The need for routine!

Wednesday, July 09, 2014 · Mike Davis

Good morning! Grab a cup of coffee and pull up a stool. Nice to be settled back into Dover and ready to get back to my regimented schedule. The past 5 weeks have been mostly, hotels, airports and restaurants. None of this has been conducive to regular workouts or the best eating habits. Adding to the challenge has been a couple injuries that have thrown off my routine as well. After a couple good interval sessions on a treadmill last week, I was ready for a road run so yesterday my bride and I shook off the cobwebs and managed to cover 5 miles before work. Thankfully my calf did okay, but I still have some weakness on the side of my body that I had the back issues. Backs are tricky and require much discipline as far as strengthening and stretching, but failure to do so has reaching effects that can be felt pretty much everywhere on the body. There are 5 exercises/stretches that I need to be doing every day and I must say that resolve needs to be much better. These exercises are not necessarily difficult, but it is easy to tell myself I will do them later and we all know that later tends not to happen. Yesterday I did them as part of my preparation to run, but this morning I rolled out of bed and went straight for the coffee. I was thinking instead of setting my coffee maker timer I will turn the coffee pot on manually and use the brewing time to do my exercises. Getting into a regimented routine is so critical when it comes to having success no matter what I am seeking to accomplish. Doing something repetitively on the same schedule is difficult with life going on around me, but once I get a month of routine actions, I can pretty much stick with whatever it is. Getting a consistent month is the difficult part and it is not always the life circumstances that get in the way. It is easy to blame traveling, lack of time or so on and so on… for my inconsistent workouts, but in reality most of the time it comes down to the discipline or lack thereof. Travelling certainly requires some adjustments in my workouts, but in most cases the opportunity is there to workout and I need only treat it like my normal routine. I can honestly say that this year so far has been one where I have had no routine whatsoever and while injuries might have had some bearing, I have allowed my circumstances to become an excuse for my lack of consistency. No doubt the couple of injuries I have had have not helped my cause, but even with them I should be doing other things that I am capable of and will help me overall. Whether it is stretching or some other workout, I should always be doing something to improve those areas that are helpful to me. There are many activities that benefit my running and while I preach them to NFLR clients, I have not been doing them myself. Maybe I should go do yoga tonight! Now that I have kicked myself in the butt, I am ready to have the best 30 days of training! I know it is hot outside, but join me in getting your routine back on track. Thanks for joining me for coffee and have a great day! Mike