely walk. "You gonna be ready in a few weeks?" Tony asked. "I have no idea," was my reply. "We should just cast test group people."

I did get better. A couple of months later I did one of my hardest birthday challenges that combined my usual endurance activity with heaps of pull-ups, push-ups, and other assorted anaerobic stuff. The X was perfect training for it.

Our little test group is filled with athletes. It's going to be fun to see how we come out of it. Marc and Suzanne are climbers (though Marc claims he's finished with it; Suzanne is still climbing very hard) and Marc is a cyclist. Reed is one of my closest friends, an ex-climber who pretty much now just rides his bike. Sk-hawt is an ex-national level cyclist. Romney is going to join in at some point in some way, most likely with a combination of X and Gym Jones. Another Jonesian, Erica, just broke her leg skiing and may join us during her rehab phase. Lisa's friends Dan and Elizabeth may also join the thread. On my suggestion they started a month ago, are now in tip top form, and "Tony Horton fanatics". Dan is another ex-climber who is talking about starting again and Elizabeth "can see back muscle for the first time in my life."

I was going to post fit tests today but will do it later so this doesn't run too long. Plyo today; fun, fun, fun....

above pic: on my way to 430 pull-ups at Gold's Gym in Venice, just a sliver of the agenda of Challenge 03.

Plyometrics

This workout reminds me of basketball practice. Since I haven't practiced basketball since, like, college it stands to reason that I'm pretty sore this morning. I actually did quite well. I was dizzy a few times but not alarmingly so and kept up with everyone, which I can't say for any of the other workouts yet. I even thought, for a minute post-workout, that I might not be too sore but later on in the evening I began feeling heavy and getting out of bed this morning wasn't particularly easy. Paying dues is always fun.

I had a couple of thoughts during my session. First was that maybe this is why I added both a basketball and baseball element to my challenge in 03. I mean, I played baseball for many years, and even in college, but never really liked it that much. But it's always nice to see that you still have it to some degree and those pitching movements probably got me thinking of that.

I also thought of Leigh Miller who used to work at Beachbody. He was similar to me in that he had a lot of oddly varying interests that didn't seem to relate to each other, which meant that we related very well. We did a lot of the 90x workouts to test them as they were being designed, including Plyo for the first time. We hadn't shot any video so we'd do them off of Tony's proposed work sheets and had to try and figure out each move. We didn't always get them right and often made the workouts even harder. He also had this really cool and funny picture on his desk of he and his fiance that was similar to this pic of my wife and I. I thought the pic showed a special connection between them and was envious he'd found someone like that. I know it shows a special connection between us; and now I know that I was right to be envious. I haven't heard from Leigh in a while but am sure he's doing great. He's the type who will always do great.



Anyways, I love Tony's introduction to Plyo where he distills the meaning of plyometric exercise into "jumping." Well, yeah. But a slightly more scientific reason of why plyometric training is helpful is that it eccentrically forces the stretching of a muscle prior to its concentric action. This action causes is high level of muscle cell motor unit recruitment. This recruitment action is what determinds a muscle's effeciency, or the absolute strength of a given muscle, and is absolutely vital for sports performance. Without any type of plyometric training it's impossible to reach your body's potential for performance.

Things Are Startin' To Happen

Week 1 is finished. As I stated, it was a transition week and not really a week of X. I'm sore. Really sore. Christ, I was sore after yoga. It's not too surprising given that I have a fair amount of fast-twitch muscle fiber which breaks down quickly and recovers slowly. I knew I'd be sore but still...and with Chest/Back on the horizon, followed by Plyo, it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

On the positive side having done the workouts before I'm adapting pretty quickly. Also, I'd never done the final 90x dvds as I'd always worked off of my demo tapes from the test group. The final workouts are better but also just a bit easier because we've perfected the pauses between sets. The original test group was four people, which myself or Mason on occasional fifth. Tony would go at the pace of the group and we later figured, after the large test group, what the best rest for everyone would be. Anyway, this helped me adapt quicker, use better form, and will lead to more rapid improvement. Once you get good you can always go faster, so the slower pace is generally better.

