Michael Maxey

I have been in the US Air Force for 18+ years and it wasn't until fairly recently that I started to worry about my career due to my fitness (or lack of). Below is an e-mail I sent out to my folks after I decided to make a change, hoping it might inspire someone to do the same (edited due to length req's):When I arrived at the 2d MRS in May 2010 I weighed 205lbs, had a 38.5 inch waist and when the commander self-tested us in August I could only do 45 push-ups, 54 sit-ups and I ran the 1.5M in 14:15 minutes! In case you don’t know, the run time is an automatic fail…so is a 39.5 inch waist. It took me about a month after my Aug revelation to get my head together and formulate a plan. I wouldn't let fitness be the downfall of my career.Here's my routine that helped make a fitter me:Tue – Run 3MWed – Interval/Sprints Fri – Stationary bike for 30mSat or Sun – Run 20 out and 20 back RESULT: From August to October, I dropped to 175 lbs, lost 4 inches in the waist and could run the 1.5M in 10:35. Right now, I am sitting at 170lbs and a 33 inch waist, I can do 60 push-ups and 72 sit-ups in a minute and I run a 10:00 1.5M weekly AFTER running an 8:20 1.0M. If anyone thinks they can’t do it, I’m living proof it is possible. Of course, all this was possible with my RS200SD Polar training computer. Monitoring my heart rate and either increasing or decreasing my run speed helped me fine tune my training. Without it I feel confident that my goals would have been harder to reach.