Recovery + Surfing

Today's workout:

Ab Ripper
Kenpo X
Surfing

Possibly best surf session yet. Starting to figure some shit out, and I'm also just much more comfortable out there.

3/8 Yoga and Super Fun Surfing

I didn't get going this morning too good. I pushed through the first half of Yoga (but barely pushed), then did some Yoga Belly 7 and the last part which is super relaxing. Skipped all that good for you stretching stuff.

Then went surfing which was awesome. Waves were pretty small and rolly and I figured some shit out. Got some good rides. Might have turned a corner.

Yoga
Surfing

Recovery Week

I've decided to do a recovery week. Pretty arbitrary actually, but I always found they were helpful in some way while I was strict in my P90X regimen. But just to spice things up a bit I preceded Core with an Ab Ripper:

Ab Ripper
Core Synergistics

Ab Ripper + Kenpo

I've been trying to kick it up a notch, so preceding Kenpo with Ab Ripper seemed to make sense. I also counted how many reps I do in my full strength Ab Ripper. The norm is 349, and I do 470. That's a pretty solid increase. Kenpo was fun as always.

Ab Ripper
Kenpo

More of the Same

Some P90X and surfing. Surfing session was pretty rough. It was a bit windy and choppy. And it's not like I would know the difference much except that it was much harder to get out. Legs & Back was also especially hard. I had some awesome numbers in the Back portion, but I was struggling with Legs.

Ab Ripper
Legs & Back
Surfing

Sports Day

Today was a day full of good stuff:

Yoga X
Surfing
Basketball

P90X + Surfing

Enough about the damn Sandwich already. At least that's what I keep thinking when I read how many times I've mentioned it in the last couple of weeks. So today was a regular old P90X workout followed by some Surfing.

Ab Ripper
Back & Bis
Surfing

Where is the Sandwich?

I was supposed to go surfing and only had time to do a single Ab Ripper and workout. But sometimes things don't go according to plan. No surfing and no sandwich - wtf?

Ab Ripper
Chest & Tris

Weak Sauce Sandwich

Today was the first time I did some P90X Legs & Back in over a month. Because of my sprained ankle I've been taking it easy on the lower half. But I'm at about 80-90% in terms of strength (though still pretty swollen), so I figured it was time to bring it back in to the mix. I forgot how hard I find that workout. The Ab Ripper Sandwich was tougher than ever. I would barely even call the 2nd one a full one. I half assed a few of the exercises.

Ab Ripper
Legs & Back
Ab Ripper

Oh yeah, and after all that, some surfing

Not all Ab Rippers are Created Equal

Today was going to be a huge day and it got off to a great start. Unfortunately car issues caused a bit of a slow down, but not enough to make a fuss about. Woke up at 4a and did some work. Followed it up with another sandwich:
Ab Ripper
Back & Bis
Ab Ripper

I rocked the first Ab Ripper. Did more reps than I might have ever done (I do extras in just about every move), and all real solid too. The Back & Bis was good too, but I had very little energy to do the 2nd Ab Ripper. I still got through it, but stopped short a couple of times.

And when that was all done I had to take my car in to get fixed which made the Surfing start a little later than anticipated. And that caused no biking to work. It would have been a sick day to do all of that, but surfing and P90X is pretty solid (especially with a sandwich).

Surfing + Sandwich

After a much needed rest day on Sunday, I'm back at it. Went surfing this morning, then a P90X workout:
Ab Ripper
Chest & Tris
Ab Ripper

Yoga for Mud Run

Tomorrow is the SBSD Mud Run. Chris and I are doing the 10K. So today I'm taking it easy and just did Yoga X this morning. I was going to bike in to work, but time was an issue and rest seemed like a good idea.

Another Sandwich

Ab Ripper
Chest & Tris
Ab Ripper

14.02 mile ride :: 53:36 :: 15.6 mi/hr

Great Monday

I was going to do another Ab Ripper Sandwich, but opted for some surfing instead of the 2nd Ab Ripper due to time. If I had enough time, I think I would workout about half the day away. So it ended up being:
Ab Ripper
Back & Biceps
Surfing

A New Goal

I'll explain it later in detail, but basically I'm trying to hit a whole new level. And for now, this will be brief... just the workouts so I can reference for later.