Marc and Suzanne just mailed in their fit test stats. Reed is still in Hawaii but gets back today, I think. Romney wants in, too, at least in combo with her Gym Jones stuff. With Sk-hawt also beginning, looks like our party is now 6 strong. No problem with that.

The title is a reference to one of Tony's lines in Power 90. We make fun of him--can't take this all too serious can we?--whenever possible, all in good fun. My brother was the first to bring that line up because he says it at one of the few times nothing is really going on, which, for some reason, has amused me and my friends greatly over the years so much that we use this line constantly when nothing is going on. I'll use more of these throughout this program when I have nothing else to write about. However, it's not all that appropriate right now because I'm awfully sore and stiff and something is, indeed, startin' to happen.

90X Schedule For April

April is going to be a busy month. We're moving, which also involves getting both of our houses ready for rent and renting mine (Romney's is rented). This act involves purging a lot of stuff, purchasing some new stuff, and lots of yard work. Tuco's a little bitter about our lack of outside time but at least we're moving right next to the "best dog park in the Western US", which puts it in the running for best dog park worldwide, which is actually just an open space area with my wife to thank for the access (one of her gigs as the mayor's environmental advisor). Anyways, my point of the qualifier is that I'm only designing the first block of 90X to get me through the transitory month.

Like I said yesterday, we're starting off with a transition week. Then we get down to business--though, as Xers know, transition/recovery weeks often seem harder than the business weeks. The only goal this month is to finish it. Baby steps.

You may notice a switch back and forth between the Classic and Lean routines. This is to give a few atrophied areas (I lost a lot of muscle in India) a bit more recovery time and also put less strain on connective tissues. This is not the best plan for a grow curve if I were fit but it's a good compromise. I will also, most certainly, be doing some riding, running, and climbing as well which has been considered when planning for breakdown/recovery factor. Training beyond your ability to recover is silly, not to mention un-productive.

Week 1

T - UML
W - Yoga X
T - Core Synergistics
F - Cardio X
S - UML

Week 2

M - Chest & Back, ARX
T - Plyo
W - Shoulders & Arms, ARX
T - Yoga X
F - Legs & Back
S - Cardio X + something outside

Week 3

M - Core Syn
T - Cardio X
W - Legs & Back
T - Yoga X
F - Shoulders & Arms, ARX

Week 4

M - Chest & Back, ARX
T - Plyo
W - Shoulders & Arms, ARX
T - Yoga X
F - Legs & Back
S - Cardio X + something outside

Day One

So my day 1 P90X workout was... The UML! I know, it's a Master Series workout but I'm waiting for my friends, who can't start til next week, plus I'm still sore from the Fit Test. The UML was enough. In fact, the entire first week is going to be a transition week much like the recover weeks during the program. I'll get less sore this way and be able to go harder when I hit things like Chest and Back. Christ, I didn't make it through all of the UML moves without stopping. Pathetic.

Still working on the schedule. It will be ammended anyway but I'm mainly having trouble because I just don't know what I'm training for. Got an email from my friend Mike who signed up for some weird hike, ski, run, ride, kayak race because he needs "an eye opener" in order to get focused. I generally work like this, too. I just need to find something that I really want to do. General bike racing, running races, or climbing aren't holding much interest at the moment. I'm thinking some speed ascents in the mountains may be in order. Anyway, I'm uber busy for the next month so I've got some forced time to mull it over.

My before pic was taken last week by my wife in Zurich. It hides how un-fit I actually am. And that's right, I said wife. The girl whom was until now--and still for that matter--is most often referred to as Romney on this blog. We eloped in Switzerland last week-ish (actual date the spring equinox) and have been letting the news trickle out. Having never been married, or even engaged, I can't say it's a shock. It feels perfectly natural, which I'm sure is all due to her.

Now that we've got that out of the way I can get back to the silly business of training. My wife, incidentally, trains with Twight et al over at Gym Jones. Go Romney! For those wanting to stay abreast of my romantic goings on, we have our own web site, that's only partially political:

Romney Edwards 2008: For A Better America

Back with my 90X training schedule tomorrow.

