Multi Athlete

Okay so I have decided to do a little p90x while I wait for my new workout THE INSANITY WORKOUT also by beach body and Shaun T.

I like p90x though, I think it is one of the best at home workout outs, not only the moves but Tony Horton himself makes it a good experience.

I thought about doing p90x all over again, but I’m just to tempted to try the Insanity workout, which is a 60 day program and looks pretty sweet!

In the meantime though I’m going get back to doing a little p90x, I’m going to follow the program until I have the Insanity workout and then I’m going to just do maybe the P90x Yoga and maybe one of the strength DVDs.

Working out is
All about getting in shape for me, that may mean switching up programs adding and subtracting some things.  The point of most workouts including p90x is to get fit and get used to working your body every day.  If a workout program doesn’t seem fun or I don’t think I’m putting in the best effort, then that tells me one thing, switch it up.  It is not an excuse to quit working out, but to find a new activity to do, so I can keep progressing my strength and fitness levels.

Breaking Workout Rules

It is fun to follow a fitness plan and accomplish what you set out to do, but really think about a workout plan before you start it and see how it works with your lifestyle.  You may have to break the rules and guidelines that some programs set up for you and rearrange the workouts to fit you day.

Some people get really amazing results doing p90x while others don’t.  This probably is because the people who are getting the results, love the workout and are really pushing themselves, while the others are just going through the motion and watch the clock through the whole video.

Although I think there are good parts to P90x and I do intend to incorporate some of the videos into my week, I’m really ready to try something else like the Insanity Workout and some heavy lifting at the gym.

But until my new videos come I’ll be dusting off the p90x weights!

Okay so I’m an advocate of moving, I like to move and check out new places, run new mountains, bike new trails and climb new ledges.  Well why don’t you just go on a trip??  That is a question a usually get from one of my friends after I declare I’m moving.  Sure trips are fun, but you never really get to know a spot in depth, with out living there.

Usually when I move I have been to the place that I’m planning on going or have at least driven through it before.  But this time I decided to try a place completely new and something that has been on my mind for awhile.

Park City Utah

I have been wanting to try out this spot since last year at this time.  The mountain bike trails are supposed to be sweet, 300 plus miles of them.  Plus the snow in the winter in Utah is “supposed” to be sweeter then Colorado, which would be great.

It is totally gorgeous here!  The weather has been a little bit of adjustment since, living in Fort Lauderdale and then San Diego.  You can say it is a tad bit chilly here even in June, but the outdoor aspects, trails and views make it an exciting place to live.

So here I am in Park City now, trying out something completely new and I find it very refreshing.

So a couple months ago I made a quick list of things to get done before I was 30 years old.  I only had about two months to get the items done, so I did not get everything accomplished, but some things are better than nothing.  Here is another look at the list and what went down.

1.    Mountain bike at least 4 different spots in CA  (This is one of the things that i keep putting off, there is so much great trail riding to be done here and I want to experience some of it)  GOT THIS ONE DONE!  Biked Sweetwater, Florida Canyon, Mission Trails and Tri Canyon.

2.    Learn to ride a skate board ( I have pretty much wanted to do this since I was 8 years old, better late then never…even though I’m sure it will be embarrassing.) CHECK!  Bought A Sector 9 Skate board and started practice riding it.

3.    Do a running trail race (I want to start trail running, it so fun getting of the road, so I decided what better way to motivate me then to sign up for a trail race) FAIL!  Never gotta around to doing this, p90x and Mountain biking took up too much time.

4.    Hike anzaborrego desert state park (This is suppose to be a really sweet state park in Southern CA, I wanted to go there last time I lived here, but never did, this time I’m going to do it) NOPE, never got around to driving all the way out there from San Diego.

5.    Read an adventure novel (Outside and Adventure magazine are always publishing the top classic adventure novels to read, I always go down the list and think I want to read one of these, but never do….what am I waiting for!) FAIL again Ha, this one was just due to complete laziness, I have no great excuses for failing this one.

6.    Volunteer for beach clean up (I really believe you shouldn’t just take from a place that you live and have fun at, you should give too)  Sad to Say Nope.

7.    Learn to ride a dirt bike (Basically another thing I have wanted to do since I was 8, I’m sure I’ll be in class with a bunch of teenagers, should be fun!) No! I really wanted to do this but the classes were too expensive to take right now.

