Day 17: Shoulders and Arms; Ab Ripper X

4:20.  4:20.  4:20.  I'm not gonna lie.  That still hurts a lot.  Half my battle each and every morning is just getting up when that cursed alarm goes off at a time when God's not even awake.  Spiritually, that's not accurate, but it certainly feels like I'm the only one up.  Fortunately it's summer, so it's not exactly pitch black when I get up.  And the last two mornings, the sky has been brilliantly clear with a huge, bright, almost full moon shining down on me as if to say, "Go back to bed, you nutso!"  You don't get that at, say, 6:00.

That said, it was a relatively good workout.  Shoulders and arms were amazing, and once again, I watched myself in the mirror, marveling at the tone and definition that's starting to really become apparent.  It's a bit narcissistic, really, but don't I get to have a bit of narcissism when I'm working so darn hard? 

Ab Ripper, on the other hand...that one is really the bane of my P90X experience.  I can confidently say I'm frustrated with it and dread it.  All the other workouts are wonderful.  I dread none of them.  Well, yes, I do dread them, but it's a different kind of dread.  My frustration is this:  my abs are my yuckiest feature.  3 kids just took a horrible toll on them.  I want them to be how they were.  Fortunately, I never, ever had a flat stomach, so I'm not being unreasonable.  But this workout kills my legs.  My legs give out before I feel like my abs have a chance to be worked, and therefore, I feel like I'm making no abdominal progress.  I pushed it as hard as I could today, and while there were some minor improvements, I still have a long way to go on this one. 

I didn't smash my face.  I didn't forget to breathe.  I call it success, dead legs notwithstanding.

Day 17:  Brought.