Mike's Marathon Blog

I am very sore today. My legs actually kind of hurt when I walk. I just ran 3 miles and I’m not sure if that helped or hurt the situation? People always say that when you’re sore, you should do some sort of physical activity to get the blood flowing. Every time I’m sore and I do something active, I always feel like I’m extra sore afterward. Maybe I’m doing something wrong?

I do lower body workouts on Mondays. I usually keep it pretty light, since this is technically my ‘day off’ from working out/exercising. I decided to step it up a notch this past Monday in the weight room. I pretty much doubled the amount of weight I use for squats, lunges, step-ups and the leg press machine. I knew I pushed it a bit too hard when my legs were wobbling on my way back to the locker-room.

I also saw something that I have never seen before in the weight room. I’m typically never impressed with anyone under the age of 45 in the weight room. The majority of people that are lifting a crazy amount of weight don’t come back for a week because they can’t move. They think lifting as much as you possibly can and breaking your form to do it is actually helping them. It’s quite pathetic and almost everyone you see in the weight room falls into this category. There is 1 kid that goes to my gym that is in great shape. He works out right, he never lifts more than he can handle and you can just tell he has been doing it for a long time.The leg press machine is where you kind of lay on your back and you simply push up the weight with your legs. Believe me, I am no Arnold, but just to give you an idea of weight, I usually do 3 sets of 10 with 360 lbs of weight. That is 4 45-lbs plates on each side. I always do this exercise at the end of my workout, so I could probably do 3×10 at 450 lbs if I did it at the beginning. Anyway, this kid jumps on the machine after I get off. He starts with the 8 plates that I had on and keeps adding more every few sets. I forget about him and move on to my next exercise. About 15 minutes later, I glance back over in his direction and what do I see? He has 1,000 lbs on the machine! I actually stood there and counted the number of plates. He had 11 45-lbs plates and 1 5-lb plate on each side! 24 plates in all! He was doing about 8 reps at each weight too. It was amazing. I’m not sure if this is normal, but I sure have never seen it. It was impressive to say the least.

Getting back to my soreness, I went to the gym today to swim. I wasn’t going to run or Spin. I was going to take it easy and just do some laps. I get there and the pool is closed. Of course the pool is closed! I see a sign that says ‘Pool Closed, 12/23 – 12/25.’ Why is the pool closed on the 23rd? I can see the 24th and I can obviously see the 25th, but why today? Did the hot college lifeguards get the day off and there is no one to sit on the bleachers and mock me while I try to stay afloat from side to side? They have no one else that can sit poolside, get paid to gossip with each other, while blatantly ignoring the 15 people in the pool? No one?

I ran on the treadmill instead. For some reason, all the treadmills at my gym face a wall. They are literally pressed up against a wall. I ran for about 25 minutes staring at 1 single brick. Maybe move the treadmills back a few feet and put a TV or 2 on the wall? Hang a poster on the wall, tape the newspaper to the wall – something! Anything! I got back in my car afterward and the temperate read 19 degrees. Maybe that attractive, red, warm brick wasn’t so bad after all?