My First Blind Date and it Involved Sweat and Stretching!

Yesterday I had my first blind date, and it was AMAZING!

In March I invested in a personal trainer. Best money I ever spent. GeraldDean was amazing, she quickly whipped my ass into shape. She never took excuses and always pushed me harder. GeraldDean was Irish and was (at one point) a part of the Celtic group River Dance. I don't know if it was because of the Irish superstition of luck, but whenever I had an exercise with reps she always made me do one more for luck. And it became a habit of mine to always push to do one more sit-up, pushup, pull-down, etc, for luck. GeraldDean trained me until my first half-marathon in October (Disney Wine and Dine) and when I got back I had a message on my machine. Because of obligations to her dancing troupe in Long Island and future traveling she was quitting my gym and no longer employed as a personal trainer. My heart sunk, she was my rock in this new journey of mine.

So I decided that I would take sometime to train myself, using what she taught me, and I hit the road. After 2 months of being MIA from the gym I finally went back, more because it was too cold outside for a decent run. While there I bumped into the head of all the trainers and he informed me that I had 5 more sessions left. Not wanting to waste the money, I told him that I would like someone who could help me improve my pace and teach me to be a stronger runner.

The next day is when I met her, my new trainer. Alexandra was amazing. A triathlete who refused to train anyone who wasn't either a runner, swimmer, or biker. We did some great strengthening exercises  (which I will post about later) and when we were finished she stretched me out and rolled a medicine ball on my stiff muscles. It was the best experience. Along with the training, every four weeks we will do a session where she takes my biometrics and determines my future workouts based on the results. She also promised that within the next few months I will see an improved pace (we shall see, keeping my fingers crossed).

The funny thing was, every time I would slow down during a rep she would look me in the eyes and say in a greek accent "You are a Runner. A strong, determined Runner." You bet your ass I am!