Eye of the Tiger

"When you fail to plan you plan to fail". This is a motto that I first read in "Body for Life" by Art Carey. It is one of the most quoted and least followed slogans in the Orsini household.



Experience has taught me that I am a zombie at 4:30 am. I sleep walk around the house knocking things over, dropping random objects and just being an inconsiderate nousance. This is not done intentionally. It just takes me a while to wake completely up in the morning. It is all I can do to remember my wallet, keys, gymbag and work clothes. Because of this it is imperative that I spend 5 whole minutes the night before packing up for the next day. If I attempt to do so in the morning disaster ensues. I can not count how many times I had to go to work with out one or more of the following items....belt, shoes, socks, undershirt/wear (yes underwear). It is quite embarrassig and has made me the butt of more then one joke around the office. As if another reason is needed?



That being said, last night I decided it would be a good idea to pack up in the morning. I am happy to say that I did not forget anything today though I wasted a good 20 minutes looking for my sneakers and work shoes. Good choice.



This puts me behind schedule and in a miserable mood. I get to the gym and onto the bike trainer and begin my 90 minutes of hell before my 40 minute run. 20 minutes in and I can't get going. I am lethargic, my legs are tired and I am ready to call it a day. At this point a higher power intervened and "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor comes onto the Ipod. Being a child of the 80's and a sucker for a cheesey underdog movie my mood does a complete 180 by the third note. Suddenly I am powering through my workout with an intensity that I could not have imagined 5 minutes earlier. There is no telling what heroic athletic feats I am capable of when this or any song from the Rocky series is played. I am an unstoppable force of nature.



The rest of the workout is a breeze. I knock out 32 miles in 90 minutes doing a series of 65% / 75% / 85% heart rate intervals. I quickly transition to the treadmill and knock out another 4.5 miles in 40 minutes keeping my heart rate at 65-70%. Not particularly fast but impressive for considering I struggled to even jog at this heart rate in the early stages of the the training program.



Tomorrow is a 60 minute swim followed by a 60 minute run. I may just crank the Rocky Greatest Hits soundtrack on the way to the gym tomorrow.