There's one particular student this semester whose class schedule lines up very well with mine– we're in all the same seminars this semester. So we decided to start going to the gym together too, as we sure had similar availability. He suggested we start meeting at the gym at six. Not the good six, but the morning six.

Now, I'm not saying I decided not to reenlist in the Marine Corps because of early-morning workouts… but that did fall under the "quality of life" rubric. I countered his six AM proposal with seven, and that's what we've started doing.

He claimed to be a night owl, which I found frankly unbelievable– what kind of a night owl voluntarily gets up for an early morning workout? But today I discovered the truth, he wanted the earlier session because he stays up that late. In fact, after our workout he stays up for our 10 AM class. He goes to bed after that class lets out, then gets up again in the evening.

I used to think I was a night owl myself. With him as a comparison, I'm no such thing!

Our workout sessions have been interesting so far. He's introducing me to racquetball. I'd knocked the ball around a few times in my life, but we're actually following the rules and whatnot. (That was Friday.) Today, we went for a run. We also discovered that we're both sort of politely hyper-competitive, so that while running together neither of us was willing to suggest an end to the run. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore, declared a final lap for myself, and sprinted it out to the end. He couldn't hang with me in the sprint, but made it up by taking one more lap on his own.

For both these workouts, I was wearing my Vibram Fivefinger "barefoot running shoes", while he had similar shoes of a competing brand. I did get those shoes last year, but over the summer almost all my aerobic work was biking. I've lost the barefoot calluses, and my feet are not so good right now. Being politely hyper-competitive, I refuse to show weakness. But I'm going to suggest we swim laps in the pool for our next session, "because cross-training is a good thing".

Posted by: Boviate at 12:36 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 381 words, total size 2 kb.