They say you need to forget your last marathon before you run another.
The last few miles of your first marathon, unless you're an incredibly elite runner (in which case, good for you), were likely pretty rough. I know that mine were. In fact, the last few miles of every single one of my marathons has been pretty rough for one reason or another. The pain, the slow wobble back to the car, the days/weeks of recovery... it's never been easy for me.
I'm not alone in this, and for this reason, there are those who say you need to forget all about it before you can do it again. Not that it happened, of course, you need to learn from any mistakes you made in training or execution, but you need to forget the intensity of the pain, or you'll never return to the start line.
Quite frankly, I feel like the pain is part of the experience. I remember quite well the pain from at least three of my marathons, and I still went out and ran the next one, but the point is taken. It helps, in marathoning, to have a bit of a selective memory.
I don't think that's true for P90X.
I remember Kenpo (a kick-and-punch workout) as my favorite of the P90X program. What I had forgotten was the very beginning of the hour, in which we do some squat stretch of which my body is simply not capable. I just don't bend that way. There are actually about 8 minutes of yoga at the start of this workout which came as a surprise to me this morning, having completely forgotten about that. Needless to say, after an intense leg-and-back workout last night, it wasn't a pleasant surprise.
Then I got into the heart of the program. PUNCH! KICK! The only thing missing was a punching bag, which is absolutely on my Amazon wish list right now. By the halfway point, I was into the groove, even completing the double-time and yelling sections (though quietly, because the wife is still asleep).
It was at this point that a small, sneaking suspicion crept into my brain. I forgot about the hard part at the beginning; what if I forgot about a hard part at the end?
The worry didn't slow my intensity, but it did nag at my brain all the way into the blocking section. Turns out, it was unfounded. The rest of the workout was just as joyful and exciting as I'd remembered. It was only that one little section that had escaped my memory.
Tomorrow's schedule is to do the stretching workout - which I do not remember at all - or to rest. My theory right now is to start that workout and see how it goes. If I'm in pain, then I take my rest.
And this is where it gets interesting. For those unfamiliar with the program, you do the same schedule for three weeks, and then get a "lighter" week. (Calling that week "light" is crap, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.) So, beginning Thursday, I get to go back and do the workouts that I've already done with a fresh memory, and I think (hope) it will be a great advantage. There's a lot of strength in knowing that you've completed something recently. I took great notes on all the workouts that required them, and have an excellent baseline from which to work. In theory, next week should be the start of my real growth.
Unless I've forgotten something.
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