8.    Do first two months of P90x (P90x is video workout, supposedly it pretty hardcore, I have had the videos for awhile but the plan is 90 days….so I always find an excuse not to do them…I figure if I start today I can get the first two months done and then easily finish the third one all before summer…no more excuses….I will blog about my experience with this program) Partial Pass!  I got about 40 some days into the program and then I caught a cold that hung on for a couple weeks, kinda made me push pause for awhile, then when I felt better I started really getting into Mt Biking.  Great program, plan to finish it off shortly.

9.    Get on a healthy balanced diet (Traveling makes you eat crappy, living on fast food and erratic meal times makes me feel like crud, but is an hard habit to break, I want to start eating balanced small meals through the day.  I will keep a food diary to keep on track and get balanced eating plan)  YES! For Two months I kept a food journal and ate in balance; So many carbs, proteins, fats a day.

10.  Do 8 solid pull ups (I used to pump out pull ups all the time, but not lifting weights or hitting the gym very often has weakened me, right now I can’t do ONE.  So I came up with the number 8; five seemed to easy and 10 felt to hard.) NO! I think I would have got a lot closes to this goal if I would have finsihed off p90x I started the program, by doing no pullups to being able to pump out three solid ones.

Learning to ride a Skateboard

One of My Birthday things to do before you 30 list is to Learn to ride a skateboard.  I decided I really better get on this one, if I wanted to get it accomplished before the end of April.

I know not a lot about skateboards, so I went to a couple local shops and talked to some kids….yes kids way younger then me, about skateboards.

After much debate I decided to go with a medium longer board for cruising around on.  I know I’m not likely to be one of those people you see in the skate park or going off some ramp, I just don’t have that kind of desire.  But a cruising boards sounded good for just getting my balance and skating around on.
I decided to go with a Sector 9 board called the wing.

I really thought it was a sweet looking board right when I saw it and seemed like a good size for me to handle.

I have had the board for a little over a week now and really love it.  Getting used to riding it around and it is actually really some quick transportation.

I have several years of board sport experience (snowboarding, wakeboarding, kiteboarding) so I think that helped me make smoother transition with the skateboard.

I’m not saying it is easy though, I still feel pretty damn clumsy and wobbly on it.  Thankfully I have not taking any spills yet and really I’m trying to avoid doing so.  I pick it up usually if I’m crossing an intersection.

The other day I was crossing the street carrying and some older gentleman said “You don’t ride that do you!” I’m not really what made him say that, was it because I don’t look like a rider or because I’m a girl or pushing 30, possibly it could have been because I was carrying it and not riding it…..I don’t know.  Anyhow I just responded with “trying to!”

I’m glad I bought the board though and hopefully the skills I learn will make me stronger and more confident in some of my other board sports as well.

Skateboarding is something I think you just gotta keep practicing and working on the balance and movements.  It really is a lot of fun and I’m happy I put it on my to do list or I may have put it off for the rest of my life.

One of the items on my 10 things to do before my 30th Birthday list is two complete 2 months of the P90x workouts.  Well this is something I have started right away, so I can try and stay on track with it and get the two months completed.

I first heard about P90x from my cousin, my first thought was ‘oh another lame workout video.’  I never really have heard p90x about before he mentioned it and after his description of it ’90 days of hardcore workouts’ my interest got the better of me and I started googling away.

P90x Community
Well turns out P90xers are kind of a group of there own, many blogs and you tube videos out there, some detailing the whole program and sharing everyone’s experiences with it.  The more I watched the more interested I got in it.  I got seriously addicted to the Youtube videos!

I guess word in the blogging world is you should already be in pretty good shape to even do the videos.  You can even be expected to complete some pull ups by the end of the program.  Which is already of interest to me, since I need to try and pump 8 out by my Birthday!

The Program
Tony Horton is your “personal trainer” through the videos, some may know him from other beach body workouts and he is pretty ripped.  Anyhow there are like 12 different videos to do and you rotate through them during the week.  The videos are couple weight workouts, plyometrics, one that is sorta like tae bo (kenopa) a yoga, and a hardcore ab.