Ab Ripper
Chest & Tris
Ab Ripper
12.9 mile ride :: 46:39 :: 16.5 mi/hr (Started in Redondo on Espalande :: Dock Snack Stand :: 25:25)
12.9 mile ride :: 51:19 :: 15.1 mi/hr

A Decent Plus Week

So this week was my Week 4 of P90X Plus. They don't call them recovery weeks any more, which is kind of funny. And they're not really much easier, not that recovery weeks were ever easier.

Monday was Back & Biceps, but since I have my VB Plyos class on Monday mornings, I decided to do it on Sunday. It was supposed to be followed by an Ab Ripper, but family obligations made me stop right at the end of Back & Biceps, so no Ab Ripper. Monday was the plyos class and Tuesday was Core Synergistics. Wednesday was the first day this week that I missed a work out. But since Thursday was supposed to be Abs Core Plus and a Stretch, I decided to do Chest, Shoulders & Triceps on Thursday (Wednesday's workout). I was planning to follow it with Abs Core Plus, but that was ambitious and didn't end up happening.

Friday was Legs & Back, but yet another miss. Saturday was supposed to be Yoga, but I decided to do something a little more intense. That and my garage has been taken over by the tools needed for some household projects. Saturday I went to the gym and did some of my old Gym Jones style workouts.

I spoke about them briefly toward the end of the bet, but I really think they played a big part in getting me to those final shots. I started with a swim (not Gym Jones). I followed that with 5k on the rowing machine (a Gym Jones favorite). Normally I was doing 5k in sub 20 minute times every time toward the end of the bet, but having not done it in some time resulted in barely beating 21 minutes. Not bad, but not very good either.

Next I did 3 sets of box jumps. I'm not sure how high they are. But using those awesome aerobics step thingies I did the box jumps using 14 boxes and the step. 2 sets of 15 and finished with a set of 20. Finally I finished with some work with the medicine ball. A whole bunch of throws, catches and situps using the heaviest ball I could find. You can see some of where I get my ideas at the Gym Jones video section.

That workout felt awesome. It reminded me of some of the best workouts I had at the end of the summer. Intense, different and athletic. I wanted to do another one of those today or go surfing. The plan was to go surf, but the wonderful wife made me aware of a big ass swell and possible 10' waves. I'm not quite that pro yet so I had to bail on the surfing. Then the day just got away from me. Between some prep work for the household projects and taking care of the little one I just didn't have time.

Tomorrow is the plyos class which is a pretty good workout. Then I'm supposed to be in week 5 of the Plus, but the garage is still a mess and full of tools. So my plan is to do all workouts at the gym this week. Mostly Gym Jones style and maybe some more traditional shit. I may go back and only count next week as week 5, but that all depends on how intense and frequent my workouts will end up being this week. The plan is the usual 6 days of workouts (minimum 1 workout per day). That's the goal always as a minimum. Nice to surpass, sucks to fall short.

Life + P90X After The Bet

It has been quite some time since I posted. Well, since the end of The Bet to be exact. It was a crazy time leading up to the end of the bet. I worked out harder than I had ever in my life. Most days in the last month I worked out twice or even three times. All hard workouts and the effort paid off.

Chris and I had decided that we would decide the winner based on the first 1000 votes ($1 per vote). So basically it would mean the first to 501 votes would win. It took a little over a week for me to get to 501 and only a few days more for the total votes to surpass 1000. I received about 63% of the vote to that point. Not a land slide by any means, but a definitive victory. It was really funny to see all the comments the site generated in those first couple of weeks. They were all pretty nice, so thanks to all the peeps with positive feedback. I don't have much to say to the haters; you're all entitled to your opinion and I respect that.

