INSANITY Fit Test 2

So today was the second fit test for INSANITY.  I'm happy with the improvements and I'm looking forward to pushing it more and seeing how well the next time goes. Move Fit Test 1 (Day 1) Fit Test 2 (Day 15) Fit Test 3 (Day 36) Fit Test 4 (Day 50) Fit Test 5 (Day 63) Switch Kicks 55 122 Power Jacks 50 63 Power Knees 80 95 Power Jumps 15 43 Globe Jumps 6 11 ...

Ice Baths

New to running?  Not sure what this Ice Bath business is? Check out this short video: http://running.competitor.com/2011/08/videos/recovery-the-ice-bath_15 ...

Hydration

Here's an article at Runnersworld.com about hydration and running: Sipping Points Check out the reviews of some carb and protein drinks on the second page.  You might be tempted to try something n ...

Running 101

Runnersworld.com has a nice article, "Running 101: Class is in session" by Kara Goucher. Some great tips on running, training and your first race. ...

Update

Just a quick update.  Markx Spot has done a little upgrade and now has a new address. Now you can use www.markxspot.com! More to come later tod ...

Weekend Posts

With it being a holiday weekend and the fact that I've been working on the look and feel of my websites, I haven't had much time to post anything.  I should be back at it tomorrow and plan on catching back up to my post a day. ...

New Look and Feel!

So as you can see, I'm in the midst of making changes to the site look and feel.  I feel this works better for the users than the old layout and gives me a little more flexibility.  As you can probably tell, I'm not done yet.  As I get time, I'll be adding more little thin ...

P90X2 Pre-Order

P90X2 Pre-Orders start today. If your interested in ordering head on over to my page: http://beachbodycoach.com/esuite/home/markxfitness and click on the link on the right hand side. Let me know if you have questions. ...

INSANITY Update

So today is day 6 of INSANITY.  Everything is going well.  I did day 5 workouts last night.  I did Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs.  Pure cardio was just that.  Cardio, take a break when you need it, but keep pushing.  Cardio abs is very similar.  Ab work for 15+ minutes straight, from the C-Sit postion and plank.  Great stu ...

Barefoot Shoes

I've been a Fivefinger guy for over a year now.  Not sure that these would be the same thing, but they do look interesting. More Barefoot Sh ...

Day 4 of INSANITY

Today's workout was a lighter one.  Cardio Recovery.  Some lighter controlled cardio and core work.  Still work up a sweat and work those muscles, but a great break before things get INSANE again :) Counting down the days to P90X2, won't be long now and we'll be able to pre-order ...

Day 3 of INSANITY

Day 3 was a great workout.  Cardio power and Resistance.  Cardio, leg, core work.  Great stuff. If you haven't heard of the beachbody trainers or workouts before, check them o ...

Day 2 of INSANITY

The FitTest on day 1 gave me a glimpse of what was to come.  Day 2 was Plyometric Cardio Circuit.  Great workout! I'm still working on my site, but you can check it out for more information or just ask me! You can also check out my Facebook page or my Coach pa ...

Day 1 of INSANITY

So day 1 of INSANITY.  This was the Fit Test.  Know you can understand the warnings prior to workout videos and why they are there.  I was sweaty and humble after this fit test.  Didn't start off too badly, but then as you can see, it trickled off toward the end. We'll see what the next fit tests have and if I can improve!  Stay tuned! Move Fit Test 1 (Day 1) Fit Test 2 (Day 15) Fit Test 3 (Day 36) Fit Test 4 (Day 50) Fit Test 5 (Day 63) Switch Kicks 55 ...

13.1 Reasons to Run a Half Marathon

Nice article on 13.1 Reasons to Run a Half Marathon on the active.com website. This comes at a crucial time as I'm trying to figure out if I have enough time to train for the local half that I had my eye on prior to the summer disappearing before my eyes. It's the first week of December, so there is some time left.  I've looked at a couple training programs, but those all went beyond race day.  So we'll see if I'm able to get something in place in order to accomplish this or n ...

Themes

Just a little something I'm working on for my blog space: MarkxSpot: Markx Monday Tuesdays Tip Training Tuesday Wacky Wednesday Thirsty Thursday Fun Friday MarkxLife (Still a work in progress): Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Just some thoughts about how to give some order to the chaos that is the list of draft posts that I have that is longer than the list of active posts on here.   I'm still playing around with it when I have time so hopefully you'll see something solid soon.  Also coming close to finishing my Coach ...

