Reflecting Light: The Last Thing I wanted to do...

And I mean the very last thing I wanted to do tonight was head to the gym and meet my trainer. I fought it the whole way but I knew that if I put him off that he actually wouldn't let me put him off. He's kind of awesome about that...in the short time that we've been working together he's figured out just when he can push me-and when to give me a break (albeit a SMALL one). He helped me get ready for the 10K I ran last Saturday by getting my core strengthened and making me run in between all of these horrible exercises I swear are in some torture manual somewhere. And then he'd have me do another round. Or two. But that is what makes him a good trainer. There is no way on earth that I would have pushed myself to do even half of what he made me do-even knowing what we've worked on...the thought of having to recreate it without him encouraging me along the way makes me doubtful that I'll actually do it. Today's routine started like normal-with a warmup run on the treadmill-normally it's a mile but today he made it a mile and a half. From there on out each set was punctuated by a quarter mile run on the treadmill. As I was doing the last one I huff/puffed said to him-you know...a lot of this exercise thing is mental. He agreed and pointed out that the knowledge of knowing that I could do what he put me through will carry me through that next race I train for. The big one is coming up--I took the plunge and signed up for a 10 miler. A few crazy people are going to do it with me. I love them for it (they know who they are). I never in a billion gazillion years thought I would be this person that does these run things. But I like it.

Here are a few pictures from this past weekend's Wicked 10K. It was a blast.