So after The Bet was over I had no intention of stopping. I was in the best shape of my life and felt real good about it. The reason I made The Bet was to see how far I could come and I did that and then some. I was convinced for sure that this was a lifestyle change. My sister also joined me early in my 2nd round of P90X and I had full intentions of at least finishing out her 90 days, which we did.

In October, Chris and I also competed in a Sprint distance Triathlon in Hermosa Beach. You can check out the results here. But the short of it is that he somehow beat me. He's actually quite an athlete and a real solid swimmer. Swimming is my weakest event and he had about a 5 minute lead coming out of that. I gained almost no time on the bike portion (mainly due to my slower transitions) and he beat me in the run by a solid 2 minutes. The run was the real surprise as I was pretty sure I would take him having had the Triathlon experience. He did over a month's worth of specific training which I think helped him quite a bit. I did very little Triathlon specific training but kept up with the P90X.

So that was mid October. Since then I finished my 2nd round of P90X, did another round of testing (some performance upgrades - biggest one was pull ups, up to 12 from 7 after round 1), and completed a half assed 3rd round. You might ask what's a half assed 3rd round. Well, I skipped some Ab Rippers missed a few days here and there and just in general was not quite 'bringing it' as much.

Then in January I received the news about P90X Plus and was very ready to renew my commitment to the workouts. I received my P90X Plus about mid January. I've been trying to stick to it best I can. Though I find that without the motivation I had during The Bet amongst other things (got sick, baby on the way preparation, etc.) it's not quite as easy to stick to it. I'm finishing my 4th week this week and have seen some progress already since I started the Plus. Though the verdict is still out on P90X Plus. I like it, but have some issues that I'll go into detail in later posts.

So that's basically it for now. My plan is to start posting more regularly as I see people are still checking out the site quite a bit. We're still getting about 10 votes a day to the original bet, not to mention a whole bunch of hits to the site in general. It's also amazing to me how much time people send on the site. It's been impressive.

There will also be an update coming soon to amiripped.com So check back for that.

P90X Day 132 (Day 146): Sunny Day

Today was much sunnier and I wasn't absolutely sure that we got the final picture in yesterday's shoot. So we went out and shot again. This time I didn't do any crazy run to remove all the water (and beer) from my body. In essence I wanted to shoot again after the party last night. After I ate a bunch of junky fried food, drank beer and had some sodas too. I thought it would put an exclamation point on what I was trying to prove here. I worked my ass off for almost 5 months and didn't have to change what I eat to get the body I always wanted.

And in this shoot we got the final shot. The first one shown here was the winner. It was tough to choose as there were a few decent contenders.












Go get your P90X

P90X Day 131 (Day 145): Shoot Day

The day has come and gone. The volleyball tournament didn't go so well, but it wasn't the focus of the day. The tanning was gotten and I was ready for my run home from the beach.

In order to sweat everything out I wore a wife beater, 5 t-shirts and a hoodie (with the hood up). It was a 5 mile run which should have taken me about 40-50 minutes. I did it in about 51 minutes. It was one of the dumbest things I've done since that 60 mile bike ride. Again I didn't have water, but really the mistake was to run in that much clothing. I felt like I was really over heating by the end of the run. But I did make it and I was ready for the shoot with little to no water weight left on me.

Unforunately the sun was not cooperating and it wasn't optimal conditions. We still took a bunch of pictures.

Giannina later surprised me with an awesome birthday party at Mr. Pockets. It's a local sports bar with pool tables, ping-pong and a whole bunch of other fun activities. I had a few beers and ate a ton of awesome bar food including potato skins, buffalo wings and other such delicious treats. It was fun to let go a little and I really felt relieved that the bet was over. I had no intention of stopping the workouts, but I certainly was excited to have a little pressure off.

Go get your P90X.

P90X Day 130 (Day 144): The Night Before

I'm all set for shooting the final shots tomorrow. I bought some tanning lotion and am playing in a volleyball tournament with Chris all day. That should get the tan going good for the final shots.