Our Party Is Now Three Strong...

No problem with that.

You ever notice how bad guys in macho action movies are pretty much just into bad stuff, no matter who it happens to? One of my favorite examples is in the film, Point Break (no one beats Swayze for unintentional comedy), when Swayze's character (incidentally, named Bodhi, as in The Bodhisaatva, or the enlightened one, for someone who robs banks, kills people, creates general mayhem--genius) lands in Mexico after a botched banks job. The guy on his team is supposed to pick up the entire gang but he doesn't even inquire about where the rest of the guys are. He and Swayze simply high five, utter some gutteral cretin yelp associated in action films (spring break parties, etc) with male coolness, and drive off into the sunset. "All our friends and colleagues were just killed. Woo-hoo. Doesn't get any better than that. High five!"

The title of this blog is from another film, Drop Zone. Gary Busey's character learns that one of his team has been identified and decided to take him out, which no one else on the team knows. During a jump he runs the guy into some electric wires, which you'd think would seem strange to the rest of their team. But, no. Upon landing they all whoop and high five, and don't even bother inquiring about why they'd eliminate one of their own. Busey then utters, "Our sky diving party is now four strong. No problem with that!" To which they all whoop and high five some more.

Soon after seeing this a group of us were bouldering when one of our group sprains his ankle after falling off a highball boulder problem. Our initial response is to help but one of us realizes how we'd behave if we were cool, turns to intercept us and proclaims, "Our bouldering party is now 3 strong. No problem with that." We all high five, walk to the next problem, and leave our (ex) buddy writhing on the ground in pain.

Macho-ness rocks.

Anyways, we now have three people doing this little round of P90X. All of us are cyclists and ex-climbers--I being the least ex of the bunch. So as I concoct this schedule it will accomodate some riding and, most likely, some climbing.

No problem with that. High five.

My P90X Journey

This isn't going to be a before and after success story but, since I'm about to begin a round of P90x I thought I'd re-record a little history of this project as I am one of only a few people who've seen it from its humble start to becoming the number one fitness program in the country. There used to be an online "scrap book" about its formation but it's been down for a few years. My account will be different, anyways (feeling a bit Deadwood-ish with this 'anyways' insert), since my involvement was more behind the scenes and technical. If you check in over the next 90 days I'll shed some light on its evolution. Besides an account of my suffering as I get back into proper birthday challenge shape, I'll recount a few yarns about the story of P90x. You'll learn a bit about why 90x was formed, why it works the way it does, and some of the stumbling blocks we overcame along the way.

Once again I find myself in terrible shape (this is relative, of course). I have some personal info that will serve as an excuse when it's announced but, excuses or not, this is a pattern that I often fall in to. It's really by choice to a degree. I enjoy the journey of getting back into shape. I also find recovery/rest/lazy phases important for not just body recovery but for mental stimulation as well. Without motivation all endeavors are compromised. My post challenge fallout generally begins feeling listless and ends when my motivation comes back. This year, it's a been a bit longer than normal.

This time, however, I have no huge objective to train for. This mean that my latest round of the X will be less abridged to accommodate my sports specific training than usual. I generally have a huge amount of outside training that I need to do, which changes the X routine. For example, here's my X schedule training for my 2003 birthday challenge:

P90x Training Schedule

This year I'm quite busy so I'm going to focus on recovery, overall body conditioning, and rehab to build myself back up to doing some bigger challenges next year. I still have some nagging injuries from last year's little epics. I have some arthritis in both my hands and feet--common for climbers/untrarunners etc. I have other issues in one knee and one foot. But both are more chronic than acute (though my December "ankle"--actually foot--sprain was worse than I'd originally thought). Anyways (really, if they can say this all the time in a show that wins heaps of writing awards...), the cure for nagging injuiries is to get your body into tip top condition. The fitter you are the more you resist breakdown. Doing sports all the time creates overuse and you become out of balance, muscularly. An intense program like the X brings everything back into balance, or homeostasis. And this gives you more capacity to thrash your body in whatever endeavors you pick up next.

