Training Times

I have a bit of a secret desire. Every time I go to the gym, I'm reminded of it. I long for it. I crave it.

I want my personal trainer.

Okay, well, I don't really want him in the sense that.. well, you know... because he's a guy and that would be wierd for me... but rather I want his services.

I see my personal trainer at the gym a lot. We say hi and sometimes, if we walk past each other, we stop and chat. But he's a busy man, and I usually just get my workout in and then leave. I'm not a social gym person like others there.

Anyway, lately I've been thinking about signing up with him, to take more lessons with him.

That was not exactly how things were back in 2006 when I first started seeing him. I signed up for 20 lessons back in mid-March of '06 when I was a chunkmaster, when the B in LB stood for Blob. We probably had about two lessons a week, each hour-long sessions, and I cannot tell you how much I used to dread them. He had me do exercises - exercises for cryin' out loud! Talk about WTF...

I never used to exercise. I'm not exaggerating when I say that between 2000 and 2006 I probably exercised less than 10 times. I might have tried to play soccer once or twice in that span, may have played something else a few times, but mostly I just sat on my ass and got fat.

So imagine to my surprise when I was doing lunges, sprints, jumping rope, doing some absurd thing called "circuit training" when you go from machine to machine and workout and repeat the process a few times. I mean, what is that? And then, to top it off, I was supposed to go do two 20-minute cardio sessions by myself each week. The nerve! And that's not even counting the rigid meal plan he had me follow...

Ah yes, the memories. It was actually addicting, once I started to lose the weight, to go and work out. I got used to and embraced circuit training, lunges, sprints, jumping rope... okay, maybe not the jumping rope part because, wow, that was a workout and a half in and of itself.

But we did so many things, and I do nothing now except run. I feel bad that I did not maintain some of those workouts. There are times when I see someone doing some specialized workout and I think 'Hey, I used to do that' and I sort of long for it.

So why not just develop my own plan and go from there? Well, part of this longing is the desire to push myself. I know, running a marathon is about as far as you can push yourself, but I'd like to have something to go along with my running. I'd like to see a professional implement a workout plan for me and see how I can stand up to it, and see what the benefits are. I'd like to do more lunges and toughen up my butt muscles, do some of the things I used to do to help hit muscles in my arms and legs and abdomen and back. I don't want to get all muscled out - and honestly I don't think I could even if I really, really tried - but I would like a little more definition. Maybe. I guess, I wouldn't mind it, although that's not my main motivation behind this desire.

I just want to push myself and I want to see how I respond. And I know if I design my own system and make myself accountable to myself, I may not go through with it. Now, if it's running, yeah, I'll go through with it. But since I have a passion for running but not resistance training, then it takes more of an effort on that end.

I do want to try it out, though, and maybe my trainer will give me a discount... or not. But I do know that he would give me a wealth of knowledge and information.

However much I want to go for it, I don't want to jump into it until after the marathon. I don't want to start something new before Surf City and then try and run with sore muscles. You ever try running with sore muscles? Every step is painful.

So maybe in the springtime I might go for it. I figure, 10 sessions, one a week, and I'd really make some great progress.

Until then, it'll be just one more thing to think about when I run.