A Leg-Trembling Workout

On Friday morning, Paige and I had a workout set up at 8am.  We were to meet at the Lock and Dam (remember that park that was closed last time we tried to use it, due to the government shut down?).  Well, the park is only a few miles away from Paige's house, literally, just down the road.  It's actually my favorite park to get in a good workout.  There are stairs, a running track, benches to use, basketball courts, and a lovely view of the Columbus Dam.  I always say, if you close your eyes, you can pretend you're on Cape Cod, with the sound of the water and the seagulls ;)

So, I wanted to introduce Paige to this park, as we near the end of our journey. I want her to have options for things she can continue doing on her own, just down the road.

At 8am, I arrive and set up the mat and medicine ball we'd be using during our workout.  Then at 8:01, Paige still hasn't arrived. It's a long road to drive down to get to the park, so I figured she was on her way.  So, I waited a minute. 8:02 came around, and I decided I didn't want to sit and wait, so I started running up and down the stairs that lead down to the river.  (about 40 stairs down).  At 8:03, I get a message saying: "Running a few minutes late, but I'm on my way."  So, I figured she'd be there by 8:06.  At 8:07, after completing several laps on the stairs, and breaking a sweat, I began getting perturbed.  But, nevertheless, at least I knew she was on her way, and lived less than 5 minutes away.  So, several more trips up and down the stairs.  As I come up the stairs at 8:13am, I see Paige at the top.  I'm in a full sweat now, having been running up and down the stairs for 10 minutes straight.  So, without further ado, we begin our workout.

We start with a 1 lap jog around the paved track at the park.  It's 1/2 mile long. I told Paige that it was 1/3 of a mile, but I was wrong. It was .5.   I wanted to understand why Paige was late, and how she's going to maintain this fitness and healthy plan over the holidays. She was late because her alarm never went off.  And then she had no clue how she'd maintain her exercise during the holidays.  Basically, in her unspoken words, she wasn't planning to exercise.  That's NOT music to my ears.  So, I had her promise to me, that if she didn't workout in the morning next week, she'd do it before coming home from work.  Let's see how this challenge goes. (There are only 2 or 3 work days next week because of Christmas! So, not a hugely overwhelming challenge in my opinion).

We then jogged over to another set of stairs (about 20 stairs in this set), and I told Paige she'd be going down and up 13 times.  13, because that's how many minutes she was late.  This took us about 10 minutes, and by lap 8, Paige's legs were trembling. Plus, I made her step up 2 steps at a time. She knew she wasn't getting out of this one!  With a bit of light headedness along the way, we slowed down and finished and took a water break.

Now, it was time to start the circuit.  We began with 10 Bench Pushups. Then we did Medicine Ball Rolldowns, V-Sit Twists, Bench Dips, and then Bench Step Ups.  Upon finishing those, we went down and up the longer set of stairs (the ones that I had been running before Paige arrived).  That was our circuit.  We got back up, and repeated it from the beginning with the pushups.  We got through the circuit just two times, due to the late start, and the additional trips up and down the steps.

And, of course, I forgot my fortune cookies, so I told Paige I'd pick one for her, and here it is:

Fitness is not a fluke. It's the result of hard work.  You get better the more you practice. But when you don't practice, you can't expect to get better.  I hope Paige realized that she needs to push herself harder on her own, and hopefully, enjoying the fresh air, was a great option for her to continue with, once she's got to be self-reliant.  (I hope I hope!)

16 Days Left

With 16 days left in our 6 month journey, I feel like I've lost control.  I am scared that Paige is avoiding me like the plague, and has zero interest in continuing on this health journey with me.  (Though I hope she continues this journey on her own for the rest of her life, and I am always here to help her when she wants help and is ready to ask for it!)  Maybe it's because of my video blog, where I laid out my truth.  I've never heard her side of the story, though.  We've worked out since. But there almost a dead-ness in her desire and motivation.  Paige's energy was dismal, at best, and I could tell she would have rather been anywhere, but there, with me, working out.  Even in our small group personal training class, I could tell she would have rather been anywhere else but there.

I've had to let go of taking it personally, but I do.  Is there something more I could have done? Could I have made it more fun?  In fact, others in the class (who are also following this journey), have come up to me and said how great of a time they have working out in the fun class environment, but that it looks like Paige was miserable and didn't want to be there.  Usually, I say, well, if you don't want to be there, then don't go.  But I care. I care about Paige, and I want her to succeed.  I want her to have fun too.  What's going on? I have no clue. I have lost control.

In fact, Paige hasn't put any effort into scheduling our weekly personal training session, for the past several weeks.  At this point, I had hoped she would be making sure that she got in every training session she could fit in, and make sure that we came up a time to workout each week together.  I tried to give her options to workout on Friday, as our usual agreement, but it didn't work out.  She had other commitments that were more fun. So, skipping the workout is the first thing to go.  Has this every happened to you?  It's a sad reality, but when time is tight, usually the first thing to go is the workouts... Well, that's not my reality. Sometimes when time is tight, you have to see the workout as being as important as a doctor's appointment.  Because, essentially, it is.  You wouldn't skip a doctor's appointment if you had one.  That's how I feel about workouts, especially workouts with someone else.

At the beginning, Paige agreed to write 5 short blog posts per week about her journey.  Lately there have been none. It's been several weeks since a post.   So, if she's not living up to her end of the bargain, why am I?  Well, I'm trying to, because I care.  I just want her to care as much as I do.

16 days left in this journey, but a lifetime left in her own journey.  It's crunch time, but I can't crunch for her.  She has to find the "crunch" within her self.