So, okay, that's enough for today. I've a lot to do. I'm going to take before and after photos, which is something that I never do. Frankly, they won't look like too much. I'm out of shape but hardly fat--though I call myself fat constantly. What's really going to change is my performance. This will be huge. So I'm going to subject myself to a fit test today. Ohhhh, and it's going to suck. Bad. I can't believe that just a few months ago I was fit enough to do this:

2007 Birthday Challenge

Don't just train hard; train smart.
Steve

Fit Test

I knew this was going to be ugly as I'm about as un-fit as I've been in some time. Not fat or overweight but, decidedly, not fit. I'm going to post a before pic this week but nothing is going to do this program justice like the test I just took. Here are the vitals.

I almost never weigh myself and don't have a scale so that didn't happen. Frankly, I don't care. Ditto for body fat %. Those scales are wrong anyway. They only matter to tell you if you're going up or down, which you can also tell by pinching your fat areas. I don't expect--nor want it to--my weight to change much. I do expect my body fat to go down. It will. I don't need any stats.

Next up, pull-ups.

15, pretty strict. A bit of swing but no kip. Target at end: 30

Vertical leap, 18". Don't recall measuring this since high school when it was about 30". Also don't care much about it. Still, let's see if I can hit 25"

Toe touch, +4. I would think this will improve.

Push-up, 30. This is terrible. 60 is possible.

Wall squat, 2:30. Since I've never cared about such things, and still don't, I can only suppose this is awful. Doubling it seems reasonable.

Curl, 15 reps of 30 pounds. Don't do a lot of curls and don't care how many I can do.

In & outs, 45. I did this wrong and kept my upper body elevated. I remember doing over a 100 last time I tried. I supposed 120 should be my goal.

My HR was 56 when I began my warm-up. It finished the HR test at 170, counting (not monitor, which would be a bit more due to falling HR during count). Subsequent minutes at 100, 90, 75.

The worst thing is that I'll probably be sore tomorrow. Yikes.

Day 1 coming up. Tomorrow I'll post my schedule. Now I just need to write it.

Performance Enhancing Your Lifestyle

Interesting article on the wires today about doping, and how it's not just for sports but a way of American life. Here's an excerpt:

Delaware senator Joe Biden did in 2004 during a hearing on drugs in sports, "There is something simply un-American about [using PEDs]!"

But it's not un-American. It's entirely American, that search for an edge, that effort to be all you can be, that willingness to push the envelope. That's what Andy Pettitte was doing when he took HGH. That's what Debbie Clemens was doing when she took HGH. That's what male collegiate cheerleaders are doing when they bulk up on anabolic steroids so they can lift more weight, or more female cheerleaders, according to author Kate Torgovnick in her new book, Cheer! That's what a rapper is doing when he receives a package of PEDs at his hotel. That's what Schwarzenegger was doing when he loaded himself with steroids years ago. That's what Kevin and Peggy Hart are doing in the privacy of their bedroom with their HGH and their "test," now as familiar a morning ritual as tea and toast.

And here's a link to the entire article:

Steroids in America: The Real Dope

Million Dollar Body

I have a great job. I was reminded of this last week at our first annual Team Beachbody Million Dollar Body awards show. I'm not a big awards show person. I don't watch them. Don't want to go to them. And even when I've been nominated it's not really the way I like to spend my time. I'm an experience person. In Beachbody's case, a behind the scenes person. I like working with our trainers and members and watching them develop great programs and helping people change their lives. I generally consider awards shows a waste of time because the real awards have already happened.

HOWEVER...

This show was cool. I mean really friggin' cool. You'd have to be one cynical son-of-a-bitch not to be moved by the events last weekend. I've got to say that in all of my years working with health transformations it never gets old listening to our member's stories. And seeing it up in lights with some major production values was pretty amazing, especialy considering that when I began writing for Beachbody we had four employess: Carl, Jon, Heather and Heather (all still here). In fact, I met Jon approaching the venue--the Grove, bathed in spot lights--who noticed my impressed look, glanced up at the splendor, back and me, and laughed. "Who would have thought?" he said.

