Mike's Marathon Blog

I may have mentioned it before, but Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays I go to the gym during my lunch break. Mondays I do lower body and Tuesdays and Thursdays I do upper body. I also do upper body exercises on Sunday morning. I have lifted in the past, but I wasn’t too serious about it and I don’t think I was really doing anything correctly. I currently have a great plan in place and I am extremely excited about it! I also scatter my lifting workouts over 4 days for a reason. I like to set realistic goals, especially when it comes to exercise. I feel many people do not do this. Everyone says ‘I’m gonna start going to they gym 7 days/week and eat salads for breakfast, lunch and dinner.’ Unfortunately for most, this plan ends about 2 weeks into it. I built my schedule around realistic times and I have realistic goals in place.

I do not go to the gym after work because ‘things always come up.’ Tuesday you are meeting your Dad for dinner, Thursday you’re grabbing a few drinks after work with some colleagues, Saturday you have to travel to Connecticut to visit your old college roommate. These are the weeks that you look back on and realize you didn’t make it to the gym at all! Everyone has these weekly surprises that prevent them from sticking to their schedule. For example, Friday after work. Who plans on going to the gym Friday after work? It’s not going to happen! Ever!

This is why I workout in the morning. There are no surprises at 6 am! I’m either sleeping or I’m at the gym. Lucky for me, I hate sleeping. I can’t wait to get up! I don’t always think that when my alarm is going off at 5:20 am, but I get up anyway. I also schedule my upper body workouts during my lunch breaks. This actually kills 3 birds with 1 stone. I get my workout in during the day as opposed to the morning or after work, I don’t go out and spend money and more importantly, I don’t go to Fuddruckers for lunch with my co-workers and stuff my face with burgers and fries. Although, I did go to Bertucci’s with them the other day and I did not eat 1 roll! That is willpower my friends! I thought it was humanly impossible to not eat one of those rolls, but I did it! I am seriously in the zone.

I Spin and swim tomorrow morning and then Saturday is the big day! Saturday will (hopefully) be my first run in over a week since I hurt my ankle. I am very excited, but also very nervous. If it doesn’t go well, I will most likely head to the doctors afterward. Keep your fingers crossed! Also, will someone please have 911 on standby around 10 am? I will be on the side of the road or in someone’s yard somewhere on North Street in Andover. I will flag down the ambulance from the ground. Thank you.