We both agree . . .

Gotta get over some blogging inertia, so here goes . . .

There're actually a number of things I could have been blogging about. We put in a little over 50 miles in one day a couple of weeks ago, so that's worth writing about. It was a tough ride, made tougher by the fact that rain finally hit about 3/4's of the way through. And as fate would have it, the hardest rain, where we got almost completely drenched, started about 5 blocks from home. A very slight amount of consolation was provided by the fact that the new bike at least has fenders: I guess we could have gotten very slightly more soaked had we been riding a bike without them.

Then, we did almost 40 miles about a week later and were also hit by some rain. But the rain was less intense and didn't last too long, so we dried out quite a bit by the time we reached home. That ride was not memorable for either the mileage or the rain, but rather for the intensity.

There was a rider ahead of us that I was determined to catch. It wasn't too hard to catch him, but he decided he didn't want to be passed and overtook us, riding harder to try and stay away. I wasn't about to let him out of our sights, so I kept chasing. We eventually caught and passed him again.

Now, that was an intense ride--it took a lot out of me. I'd say it was several days before I got fully recovered. This year it seems to me age is really catching up in terms of how hard I can ride and how long it takes me to recover. Or it could be that long-standing health problems, not the least of which is insomnia, are taking their toll. But I'm still at it.

But none of that has anything to do with the title of this entry--those are not things we agree about (not that I really checked, but . . .). No, the title of this entry refers to our strength training, and specifically to the alternate modified P90X we're now doing.

We've now completed a full, 4-week cycle and are two rounds into our second cycle. And what we (the wife and I) agree on is that the modified Power 90 routines we do are much more intense than the alternate modified P90X we do.

I've previously blogged about how I don't get nearly as winded when doing the P90X routines we use. That's because there are lots of breaks interspersed, meant, in part, to allow you time to write down reps/weight information. And as you'll note from previous blog entries, we don't record any of that stuff. So we use all these mini breaks for ballistic stretching and recovery.

I'm still sweaty at the end, but not completely winded as I am at the end of the Power 90 routines we use. No, I'm much more wasted after those--they provide much more of an aerobic workout.

I was really, really sore after the very first round of our alternate modified P90X this year, though. I think that was due largely to the fact that I'd not done any pull-ups/chin-ups since last fall. I think those are what got me really sore (I actually do the sissy variety, by the way, meaning assisted). The second cycle of alternate modified P90X did not see me nearly as sore for as long, though.

I'm beginning to miss our twice-weekly strength-training workouts. I'll probably keep up the current, once-weekly, regime throughout the summer, but am already looking forward to when we can go back to the twice-weekly schedule.

Benefits of missing workouts?

It must seem like I sort of dropped off the fitness radar map. Wow, over 2 weeks without posting! And in a sense, I did drop off the fitness radar map--or maybe I just flew under the radar for a time.

Here's the deal. I had to make a trip out east on short notice and, almost immediately on arriving back home, we were slated to take a short vacation out of town.

I knew we'd have to take a bit of a break from our fitness pursuits, but our plan was to minimize the time off. As anyone who's read a few of my blog entires will know, I don't hesitate to take breaks now and then--I think a healthy fitness regime needs to include breaks. Perhaps I differ from fitbomb--who seems quite manic about maintaining his fitness pursuits--in my philosophy on fitness.

But the break I had planned actually got extended by quite a lot. Had everything gone to plan, we'd have done our alternate modified P90X late last week and would have been back at cycling again today. But things didn't go according to plan.

The main hindrance was a canceled flight that was supposed to get me back home in time to start the planned vacation. Instead of getting in on that flight, I ended up having to take another that got me in almost 24 hours late. Thus, we started and ended the planned vacation late. Needless to say, fitness plans needed to change as well.

So, it's now 2 weeks since we did any strength training. Moreover, it will be almost 2 weeks, once we get back to cycling, since I've been on the bike.

I could say that's not good, but that doesn't really capture what I want to convey with this entry. What I want to convey is that we miss doing our fitness pursuits. Because of the increased break, we have a longing to get back to it. And I think that's healthy.

This highlights an important aspect of my own fitness philosophy, namely, that it's good to "hold back" sometimes. There should be times when you feel that longing to get back to fitness pursuits--sort of like the opposite of feeling that it's drudgery, which is a danger, I think, if your training schedule lacks flexibility.

Now, there is, of course, a danger to taking breaks from fitness pursuits. Breaks that are to long can lead to inertia: it can be difficult to restart your regimen after a too-lengthy break. But what is too long a break, and what is an appropriate interval to set aside fitness?

I assume this will vary from person to person. To summarize briefly, I think one must tread a fine line between being regimented and allowing slack in the routine. I am still in the experimental stages of developing my fitness routine, but so far the approach I've taken of allowing some slack has worked pretty well: we've sustained this for a little over two years now, and we show no signs yet of burn-out.

We hope to keep it up. So, the fourth session of our alternate modified P90X will come today, and we'll be back on the bike over the weekend. Officially I'm back on the radar screen.