I'm also planning to run back home from the beach and drop what ever water I have left in me. I've been following a water drinking regimen which bodybuilders do in order to prepare for a competition. I increased my water consumption gradually all week up to 3 gallons on Wednesday and have gradually been decreasing my water intake since. Tomorrow I'm down to about a half gallon. It will be tough with a volleyball tournament, but I think it could help a little bit. I won't let myself dehydrate, but I'll certainly push the envelope as I have thus far.

Go get your P90X and anything P90X related here.

P90X Day 125 (Day 139): 1 Week to Go

I wanted to take some pictures a little early to see how close I was.

Go get your P90X and anything P90X related here.

P90X Day 121 (Day 135): Day 120 Pictures

Weight: 192 lbs.

My weight the rest of the way pretty much stays around 190 - 195 lbs. so I won't be updating that anymore. The pics do dramatically change though. The core based workouts I began to incorporate at lunch time seem to be paying off.

P90X Day 91 (Day 105): Day 90 Pictures + Fit Test

This is where Chris calls it quits. He did the 90 days and is quite happy to have gotten through it. I, on the other hand, plan to continue. I also plan to up the level quite a bit in the next month. I have some ideas of how to push the envelope even more, inlcuding incorporating some Gym Jones workouts. I'm still going to do P90X, but just add a whole bunch more for the final push.

Weight: 193 lbs. (P90X Day 1: 210 lbs., Overall Day 1: 215 lbs.)







Measurements (Numbers in Parentheses are Day 1):
Chest: 39.5" (42")
Waist: 34" (38")
Hips: 39" (39")
Right Thigh: 26" (25")
Left Thigh: 25.5" (23.5")
Right Arm: 14.75" (15")
Left Arm: 14.5" (15")

Stats (Numbers in Parentheses are Day 1):
Resting Heart Rate: 63 bpm (67 bpm)
Pull-Ups: 7 (4)
Vertical Leap: 21.75" (19.75")
Push-Ups: 50 (30)
Toe Touch: +9 (+5)
Wall Squat: 4:03 (1:39)
Bicep Curls: 25 x 25 lbs. (18 x 25 lbs.)
In & Outs: 101 (35)

P90X Day 82 (Day 96): Random Pics

Just a couple of snap shots before I headed to Vegas. P90X is coming with me. That's what laptops are for.

P90X Day 78 (Day 92)

Weight: 193 lbs.

6.30a -> P90X Phase 3 Continues - Chest & Back
8.00a -> 14.5 mile bike ride, 54 min.
6.30p -> 15 mile bike ride, 55 min.

P90X Day 72 (Day 86)

Weight: 195 lbs.

6.30a -> P90X Phase 3 Continues - Plyometrics
8.00a -> 14.5 mile bike ride, 51 min.
6.30p -> 15 mile bike ride, 58 min.

P90X Day 60 (Day 74): Day 60 Pictures

Weight: 197 lbs.

P90X Day 57 (Day 71)

Weight: 198 lbs.

6.30a -> P90X Phase 3 Starts - Chest & Back
8.00a -> 14.5 mile bike ride, 49 min.
6.30p -> 15 mile bike ride, 53 min.

P90X Day 51 (Day 65)

Weight: 197 lbs.

6.30a -> P90X Recovery Week for Phase 2 - Core Synergistics
8.00a -> 14.5 mile bike ride, 55 min.
6.30p -> 15 mile bike ride, 56 min.

Chris has fallen terribly ill this week. Some sort of viral thing. He hasn't done P90X this week. I still have only missed that one Kenpo day and have definitely made up for it. Hopefully he'll be okay for the Triathlon.

P90X Day 47 (Day 61): Kinda Stupid

So at some point in thinking I could accomplish any endurance task I wanted, I decided it might be a good idea to do an Iron Man Triathlon. Those are the toughest of all triathlons, The distances are almost silly. It's a 2.4 mile swim, follwed by a 112 mile bike and then cap it all off with a full Marathon (26.2 miles). I wasn't sure if I could actually do that, but I started to look into it.

A co-worker who had already done one the year prior and was in the midst of training for another pointed me in the right direction of what it would take. I found one Iron Man that was in August and we worked backwards from there in terms of training. Basically I was about 8 weeks out and the training called for being able to do a 4 hour bike ride (at least 50 miles) followed by a 2 hour run.