My Thoughts
Okay by now I’m saying to myself wow I can’t believe I’m interested in this infomercial workout videos.  My cousin even lent me his when he was done with them and I took them and set them in my closet that was about half a year ago.  I mean I’m more of outdoorsy, biker, runner, snowboarder type of person, when was I actually going be able to dedicate like1 hour and half to these videos everyday, I would much rather go for a jog.

Really it was reading others blogs and watching their personal you tube videos that sold me on trying it out, it sorta looked fun (seriously if you have any interest in the videos go check out the post for them on you tube there are 100s of them to view).  Plus I could use some strength training, I haven’t been doing any in the last year and didn’t really want to fork out money for gym right now.

So I figured I would put it on my “things to do before I am 30” list.  I only had 60 days though, until my 30th Bday, but I figure hey if I make it 60 days, that’s better then nothing and maybe I’ll possibly stay motivated for the last 30 days. So I figured why not give it try and see how it goes, it just felt like the right time to do it.

Conclusion
I thought I would do possibly weekly (maybe more often at first since I’ll likely have more whining to do) updates on the program; I already completed day 1 and 2 yay!  More thoughts on the program to come.

Today is Feb 23rd which means one main thing to me……2 months left in my 20s!  That’s right on April 23rd I turn the big 30.  I started thinking about this over the weekend….it seems like just yesterday I was 29 and I made all these ‘do before your 30′ goals in my mind.  I don’t really know if I achieved many of them since they are always changing around as the days progress. I mean I did get some definite stuff done like travel for the whole summer (a ’summer break’ if you will),  I did some Kiteboarding in South Padre, I even lived on a boat.

As the big 30 approaches though, I started thinking of few last minute things I want to do.  I can be one of those people that says ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’ and before I know it a whole month will fly by and I won’t have it done.  But I thought Feb. 23rd is a perfect day to make a list of things to do before I turn 30.  This will give me a solid two months to accomplish them.  Plus I want to start my 30s feeling good and motivated.

So I made a list of 10 things that I want to accomplish before I turn 30:

1.    Mountain bike at least 4 different spots in CA  (This is one of the things that i keep putting off, there is so much great trail riding to be done here and I want to experience some of it)

2.    Learn to ride a skate board ( I have pretty much wanted to do this since I was 8 years old, better late then never…even though I’m sure it will be embarrassing.)

3.    Do a running trail race (I want to start trail running, it so fun getting of the road, so I decided what better way to motivate me then to sign up for a trail race)

4.    Hike anzaborrego desert state park (This is suppose to be a really sweet state park in Southern CA, I wanted to go there last time I lived here, but never did, this time I’m going to do it)

5.    Read an adventure novel (Outside and Adventure magazine are always publishing the top classic adventure novels to read, I always go down the list and think I want to read one of these, but never do….what am I waiting for!)

6.    Volunteer for beach clean up (I really believe you shouldn’t just take from a place that you live and have fun at, you should give too)

7.    Learn to ride a dirt bike (Basically another thing I have wanted to do since I was 8, I’m sure I’ll be in class with a bunch of teenagers, should be fun!)

8.    Do first two months of P90x (P90x is video workout, supposedly it pretty hardcore, I have had the videos for awhile but the plan is 90 days….so I always find an excuse not to do them…I figure if I start today I can get the first two months done and then easily finish the third one all before summer…no more excuses….I will blog about my experience with this program)

9.    Get on a healthy balanced diet (Traveling makes you eat crappy, living on fast food and erratic meal times makes me feel like crud, but is an hard habit to break, I want to start eating balanced small meals through the day.  I will keep a food diary to keep on track and get balanced eating plan)

10.  Do 8 solid pull ups (I used to pump out pull ups all the time, but not lifting weights or hitting the gym very often has weakened me, right now I can’t do ONE.  So I came up with the number 8; five seemed to easy and 10 felt to hard.)

So this is the big list, before I wrote it I came up with 30 things I wanted to do and then narrowed it down to 10 things I really wanted to do, were affordable and hopefully pratical.

Over the next two months I’ll be blogging about getting the list accomplished and going into my 30s feeling GREAT!

East Coast to West Cost, Atlantic Ocean to Pacific Ocean; it is a far drive.  I know it could be further like Florida Keys to Alaska, but Fort Lauderdale to San Diego is far enough for me.

