This week has been a pretty great week in terms of superhero training, with a great final day (5 on/1 off this week) of today’s session with my personal trainer. We only have two sessions left, so I’m spacing them out like crazy. I won’t meet with him for two weeks, and so as long as I keep up the motivation I’ve had this week, I’ll be golden.
This week, I went to the gym every morning from Tuesday to Saturday. I varied my days accordingly, but after today’s training, I’ve got new stuff to add into the mix now! Every exercise I learned today hurt like a bitch and was incredibly tough. The best part about all of them is that after today, they’ll all be easier.
Let me back-track for a second, though.
I first met with my trainer (btw I’m likely never going to be able to afford to consistently see a trainer but the gym was running a special…trust me I am not made of money and this purchase was a freak thing but I highly recommend it because getting started at a gym can be rough but back to the point omfg what even) last week, and he had me do a few two-minute assessments on various things, like push ups, burpees, squats, and flutterkicks (as many as I could for two minutes each). All of which, I kinda really sucked at a lot but I tried hard. He gave me homework, which was 25 pushups and flutterkicks every morning and night (so 50 of each daily), because I literally have never correctly done a push up in my life. Every morning and night for the past two weeks, though, I’ve been busting my ass doing these damn things. They’ve both gotten a lot easier and I’m actually really impressed at the difference one week has made. I am actually going to be able to do a real push up if I keep this up! I might be the only person in the whole world who is excited about the prospect of being able to do a push up!
He also said that I should keep a notebook tracking all of the exercise I’m doing, and that has been phenomenally helpful. Every day I track my progress, and at the bottom of each page I leave myself an encouraging note. Accountability and continuity (and self-acceptance and love)!
My biggest milestone this week though, which may not seem like a huge deal to some, is that I continuously jogged 2 miles. Not just once…but twice. At first I thought it was a weird fluke: I woke up on Wednesday completely not feeling like going to the gym, but magically I found myself there (auto-pilot mornings, ya dig?), but realized when I got on the train that I left my headphones at home. No music?! No Zombies, Run? Already feeling like this is going to suck hard? Not the best combination for a 5am gym-goer.
I hopped on the treadmill next to Melanie, my friend and seriously champion in this whole gym endeavor, and suddenly my brain flipped the encouragement switch on. Two miles later I felt like I was made of magic. I registered for the 7k after that, because I knew I’d be more than ready by March.
Friday morning, almost the same thing happened but this time I had my headphones and Zombies, Run, and I pushed myself to jog .20 miles further. Over the course of the next few weeks, I’m going to add between .15 and .20 whenever I can as long as I’m not in pain of course. My knee’s been acting up here and there, but I’ve got sturdy sneakers for general work outs and great running shoes for the jogs. I feel great.
I know it has really only been a bit less than 2 weeks since I started really doing this, but I feel like I’ve adopted this into a basic part of life. Waking up at 5 sucked at first, but now I realize I need to wake up even earlier to get my shit together and go. And I’m getting used to that. I can’t talk myself out of going to the gym, because I don’t want to talk myself out of going. This was probably the best choice I’ve ever made for myself, and all I can think about is which races I’m going to sign up for throughout the year.
I still don’t fully understand where this motivation and switch in thinking is coming from, but I love it and will not question it.
...I Just Want Your Half. 
Great work!
Thank you so much!