Back on the Fitness Focus

I am competing in a triathlon in 2 weeks. Maybe it is time to get serious.

Of course, it was less that 2 weeks ago that I got drafted into competing in the triathlon.

In previous blogs I have mentioned my attempts to get a personal trainer through the local community center to help me focus and give professional guidance to my workouts. But that didn’t pan out. The one trainer just didn’t seem to understand me, despite simple direct statements, and none of the others could mesh their schedules to mine, despite my attempts to be flexible. They finally had to refund me my personal trainer package I had purchased.

But today I am back on the fitness focus. I got to start-up my sessions with Jesse Samborski again.  I first met him at the community center while he was working there, and was disappointed to find he was no longer at the community center when I came back from my wrist injuries.

So, refund from trainer package in hand, I was able to roll over to Jesse’s personal studio: Jesse Samborski Fitness. Simpler and smaller than the community center, it certainly had enough to wear me out fast enough.

https://www.facebook.com/jessesamborskifitness

The strategy today was to work on my endurance by pushing fast and hard to raise heart rate, so that when I am actually doing the endurance swimming/biking/running, I pace myself well and never have to reach that extreme level.

It was easier to get back into the workout with Jesse at his new place than if I were starting with him as a first-timer. But even from the beginning I was reminded why I liked him before. He is bright, cheery, encouraging, and focused on understanding me and what I wanted.

Back at the community center I first went to him to get better strength and shape for my swimming. Since he wasn’t a swimmer he didn’t always understand the specifics of what I wanted, but he kept asking questions, focused on me, and educated himself.

I don’t need someone to be perfect, or to communicate perfectly.  They just need to stay engaged and let understanding come. It is something I have learned through my inter-cultural communications at work.

Enough digression. We did stage coaches, wagon wheels, donkey kongs (interesting names for these exercises, eh?) and a couple other exercises in rotating sets until my efforts were obviously flagging by the final set.

Exhausted, and it felt great.  All that was left now was the 3-mile bicycle ride to get back home (did I forget to mention that I warmed up by riding my bicycle to his studio?).

When I mentioned to Jesse that I was riding the bicycle home, he said he should have left me some energy for the trip, to which I replied — why start now. I’d always been riding my bicycle for my earlier workouts with him, and somewhere I found the energy to get home on the bicycle each time.  Just some good practice in building up my endurance for the triathlon.