Catching up

The one thing about using a watch to track all your workouts is making sure that you remember to have watch, cable and cradle in the same location in order to get the workouts off the watch and on to the computer to use in some fashion. I happen to have the problem of not having those close at all and just caught myself up yesterday by adding 15 workouts to my Garmin connect account and my Dailymile profile. I'm still figuring out the best method to track workouts and nutrition.  Currently I'm using Dailymile and Dailyburn.  Now, since ...

Next Phase

Just a quick post to update everyone. I recently took on the role of Independent Beachbody Coach.  I'm going to try and make sure that I post on here daily as well as my other blog, the new blog I'm creating for Beachbody, Facebook and twitter.  This along with everything else that's going on will be something I will have to work towards achieving.  I'm optimistic and have high hopes that I can accomplish this along with the rest of life (class, family, work, breathing) That being said, I have started the Shakeology 3 ...

Warrior Dash PA 2011

This past Sunday was the Warrior Dash in Albrightsville PA.  This was my first time doing to the Dash and I must say, ...

Guitar Logo

Google always has interesting images for their logo, or almost always.  Todays is a special one.  I'm continuing ...

It's "That" kind of Friday!

So it hasn't been too often that we've seen the sun this much in the past couple weeks with all the rain that we've had, ...

Juneathon 2011 - 2 June pt. 2

Went out for another run after work.  I lead a study going on right now at our church called Run for God.  So we get together with the students so that we can run together as a group and support one another.  Had a running group last night and did a couple laps around a local military museum.  Great day to run with the weather!  Our group did about 2.5 miles in 25 minutes.  It's a 12 week program to get them up to a point that they can run a 5k.  Monday will be the start of week 8 for them, so we're almost there.2nd ...

Juneathon 2011 - 2 June

So here it is, June 2.  I heard about Juneathon yesterday and didn't leave myself time to do anything so now I'm a day behind.  But here is a link to todays run: http://www.runningfreeonline.com/act/564996This isn't much of a blog post, but today is pretty busy as well so it will have to do for now.  I'll try and work on this more so they are more wordy ...

Warrior Dash 2011

So the Warrior Dash in coming up soon.  June 11th and 12th.  We are signed up for the 3:30PM wave on June 12th.  This will be the first time that we've been to the WD and it should be a blast!  I've heard nothing but good things about it from people that have been to it before, and it's something that I've been looking forward to.Warrior DashFor those that don't know, it's a 3.5 mile obstacle course.  The website shows the different locations and the obstacles at those locations.  You get a shirt, fuzzy viking helmet, ...

Ice Cream Sandwich

Ice Cream Sandwich officially announced, coming in Q4 - http://pulsene.ws/1z ...

Rules to run by

Great article on Runner's World, "A few rules to run by".  There is some great information here for all runners.  There were times I was audibly laughing out loud at some of these.  So here are some of my highlights, in no specific order: Red lights (page 2) For Pete's Sake, Stand Still at Red LightsSharks die when they stop moving. Runners do not. Keep this in mind next time you encounter a don't walk sign at a busy intersection. There's no need to jog in place or dance from foot to foot like you have to pee. Just chill. Wait ...

Visual history of shoes infographic

Great blog post with a Visual history of shoes infographic. Looking at the infographic brings back some memories.  You? 1946, the bunny slippers.  I don't know about the rest of you but I happen to have a pair of Mickey Mouse slippers.  Never did the bunny ones, but as the graphic says, Ralphie sported the whole suit! How about 1989 with the Reebok pump.  Did you have a pair of pumps?  I know I did, to top it off, I'm one of those that had the bright black/red/yellow pairs :) ... oh yeah. For those people in the ...

2011 Special Olympics Beaver Stadium 5k Run

My first official 5k was yesterday, 2011 Special Olympics Beaver Stadium 5k run.  I have got to say, I HAD A BLAST! ...

Disney Marathon

Here's a link to the Disney Marathon.  This would be really cool to run.  I know others that have done this and it would be something to remember.  What more do you need than a post race pic with some of your favorite characte ...

Fitness food faceoff

Nice comparison of fitness food with real food. http://www.menshealth.com/foodfaceoff/protein-bar-turkey-jerky. ...

Running companion

Here's a pic of our dog Linde: She runs every morning with one of us, or most mornings.  She's a golden retriever ...

White and crusty after a run?

So a while ago I noticed that my forehead was a little white after playing racquetball on a Saturday morning.  I didn't think much about it at the time.  Some time passed and it happened again.  So I started doing some reading and wondering if it was something to worry about or not.   I'm not worried about it, but now I'm aware of it.  Here's an article at Runner's World that talks about salt inta ...

