Thank you, Tony Horton!

Since January, I've been *sort of* doing P90X. That's a group of DVDs, mostly geared towards strength training. Anyway, the lead guy is Tony Horton. Guys, these DVDs are pretty hard. I'm just now getting to the point where I can do ALL the exercises EVERY time- lots of push-ups, pull-ups, etc. I've even graduated from girl push-ups to boy push-ups. I knew I had gotten a lot stronger, but today's adventure race practice REALLY proved it to me. We planned to kayak 3-5 miles on the Escambia River. I was already very nervous b/c I did not want to be the one to hold up the group. I HATE being last. Plus, not being able to keep up w/ boys is just plain annoying.

We parked, got the kayaks out, etc. and had to walk them to the shore. We specifically parked away from the shore b/c we wanted to see if we could carry them. (You have to do this during the adventure race.) Okay, so the one I was using weighed 100 tons. I picked it up and propped it on my shoulder, just like I saw in an instructional video. Guys, it was so heavy. I thought I was going to pop a blood vessel, but I did not drop it. I WOULD not drop it. It digging into my shoulder and the bottom part was driving into my hip/pelvic bone. I staggered down to the shore and we all put the kayaks in the water. One of the guys said, "That was heavy! There's no way we can carry those." I took out some expletives there, but I was so glad he said that! Looks like we'll be getting the wheels after all!

So, we get going and start paddling from the Murder Creek to Escambia River, where we would be paddling against the current. We purposefully planned this b/c in the adventure race, half the kayaking is against the current. We paddled for about an hour and I was keeping up, but already feeling it. I was having to work a lot harder than the guys, I could tell. At about an hour and 45 minutes, I was really needing to stop, but would NOT say anything. I had managed to stay right w/ the group, but my arms were feeling like rubber noodles. On top of that, I was pretty sure I had developed multiple blisters on my hands, especially around my wedding ring. After 2 hours, we stopped for a break. My hands were a wreck, I had 5 blisters. I could hardly hold my water bottle b/c my arms were shaking so badly. Here's the conversation we had on the island.
S: How's everyone feeling?
W: I'm feeling pretty good.
D: Yep, I'm a little tired, but nothing too bad.
Me: Yeah, I'm good. (Okay, this was a total lie. I really wanted to drown myself, but knew the water was too shallow.)
S: B, you want to switch kayaks and try a longer one? They say they're easier to move.
Me: Sure (rolling eyes to self)

So, we switch kayaks and WOW, I was really getting the shaft. This kayak was WAAAAY easier to handle. My arms still hurt like heck, but the thing was nowhere near as difficult. I was easily able to keep up w/ the group and could even do some coasting/paddling action.

I did see the benefit to the smaller kayak as we finished up. The smaller one is WAY lighter. When we finished at the boat ramp, I couldn't even LIFT the kayak. My arms were too tired and I was too weak. I did get a good laugh to see that the guys were really struggling w/ theirs, too. Total kayak time- 3 hours, 45 minutes

With all this running, I had thought about ditching the P90X. (I have already cut out a lot of the workouts.) I think I'm going to keep it up just a little big longer. You know, so I can keep up with the boys. LOL. Run strong, friends!