For the last two weeks I’ve been at my local gym using the stationary bike for my cardio work-out to give my IT band a rest before my first marathon. I love to people watch and the gym is definitely a great spot for that, especially when you’re pedaling for all you’re worth and going nowhere. Listening to Joe Scarborough talking in front of me on the “Morning Joe” show on MSNBC I found myself rather intrigued these last two weeks with a group of people in the gym at the same early hour as myself (and my husband and our friend we carpool with).
Depending on the day, the group has anywhere from 6-12 people working out together. I could hear them behind me all lined up on treadmills being coached through whatever type of running they were doing and then followed them as they relocated around the gym. I’ve watched them do walking lunges with shoulder presses, weight lifting, routines on the Bosu ball, floor exercises, intense ab routines, and various stretches. I knew it wasn’t a class on the gym’s group schedule, otherwise I’d have been in it. I thought maybe they were all training together for the same race, maybe a triathlon. The whole group seemed to be pretty fit, but one woman in particular stood out. She has the muscle tone that I hope to one day achieve and would run, not walk, from one side of the gym to the other just to return a piece of equipment. Her energy is incredible and I can relate to it, but only after two large cups of coffee. She is a woman I admire at 6 a.m. and I can only imagine that her life is fast-paced, healthy, and diverse. Continue reading
Last summer a girlfriend and I realized we were both in a work-out slump. We wanted to be exercising regularly and we knew the exercises we wanted to do (mostly running, Pilates, Yoga, and a few weight routines) and we both categorized ourselves as morning exercisers. However, we were severely lacking the motivation to actually get up and work-out. Somewhere a light bulb went off and we decided to put our cell phones’ unlimited text plans to use and thus began our version of The Buddy System.
When I first decided I wanted to run a marathon in 2009 I set my sights on the ING NYC Marathon in November. I still have my heart set on doing that run, but I also thought it might be wise to run one sooner so that I would know what training was all about and to make sure I could do it. I knew the B&A Marathon was March 1st and because it’s local, that seemed like a good choice.