The awards show was just part of the event. There was also a coaches summit meeting. It was great to finally meet many of the people I've been working with virtually, many for many years. Being out of the office it was also great to see my old colleagues as well. It was cool to see how far MDB has come in just a year (now more than 5,000 coaches) and inspiring to think of ideas on how the summit could improve next year and how we can more readily get information out there to the coaches, who relay it to the world. By the end of the weekend you could see that we're more than just a small fitness company; we're a movement that could actually have a profound effect on the obesity epidemic.

I've got to add that it was also surprising to see how many people actually read this blog. Thanks! You've inspired me to try and do better with its content. I guess I'd better come up with some challenges for this year, too.

For anyone who missed it, you can watch some video at:

Million Dollar Body

I make sure and sign up for next year. I'm already looking forward to it.

See you there!

My New Hero

I don't understand retirement. Why would anyone spend their entire life figuring out what they want to do, getting better at it, and then quit?

I also don't understand slowing down, backing off, or abstaining from the things in life that make you happy. I tell this to people all the time and, generally, they react as if I'm either crazy or lying. My goal all along has been to experience life; find the things I like doing; and then doing those things until I die. Kind of like this guy who, as far as I can tell, has got it all figured out. 101 years old, working, training for races ("in my spare time"), drinking and smoking. I think I'm going to have to find myself a Pimlico Plumbers shirt. Cheers, mate.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080305/lf_nm_life/britain_marathon_dc

"My doctor told me that if I take perfect care of myself for the rest of my life, I'll get very sick and die." - Rodney Dangerfield

What Could be Cooler Than A...

Birthday Challenge?

The more I see others doing them the more I can answer "nothing". Micah's challenge this weekend was epic. But more than that--because many things qualify as epic these days--it was cool. And fun. And, I'll bet if you ask him, he'd tell you that it was rather meaningful and life altering also.

Here is a slide show from Bob's web site.

Because they're so personal, birthday challenges seem to enable each participant to break through barriers and sort out some meaning about how we amble through life like little else I've seen. Unlike sports, classes, books or self-help seminars, all of which are designed for mass participation, the personal nature of these challenges gives them a uniqueness like little else. They may be ridiculous, serious, silly or extreme but one thing they all share is that they are a reflection of the personality and dreams of an individual. And what could be cooler than that?

Here are two challenge blogs that I posted today.

Micah

Catra

above pic: Catra and friends during 43 hours of running.

Insane Eiger Speed Record

While I'm still sitting on my ass trying to figure out what this year's training objectives--other than a full knee recovery--are going to be other people are still out there gettin' after it. Like this guy. If this wasn't so out-there-friggin' fast I might be inspired. Instead, it just makes me feel fat and ineffectual. No, that's completely untrue. It's totally inspiring. But not in my usual "I can beat that" way but in a "oh-my-God! That is completely otherworldly" kind of way. This is so fast it's completely ridiculous.

Eiger Speed Record

But wait, there's more!

Skinny Fat

So I've been home for a month and am probably in the worst shape I've been in this decade. After a few weeks of nursing some post-challenge injuries I headed off to India where I managed to lose 15 pounds of muscle. This means that I weigh less than I did during my bd challenge but my body fat percentage is higher. Skinny fat; that's what I am. Same thing happened to my friends Trent and Dawn, an uber-fit couple who also shedded a lot of muscle in Nepal. You walk a lot, do pretty much no intense exercise, eat bad food, breathe polluted air, and battle dysentary. The result: skinny fat.

However, I've been back a month. Long enough to reverse this except for, well, battling some sort of Asian monkey virus that passed to Romney just as I was beating it, which has essentially kept me grounded. I'm finally healed up, completely out of excuses, and find my self with no goals for 2008 except to heal a couple of nagging injuries. Talking to the red capped cashier (thankfully no speedo though) at the Wild Oats last night got me thinking about my rumored retirement (no, damnit, I'm not old) and the words of the late Kingsley "Ned" Zissou, "What's next for Team Zissou?"

