Mike's Marathon Blog

I know I always say this, but I promise that I will start posting more…….starting right now!

2011 has begun and so has my new workout plan. My back is hopefully somewhat healed and ready to go.

I hate the gym. Let me rephrase that, I hate the people at the gym. People hogging equipment, just sitting there watching Oprah while I’m trying to get my workout in and get out of there ASAP. Plus, the gym I go to is small and jam packed all the time. How annoying is it when you walk over to the row of 50+ treadmills and they’re all occupied? It has to be one of the worst feelings in the world. Of course all this aggravation quadruples in the month of January when all the slobs decide that ‘this is the year’ they’re going to drop the pounds. After January you don’t see them again until the following year because they came to the conclusion that sitting at home stuffing their face is way easier than walking/wheezing for a mile on the treadmill. Plus the ‘New Year’s diets’ tend to expire after a few weeks, so quitting the gym and transferring back to fast food for lunch goes hand in hand.

I wanted to see if I could avoid the gym as much as possible this year. I like going to Spin classes on the weekends, but that’s it. I typically run outside (and I have a treadmill at my condo gym if need be), so I just needed to squeeze in my weight training somewhere.

My goal for the beginning of the year is to still give my back as much rest as possible, so limited running and definitely no heavy lifting. I tried to fit swimming into my schedule, but it wasn’t happening. My two options were waking up at 5 am or go while the synchronized swim team was in session. Umm, pass on both. There was an open hour at 10 pm on Wednesday nights. Tempting, but no. Hey Andover YMCA, maybe not allow so many teams/lessons/classes hog the pool so we, the people paying $52/month, can use the frigin pool once in awhile?! Thanks.

Circuit training at the gym is even more of a nightmare. I need at least a 20 square foot area and continuously use many items including numerous dumbbells, a Bosu, bands, balls, etc. Even though the medicine ball is less than 2 feet from me and even some times when my feet are on it, some slob that hasn’t been to the gym since  will come over and take it. Not even an ‘are you using this?’ Nothing! They just take it, sit on the ball right next to you, get their favorite song playing on their iPods and continue being mesmerized by Dr. Oz. You sit there and stare at them with your mouth open, you can even say something to them. It won’t matter. Just remember, they’ll be gone in a few weeks. They’ll be gone in a few weeks.

I decided to set up a little gym at my work. There are a few vacant office rooms that are perfect for a quick workout at lunch. I started gathering some of the equipment I would need when my sister asked me if I wanted to try P90x. She’s been doing the videos for quite some time now and loves them. All of the videos are an hour long and you only need a pull-up bar, a few dumbbells, a TV and a DVD player. From what people tell me, P90x is amazing, but you need to be completely dedicated at least 5 days a week. I can easily do that because I wanted to workout every day at work during my lunch break or right when I get out. I also wanted to do Yoga a few times a week and one of the videos is a Yoga workout. Perfect!

My parents had an old TV and DVD player that they didn’t use at their house, I made a trip to Walmart for the equipment and my sister gave me the DVDs. I ate like a pig and laid on the couch all weekend because the New Year, the new workout and the new diet starts Monday!

I’ve gained around 12 pounds since November 7^th. This is an accurate number. Hard to believe, yes, but it’s true. I am completely out of shape, my diet is destroyed and haven’t exercised in 63 days. And little did I know that I was on the verge of the hardest (non-running) workout I have ever done in my life. I started P90x on Monday. I currently cannot move one part of my body.

Maybe I am exaggerating a bit? I can move my eyelids. I can move my fingers, hence me typing this. I can sort of wiggle my toes, but it hurts my semi-sprained ankle on my left foot. I can shampoo the front of my hair, but not the back. I literally cannot reach that far. It’s hard to imagine, at this point, that I ran the New York City Marathon 2 months ago and couldn’t get through three 1-hour exercise videos.

I took an ice bath last night. An ice bath! After 3 videos! My knee is cut from falling off a chair the first day. I rolled my ankle during one of the horrible jumping exercises on Tuesday. My legs were like noodles yesterday that the wall in my office is barely standing because I fell into it so many times.

Five months to train for Boston and three more for NYC. I spent 2/3 of 2010 training to run marathons and in only 9 weeks I lose every single muscle I worked so hard to build. Urgghhh.

I need to start again next Monday. I can’t continue the rest of the week. I can barely move and I’ve been having nightmares of Tony. Even daymares. So ‘Week 1’ might take me a few weeks to complete, BFD. Instead of P90x, it will be more like P104x. I’m fine with that.

As long as I finish before June 26^th…………to be continued.