Celebrity Encounters

Yet another morning at the gym. I have managed to make it every morning, not counting the weekend. Still feeling pretty good about it. I actually felt worse this weekend not going. Is this the end of sleeping in?! *gasp*

I started to feel the burn about, oh, say, EIGHT minutes into my workout. Not good. I have been trying for 40 minutes lately. Eight is very far from forty. So I tried everything....singing along to songs in my head, mentally planning out my year, and giving out more nicknames (Silicon Valley - a woman with, well, you know...let's just say they don't move like that when I do jumping jacks...and Tai Chi, an older gentleman who's stretching routine looks vaguely like Tai Chi, which is rather entertaining to watch.) Again, it came down to just trying to work through it. Today I was given a little extra help.

About 25 minutes in, one of the trainers came over and decided to give me a pep talk. I am not sure how in pain I must have been looking to merit this motivational speech, but it was actually nice, as it drew my attention away from the pain.

The other distraction that carried me the rest of the way was Quentin Tarrantino. Briefly mentioned before, Quentin is one of the regulars in the early morning. The reason for his nickname is pretty obvious. Now I haven't been working out at the gym long enough to know if there is any kind of unspoken etiquette about choosing a machine to do your cardio workout. For example, when I walk in, its not too crowded, so I never choose a machine that is right next to another occupied one. I usually try to be far away from any other people, because I think that people enjoy having space when they are a sweaty heaving mess. Kind of like those rules guys have about picking a urinal. So to the men, when there are say, 4 urinals and the two on either end are occupied, how do you decide which one to use? (I can hear some of you saying "you wait until one of the guys leave" but in reality I am not talking about urinals, so waiting would not be an option in this case) This is the choice that Quentin had to make. I was on one machine, then there were two empty ones, and then Bertha. (Bertha is a large woman who works out hard when she is there - I always thought Bertha was a hard working name. Not like Bessie. Bessie is sweet, but she just tells stories in her rocking chair and occasionally whips up a mean sweet potato pie. But I digress....) So Quentin chose the machine next to me.

I am not much of a conversational person when I am working out. I am gross, out of breath, and just trying to get past the next five minutes. Plus, I usually have headphones blaring in my ears (sidepoint: why aren't they called earphones? I stick them in my ears....) , so I look inaccessible. During this workout I had to remove one as someone I actually know from outside of the gym approached me to say hello. We had a quick discussion about how early I get to the gym, and how it helps my work schedule, as I can now come in earlier, and leave earlier. It was just after this conversation that one of the trainers gave me my pep talk. So now one ear was open and vulnerable to attack.

"So what do you do that you can take off of work early?"

Quentin was speaking to me.

"Ummm...I am an Executive/Personal Assistant, and my boss doesn't usually need me around until five, so as long as I get my eight hours in he doesn't care how I do it."

We continued to converse about what we did (Quentin is a Nuclear Medicine Technologist), the advantage of being in a medical field that doesn't involve wiping anyone's bottom, the plight of the underpaid nurse, and how we were enjoying our early morning workout routine.

Mr. Tarrantino's real name is Jason. He shook my hand as he got off the machine and left to get ready for work.

I looked down at the time on my machine to see that our conversation had pushed me past the 40 minute mark. Awesome! On a morning when I really thought I would never get past 10 minutes, I was quite pleased.

I haven't weighed myself yet this week, as I don't want to obsess on my weight as a sole indicator of progress. I think that maybe I will do a weigh in at the end of the week. Stay tuned for that.

Are any of you trying something new in your fitness/diet routine?


Listening to: Softly by Lamb (if you don't know Lamb and like music to just chill to, find them)