So after doing a P90X Legs & Back workout and Ab Ripper X, I headed out on my bike ride. I may have not mentioned this earlier but all of my biking is done on my 7-speed beach cruiser. I started out real strong, averaging a faster speed than ever before. I'm usually carrying a 15-25 lb. bag with clothes to change into for work. This time I had no bag and the lesser weight felt great.

After about 25 miles of flat riding on the coast I headed into the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Now those are some serious hills. The beach cruiser is not necessarily the best choice for this ride, but I made a much worse mistake. My beach cruiser does not have a water bottle cage so I didn't bring any of that with me. Of course I also didn't bring any food, energy bars or anything of the sort. At some point around mile 40, a little less than 2.5 hours in my body told me I needed water badly. Luckily I was smart enough to bring some cash with me and I stopped and got some water. I continued my ride thinking I was good to go.

I headed out of the peninsula and back to some coastal bike path riding. I was going okay for a while but at some point, my energy went way down. It was a strange feeling. My heart rate was dropping and I was starting to feel a bit dizzy. I made a couple of stops to splash some water on my face and ended up making it back okay. I rode 57 miles in just under 4 hours. I was not even going to attempt to run after that. I was exhausted and had made a serious mistake not having any food with me, not to mention a ready supply of water. That was a good lesson and I'm glad I didn't have any injuries as a result of that stupidity.

P90X Day 45 (Day 59): Some Say I Go Overboard

I mentioned that I was thinking about doing this so it was only a matter of time before I actually did. Once I get an idea in my head...

5.20a -> 7.1 mile run, 78 min.
6.45a -> P90X Phase 2 Continues - Back & Biceps
8.15a -> 14.5 mile bike ride, 53 min.
6.00p -> 15 mile bike ride, 52 min.
7.10p -> 7.1 mile run, 79 min.

This may seem a little crazy to some, but I'm starting to feel like I can do just about anything in terms of endurance and there is really only one way to find out. I always listen to my body though and so far it has only sent mild 'why are you doing this to me' messages. No major distress signals telling me to stop. Knees and joints are holding up okay and now I'm absolutely certain that I'm ready to participate in the Redondo Triathlon which is a little more than a week away.

P90X Day 44 (Day 58)

Weight: 199 lbs.

6.30a -> P90X Phase 2 Continues - Plyometrics
8.00a -> 14.5 mile bike ride, 49 min.
6.30p -> 15 mile bike ride, 55 min.

This is the first time I've been under 200 lbs. in the last 5 years. I'm already feeling great about this accomplishment, but I'm no where near where I want to be. The bar is set high and I have no intention of coming up short.

P90X Day 43 (Day 57): Ocean Swim

Today is Memorial Day so no biking in to work. Chris and I don't have a day off P90X of course. It was the usual Monday Phase 2 Workout - Chest, Shoulders & Tris. We decided to follow that up with an Ocean swim to get a bit more prepared for the Redondo Tri.

We ended up swimming in the afternoon after some volleyball. Swimming in the ocean in the afternoon is not so smart. The water was pretty choppy and the waves were no fun to deal with. All in all though it was not so bad. We swam for what we estimated later to be about .7 miles. That took me about 40 minutes. Just the fact that I could swim for that long in the ocean gave me all the confidence I needed for the Triathlon which was quickly approaching. It was now less than 2 weeks away and I felt pretty ready.

P90X Day 42 (Day 56): Cardio Day

I missed the Kenpo X workout yesterday due to my Koi pond having some serious issues. In order to make up for the missed cardio workout, I decided to go on my first run. Since we had now begun to do a little swim training in preparation for the Triathlon, it seemed only fitting that I figure out if I can run for some distance.

I had been toying with the idea of running to Chris's house from mine (7.1 miles) before a P90X workout and bike to work. Before I jumped right into that I wanted to see if I could do a distance run without time pressure. So today I ran to the Torrance LA Fitness (5.5 miles), then swam for an hour, then ran back home.

