Guest Blog - John's reflection on his heart rate

John again, guest blogging on Kenna's site. So, first things first. I got sick last week. So sick that I was sleeping 18-20 hours a day in between walking the dog and taking cold medicine. (If I owe anyone a phone call, let me know. I was a little out of it.) Admittedly, I continued to do the Phase 3 workouts for one of the four to six hours I was awake even though I was struggling and sneezing and generally unable to hold a plank for any time worth counting. I realize that rest was probably a better idea, but I made my commitment to this thing, and well, even though I was incredibly uncomfortable, and a little gross, I had some energy to burn from all that sleep.  I couldn't do much more cognitively than follow directions so why not let Tony order me around. Also, I was home alone, not potentially exposing other people at the gym. It seemed to work out. I did my best, and didn't listen to the rest.  

Personally, I was shocked that I was even getting sick with all the exercising and nutritionising :) we've been up to. Up until this week, I was ready to call P90x2 the equivalent of an apple a day, an insanely ripped 52 year-old pushy punny motivating apple named Tony Horton, but an apple none the less.  We usually have gotten sick at least once or twice by this time of the year, but up until this week it hadn't happened. Okay, so it did happen. I got sick, the world didn't end. I slept a lot. Today was the first day I've had a relatively clear head. 

So what happened? We went to Disneyland, walked billion miles and had a great time with friends and family. When we got home, I took the dog (Falkor) on a three mile run, and then I did the P90x2 Yoga. Now that I'm mostly well again, I'm feeling fantastic. Two things: 

1. I hadn't run since starting this routine because I was getting plenty of exercise. Why would I?

2. My average beats per minute on this run dropped 16 beats over a similar distance with four minutes shaved off my time. I could have run another three, but Falkor looked tired. He kept stopping to pretend to pee, but had nothing in the tank.

On January 28th, I ran 2.7 miles in 31 minutes with an average heart rate of 167 bpm. Today I ran 2.8 miles in 26:40 with an average heart rate of 151 bpm. I've been tracking all of my exercise since the beginning of the year. The P90x2 stuff is a little harder to quantify because the more in shape I get, the harder I push, so my heart rate stays pretty consistent, and I still feel pretty foolish at the end of every workout. I still can't do as much, as fast, or as hard as the folks on TV, but the running is a benchmark I can't ignore. Everyone has fast and slow days, but the heart rate doesn't lie. My current average heart rate for all of my runs taking into account the varying distances is 162. I haven't run in six weeks, and my bpm today was still 10 below that. I should have been a wreck. 

I guess I'm posting right now because I don't want to forget this feeling. These workouts can feel a little... a lot daunting. I'm not feeling any less like throwing up at the end of many of these workouts, and the results sometimes seem so incremental as to be imperceptible. So, if I have any advice today, it's that if you're struggling right now with wanting to continue, find whatever physical activity you liked to do before you started this program and go back to it. See if you notice a difference. Or, if you're just thinking about starting P90x2, go run out and, well... run, or play hoops, or flag football, or whatever you like. You'll be too tired to do it once you start the program, but pay attention to your last at bat. Then see how it feels to go back as the program comes to the end.  I didn't plan to run 3 miles today. Falkor looked a little pent up from being inside while we were at Disneyland so I thought I'd run around the block, but I felt so good I just kept going. 

Cheers,

John