(dictated but not read)

pic - our equity partner, Ned

Early Season

"Your muscles are coming back," said Romney last night. And, sure enough, after less than a week of my first real training since my birthday challenge I'm starting to feel normal again. This week I took advantage of the upcoming end of the world and biked and climbed in absurdly warm Feb weather. The first two rides I suffered like a dog. Yesterday I'd already come up a notch and could easily turn a bigger gear. Climbing-wise, last weekend I was falling off of 5.11s that I normally warm up on. Yesterday, I one-hanged the last hard route I did in the fall (okay, not hard by any sort of standard except my current one but, ya know, 12c). It feels good to be training again. Injuries could be a problem, but that's another story.

We also dieted this week. It was an easy diet, relatively, but no diet is truly easy. Otherwise it wouldn't be a diet. The rules were simple: no sugars or grains or junky fats. So all fruits, veggies, meat, and good oil (olive, basically) was on. No other junk. With 5 (aghast!) pounds to lose it was Romney's first diet ever. On day three I received this rather-poetic text:

Our diet has brought me to a near death experience and I'm pretty sure the light at the end of the tunnel is reflecting off of a loaf of warm golden brown bread. You can't stop me. I'm walking towards it.

Goodbye cruel, grainless world. Goodbye.

I was excited that she'd given up because it meant that I could, too. But, alas, it was all a rouse a we met a bit later for some salad. After Romney nearly passed out at her uber-Gym Jones-ian workout Thursday we did say good-bye to the grainless world for the weekend. Next week will be round two.

With no goals of my own this year, Ben has roped me into a climbing pyramid. If we complete it I'll redpoint my hardest route in a decade this year. While that seems light years away at the moment, I'm keen to have a go since we can do this all without having to drive more than an hour. Living in Utah rocks.

Bike n' Booze: For A Long Healthy Life

This may be the best news I've ever heard.

Maybe Bikes & Booze Do Mix



If you enjoy a post-ride beer you may be increasing the heart-healthy benefits of cycling.

A study in Denmark, biking capital of the world, has found that drinking alcohol in moderation seems to have benefits similar to exercise. This research, reported in Time's Feb. 4 issue, is significant in that it was conducted on 12,000 people over a 20-year period.

It was found that exercise and drinking alcohol each had an independent beneficial effect on the heart. Mainly, an increase in good cholesterol (HDL) and the removal of fatty deposits created by bad cholesterol (LDL) in blood vessel walls.

The study also determined that drinking and exercise combine to have a greater health benefit than either alone. The Danish researchers defined four categories and found that . . .

people who never drink and don't exercise had the highest risk of heart disease.

people who never drink but do exercise had a 30% lower risk.

people who drink moderately but never exercise had a 30% lower risk.

people who drink moderately and exercise had a 50% lower risk.

Now, before you swap your Endurox for a 6-pack of Pabst, here are the caveats:

A research team spokesman, Dr. Morten Gronbaek of Denmark's National Institute of Public Health, says the benefits of alcohol don't kick in until you're at the age -- 45 to 50 -- where heart disease becomes an appreciable risk.

"There's absolutely no proof of a preventative and protective effect before age 45," Gronbaek told Time. Further, alcohol consumption is related to an increase in breast cancer among women, and anyone who has a family history of alcoholism should steer clear no matter what their age.

The study imposed a limit of one drink a day for women and two for men. It did not distinguish among beer, wine and liquor. It calls for common sense in determining a "moderate" amount: a 12-oz. beer and a double martini are far different even though they fit in the same size glass.

Good Artificial Sweetener Article

I should be blogging more regularly soon. In the mean time, more and more press from the real world is backing up some stuff that I've been yammering on about for years. This is from yesterday's LA Times.

Researchers think the sweetener blunted lab rats' ability to burn off calories from their regular food portions.

By Denise Gellene, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 11, 2008

Casting doubt on the benefit of low-calorie sweeteners, research released Sunday reported that rats on diets containing saccharin gained more weight than rats given sugary food.

The study in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience found that the calorie-free artificial sweetener appeared to break the physiological connection between sweet tastes and calories, driving the rats to overeat.