We decided to take the southern-southern route 10 West all the way to the 8.  Just to avoid any potential cold weather, also this is a way we have never driven before.  When we drive across the country previous times we’re usually leaving from Chicago.

Good Deal/Bad Deal
First stop on the route was Biloxi Mississippi.  I have never been here and love saying Biloxi Mississippi in a southern accent.  Biloxi is a like a very mini Vegas; casinos and gambling.

You can get great deals staying at casinos, usually you can get a king size room for 50 bucks.  I’m talking about a really nice room here, flat screen tv large bathroom, possible jacuzzi.  Wow whatta deal!  Alas there is no free wifi in the room or good movies on the tv, what is a person to do but go downstairs to the huge casino awaiting them.

This is where your good deal turns into a bad deal, the house always wins.

Here is how the casino wins all your money:

1. your up a couple 100, you consider that free money and decide to gamble it and you loose it….damn it you’re thinking i just had a free couple hundred dollars,
2. well you take 50 dollars more and try and double it.
3. You loose the 50 dollars in 2 minutes, damn why did I spend that 50 dollars you ask yourself, I mean you could of just broke even, but now you down 50.
4. Might as well try and win the 50 back, 1 minute later you’re down another 50.
5. Repeat steps 2 through 4 until your completely broke and your awesome 50 dollar room turns into a 500 dollar room.
6. Get up early the next morning, decide you should at least win something back, loose another 100.

The house is going win, even if you lucky to win a couple bucks in the beginning, it won’t stay in your pocket for long.  Of course there is a few rare exceptions to the case where you will hear of someone winning thousands of dollars.  This is where you decide maybe you will give gambling another shot, even though you swore never again last time.

This pic was my big 32 dollar win, my first five minutes in the casino, I thought it was amazing, I lost it all plus a couple hundred more about an hour later.  Mike thought we could win some back by putting 100 dollars on red……..it landed on black.

New Orleans
The next day it was back on the road with a lunch time break in New Orleans.  Neither of us have ever been to New Orleans, so it was cool to check it out.  There is still a lot of construction and road work being done as well; recovery from Katrina.  So lots of slow traffic, especially leaving New Orleans.  You can still feel the effects of Katrina and a city trying to recover in a lot of ways.

We stopped off in the French Quarters to Cafe Du Monde For some famous Beignets, which were absolutely amazing!

Afterward we strolled around the Quarters and Bourbon street, the area was just waking up, it was probably around noon.  Lot of people getting ready to party and drink, I really could not imagine Madre Gras here, it must be absolutely nuts!

A feel for Bourbon Street….many restaurants and bars, lots of different types of music blaring out from each place you walk by.

After leaving New Orleans it was a full day of driving, right into Texas.  It took all of our will power to skip going to South Padre Island (best place to kiteboard in the states) Okay well actually the weather down there was suppose to be rain for the next ten days, otherwise I’m pretty sure we would have pit stop there for a couple weeks.

Austin Texas
Instead we made our way to Austin Texas, a place I have driven by but never actually stopped and check it out.  This city is pretty sweet, lots and lots of bike and triathlon stores.  I mean more then any other city I have been to. You can find a bike store on almost every other corner there.

In fact we stopped at Lance Armstrong’s bike store Mellow Johnny’s to check it out.

The store was sweet, I can for sure drop a ton of money here.  They carry basically all the stuff that sponsors Lance ie-Trek.  It is cool spot, very large, nice cafe and a bunch of cool bike accessories and clothing that I haven’t really spotted at other bike stores.  Of course tons of bikes and even some really sweet fixed gear rides.

Another really cool thing we just happen to spot while driving around the city is this sweet BMX dirt park, it is basically right in the middle of downtown.

Oh and if you ever find yourself in Austin check out the whole foods downtown, it is absolutely amazing!  I could live in there.

San Diego California
After Austin, both of us were getting pretty sick of being on the road, and really just wanting to get to our destination: San Diego.  The worst part about taking a road trip is not having a home to go relax in, after it is all over and done with.  After living on the boat, we were both ready to get to Socal and get settled into an apartment.  It took another two days of driving, but we finally made it.

After 8 months of traveling, getting back to the West never felt so good.