MyFiveFingers.com Year-Long Giveaway

As most of you know by now, I have 3 pairs of VFF's and love them all!  Or as my sister likes to say; "You wear gloves on your feet".  My latest pair, Komodo Sports are my favorite so far. Well, MyFiveFingers.com has a year-long giveaway going on right now!  Check it out:  http://www.myfivefingers.com/win-fivefingers/ They have multiple ways to enter and your entry last all year!  Hey, you can give them to me if you don't want them ;)&nb ...

Race update

So I have a race schedule, somewhat, setup.  I'll be looking at some other 5k's to work into the schedule as the spring ...

General Update

So I think the blog situation is finally worked itself out.  I have what I had in mind setup and now I'm working on images for the headers on each.  I did work with one more design that I do like and may end up switching to at some point, but it is what it is for now. I'm also working on gathering my ideas for posts as well as some weekly posts (Markx Monday, Tuesdays Tip/Training Tuesday, Wacky Wednesday, Thirsty Thursday and Fun Friday, etc.).  I've had those in mind along with some topics and how to organize things (yeah, ...

Blog

I haven't been posting much lately because I'm still working out what I'd like to see on here.  I've been looking through various templates and other blogs and trying to figure out what would work best for me and anyone that would visit. Some of the things I've been thinking about: Sharing links for posts Done Footer links, are they needed?  Do I have enough to warrant the need for them? Done Layout of information Extras for the sidebar, what? why? etc.? Done So this has been a longer process than I had intended and somewhat ...

Runner/Athlete?

Are you a runner?  Athlete?  Social bug?  Then you have to check out The DailyMile.  This is the best site packed with encouraging people doing the exact same thing as you.  You may be struggling with your workout, no motivation to get out there and put in a mile or 2, but when you start talking with the people on this site, it changes your world! I've been a member since the end of last year, so just short time.  I was looking for a site that would help me track my milage and workouts.  A friend recommended ...

New VFF's!

So I got my new pair of VFF TrekSports on Friday and used them on my runs in Annapolis over the the weekend. All I can say is, loved'em! Put a little over 9 miles on them. I started out with a pair of KSO's a year ago and really enjoy running and working out in them. I did some more research and ordered TrekSports for trekking, traveling and working out, and Komodo Sports for running. I plan on using my KSO's for water sports now.  Komodo sports should be here toward the end of the month as retailers get them in stock. Highly ...

10k Steps a day

So I had this assignment for my health class that we had to wear a pedometer to see how many steps we take a day over 3 days.  I didn't know if I would do 5k a day, let alone 10k a day.  I thought I would be closer to or over 10k on the days that I run before work.  I didn't wear the pedometer on my runs so maybe I'll check that out in the next week or so, but for 3 days: Day 1: 6545 Day 2: 7314 Day 3: 3873 I wore the pedometer from 6AM to 6PM so my numbers may be a little higher if I were to put it on from the time I got up till ...

Barefoot running

I'm avid about outdoors and activity so it may be no surprise one of the sites that I like to check out is Outside online and just today I came across an article on their site titled "The 8 Essentials of Barefoot Running".  This was interesting to me since I have a pair of VFF KSO's and looking at the Komodo Sport and TrekSport.  It has some good tips and techniques for transitioning from traditional running to barefoot running. This has been something that I've been interested in since I got my first pair last year.  I started ...

Android Honeycomb

So I just watched a video on the Endgadget website of the Google Android event and I must say, I'll have to look at the pricing for the Motorola Xoom.  The features and functionality of this system are pretty cool. Check it o ...

Vibram Five Fingers Update

At one point I had a blog, don't remember where it was that I made a post about getting my first pari of VFF for running, working out and just generally wearing them around. So it's a year later and I'm looking at a couple different pairs of VFF to add to my collection and I thought I would post an update as to what my experience has been with my first pair. I had a friend of mine mention that I should "take it easy" when I first got them, and she wasn't crazy.  The first time I tried them out I used the treadmill in our basement.  I ...

Garmin Forerunner 305

I had been looking for something to replace my Nike+ for some time now.  I had started running a couple years ago with an iPod Nano and Nike+ and really enjoyed the ability to track progress.  The audio notifications were nice as well.  This time around I wanted/needed something a little more advanced.  My wife and I are fairly active; hiking, camping, horseback riding, running, working out as well as other things so I wanted something that would help to track everything but also help while camping/hiking/horseback riding to ...