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A lot of people have asked me how I moved from a “good” runner to an “elite” runner.

It all started last March during a 20k trail race at Rock Cut State Park in Rockford.  I was putting in the miles and I thought I was going to do good in that race, but I completely fell apart.  I didn’t finish in the top 50% even.  Women 20 years older than me were passing me near the finish line!  I have always been a better road racer than trail runner, but this was sick!  Trail running is not always about cardio, it is also about strength (both physical and mental).  To prove how mentally weak I was, let me tell you this.  If I felt a runner was about to pass me (which I hate by the way), many times I would fake a stomach cramp and let them go by.  This particular race I did this like 20-30 times!  If I just had the strength to fight off the first person that wanted to pass me, I would have finished a lot better.

I was watching TV later that night and I saw a commercial for P90X.  It looked hard, almost impossible, but its exactly what I needed to try and get to the next level.  It took me about 3 weeks before I had everything I needed to get started.  But from day 1, my life had changed for the better.  I am not going into all the details of my working out because this is more of a story about running.  But the 90 day program took me about 95 days.  I did it almost religiously, including the diet program.  On top of that, I put in 18-25 miles per week running, nothing further.  I think some of my friends that came over to party were amazed when they woke up and I was doing P90X with a hangover, and then we would start drinking again shortly after that.

Spring 2010 I had a few 5k’s and 10k’s planned, but nothing major.  I noted some changes in my body, but I was not sure how this would translate to running.  This is exactly how it went.  Keep in mind that before p90x, I had planned on running the Chicago Marathon as my next Marathon.
4/24 – 4/25 – got a 1st place overall on Saturday and 2nd place overall on Sunday in 5k’s.
5/1 – PR in Wisconsin marathon 3:18 with running one 20 miler and no other weeks running above 25 miles per week – beating my PR by 11 minutes
5/8 – ran 22 mile euro marathon around lake geneva in under 3 hours
5/16 – ran Rockford Marathon in 3:20 (after doing 6 miles at 8:30 pace)
5/22 – ran a 50 mile trail race that I signed up for the night before in under the elite finish time  (my time was 8 hours and 5 minutes)

Yes I was pretty broken after all this, but I only took 1 day off p90x after each Marathon and was back at it.

After I finished my first p90x rotation, 90 workouts, I cut back p90x to 3 days per week and bumped up the miles to train properly for marathon season.

Yes, this is hard and takes up a lot of time.  It even can cost a lot of money, but it was worth it for me and I am going to do a full rotation again late winter/early spring 2011.  To save you time, I wanted to give you a list of everything I needed during the course of this program.

p90x 12 Disk Series – I bought it for $150 bucks brand new on Amazon.com, but you can go to ebay to get a used copy.  You can also use a trick that I learned from my brother.  Go to ebay and search on “misspellings” of p90x, such as px90 or xp90.  People sometimes listed it incorrectly which means less bidders and a cheaper price for you.

Equipment (I got most of it from amazon.com)
Red, blue, and red resistance band
Perfect Pushup
1 Yoga Block
Pull Up Bar
Body Tape Measure
Food Scale
Work out Gloves
Good Quality Exercise Mat
Weights (I started out with 10 and 15 pound weights, but currently have 5 to 25 pound weights)

Supplements – I did not go with the p90x brand protein bars and supplements.  But I did research and picked up some good substitutes

Protein Bars – Clif Bar Builder’s Bar – chocolate mint

These are the supplements I buy from my local grocery store
Fish Oil
Vitamin C
Calcium
Metamucil Fiber Pills

These are the supplements & drinks I get from bodybuilding.com

Orange Triad Pills

Drinks
Before Workout (its like drinking a Red Bull)
Jacked

During Workout
IntrAbolic

After Workout & as a Protein
Optimum 2:1:1 Recovery, 3.73 Lbs., Mucho Mango

On top of all those costs, my food bill went WAY up.  You are going from consuming 2000 calories per day to 3000 calories per day.  I was also going from eating frozen microwave food and junk to good quality food, which is also another big price bump.

In summary, if you want to kick ass in life and take it to the next level, try p90x.  Don’t just try it, finish it!  Most people start programs like this and never finish.  You have to commit to finish.