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- With faux sugars, real suspicion

Lyn M. Steffen, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota, who was not involved in the latest report, said the study offered a possible explanation for the unexpected association between obesity and diet soda found in recent human studies.

Researchers have puzzled over whether diet soda is a marker for poor eating habits or diet soda ingredients cause people to put on pounds, she said. "This rat study suggests a component of the artificial sweetener may be responsible for the weight gain."

Steffen's own recent research has shown that people who drink diet soda have a higher risk of developing metabolic syndrome -- a cluster of symptoms including obesity -- than do people who drink regular soda. Her research was published last month in the American Heart Assn.'s journal Circulation.

An industry group rejected Sunday's report.

"The causes of obesity are multifactorial," said a statement by Beth Hubrich, a dietitian with the Calorie Control Council, which represents low- and reduced-calorie food and beverage marketers. "Although surveys have shown that there has been an increase in the use of 'sugar-free' foods over the years, portion sizes of foods have also increased, physical activity has decreased and overall calorie intake has increased."

The number of Americans who consume soda, yogurt and other products containing sugar-free sweeteners more than doubled to 160 million in 2000 from fewer than 70 million in 1987, according to the report. Over the same period, the incidence of obesity among U.S. adults rose to 30% from 15%.

One interpretation of the trends is that people have been turning to lower-calorie foods to control an increasing problem with weight gain.

An alternative interpretation is that artificial sweeteners lead to biological or behavioral changes that cause people to eat more. This possibility is easier to test in rats than in people because scientists can control the animals' diets and measure exactly what they eat, said the study's lead author, Susan E. Swithers, an associate professor of psychological sciences at Purdue University in Indiana.

In the experiment, funded by the National Institutes of Health and by Purdue, nine rats received yogurt sweetened with saccharin and eight rats received yogurt sweetened with glucose, which is close in composition to table sugar. After receiving their yogurt snack, the animals were given their usual chow.

At the end of five weeks, rats that had been fed sugar-free yogurt gained an average of 88 grams, compared with 72 grams for rats that dined on glucose-sweetened yogurt, a difference of about 20%. Rats fed sugar-free yogurt were consuming more calories and had 5% more body fat.

In a related experiment, scientists gave the two groups of rats a sugary drink and measured changes in the animals' body temperatures. Body temperatures typically rise after a meal because it takes energy to digest food.

The rats in the saccharin group experienced a smaller average temperature increase, scientists said -- a sign that regular consumption of artificial sweeteners had blunted their body's response to sweet foods, making it harder for the animals to burn off their extra calories.

Swithers said that normally, sweet tastes signal that the body is about to receive a lot of calories, and the digestive system prepares to react. When sweet tastes aren't followed by lots of calories, as in the case of artificial sweeteners, the body becomes conditioned against a strong response.

Although the experiment looked only at saccharin, other artificial sweeteners may have the same effect, Swithers said.

A controlled study is needed to determine whether sweeteners have the same effect in people as in rats, she said, but some epidemiological studies have been consistent with her findings.

Swithers' next step, she said, will be to determine whether dietary changes could reverse the rats' physiological responses.

Adam Drewnowski, director of the nutrition sciences program at the University of Washington, cautioned against interpreting the results broadly.

"It is unreasonable to claim that results obtained studying saccharin in rats translate to every sweetener in humans," said Drewnowski, who has received research funding from the beverage industry in the past.

He added: "We now have studies showing that sugar calories are associated with obesity and the absence of sugar is associated with obesity. Pity those people trying to do something about obesity."

Super Bowl Sunday

I used to play football but now I could not care about it less. I haven't watched an NFL game in years and don't plan to begin today. The only thing I like about Super Bowl Sunday is that there are less people playing outdoors...

But this video is the best thing about the NFL I've seen this year, if not ever. It almost makes me want to watch the game, if just to think about how Hitler might be reacting. I do follow headlines enough to know that Tom Brady is injured, which I think is what those looks at the end are about. This (except for the 5th grade spelling errors) is incredibly well done.