6.45a -> 5.5 mile run, 61 min.
8.00a -> 1 mile swim, 52 min.
9.15a -> 5.5 mile run, 66 min.

I learned a very important lesson in doing this workout. I'm never going to run in board shorts again. I'm not sure how people do that. The chafing was quite painful and resulted in some serious cuts. That was on the run there. On the run back I was smart enough to tuck my wife beater into the trunks which limited the rubbing to the knee area. The weight of wet trunks though was no fun either. The whole experience was not so great, but oh man what a workout.

P90X Day 37 (Day 51)

Weight: 201 lbs.

6.30a -> P90X Phase 2 Continues - Plyometrics
8.00a -> 14.5 mile bike ride, 55 min.
6.30p -> 15 mile bike ride, 58 min.

P90X Day 29 (Day 43): Phase 2

Weight: 201.5 lbs.

6.30a -> P90X Phase 2 Starts - Chest, Shoulders & Tris
8.00a -> 14.5 mile bike ride, 52 min.
6.30p -> 15 mile bike ride, 55 min.

Phase 2 of P90X isn't any easier than Phase 1. Different muscle groups on Mondays and Wednesdays is basically the only difference. The Ab Ripper X is just as tough as before, and Chris and I found out we didn't miss it at all during the Recovery Week.

Chris and I have also decided that we're going to compete in Triathlons. Really I decided that it might help me in training and am making him come along for the ride. He seems to be eager to try to beat me at something. Other then tennis, he has had some issues with me dominating sports we play.

The first triathlon we're doing is the Redondo Beach Triathlon. It's a sprint distance, but with an unusually long swim in comparison to the other events. Swimming is my biggest weakness and I'll probably lose a lot of time to Chris right off the bat. But I really just want to finish. It seems like an accomplishment all on its own. Already this bet seems to have some residual up sides other then the physical aspects.

P90X Day 28 (Day 42): Day 30 Pictures

Weight: 202 lbs.

I took these pictures a couple of days early, but for all intense and purposes these are my day 30 pictures.

P90X Day 22 (Day 36): Stats Update

Weight: 205 lbs.

6.30a -> P90X Phase 1 Recovery Week Starts - Yoga X
8.00a -> 14.5 mile bike ride, 51 min.
6.30p -> 15 mile bike ride, 53 min.

P90X Day 15 (Day 29): Stats Update

Weight: 207 lbs.

6.30a -> P90X Phase 1, Week 3 - Chest & Back
8.00a -> 14.5 mile bike ride, 50 min.
6.30p -> 15 mile bike ride, 51 min.

P90X Day 8 (Day 22)

Weight: 209 lbs.

6.30a -> P90X Phase 1, Week 2 - Chest & Back

The bike rides have not stopped, but I won't be posting every day I ride in to work. You can assume that I'm doing the 15 mile ride twice a day at least 4 times per week and usually 5 times.

P90X Day 1 (Day 15): Bring It!

It was one of the hardest workouts I've ever done. The first one is Chest & Back. It was basically an hour of doing push-ups and pull-ups. Chris and I were both feeling a bit nausious. And then when that hour was over it went straight into an Ab Ripper X. Just 16 minutes of abdominal and core work. To say it was hard is an understatement.

Chris and I are both optimistic about the program and its potential for getting us in great shape. He was still confident that I couldn't get that ripped without changing what I eat, but he agreed that these workouts are a great step. He even began to question whether he wanted to be so supportive and do the workouts with me. But he also was sure that he didn't want to be the fat guy on the volleyball team.

Day 14: P90X Day 1 Pics + VB Tournament

Chris and I played in a beach volleyball tournament all day today. It was an Unrated and we won it, earning our B Rating. We didn't lose a single game all day. We won a whole bunch of cool stuff, including power bars, shirts, desk fans, power gels, and plaques. As far as workouts go, it was a pretty good one. We played 7 total games and that's a lot of running around on the sand.

I also took my P90X Day 1 pictures.
Weight in these pictures: 210 lbs.