Martial arts aside, I've focused on weight training at various points in my life. A couple of those times getting back into it, I did so with a personal training. The most recent one was earlier this year; first I dealt with one guy who claimed he was "testing my limits". I already knew my limits, and I knew that since I hadn't done steady weight training in probably 1.5 years prior to that, it wasn't going to go well. I wanted to go at my pace, he wanted me to go at his. I suspected it wasn't going to end well (ie, I was going to have the same physical reaction I always have when I push myself far too hard, far too quickly), and sure enough, I hit the wall hard. Had to lay down on the floor; even the trainer told me I was looking green. No shit, Sherlock. He went and got me a sports drink to help me recover. That was the end of that session. Curiously, when I went back for my next session, he no longer worked there. I got another trainer, and things went better from that point forward. Finished out my sessions, and concluded (once again) that the best plan for me is to get my endurance up first before throwing myself into that again.
Years earlier, I had a female PT, who rather than try to see whether she could break me, she actually worked with me on tweaking my approach to exercise.
cherri actually enjoyed her PT sessions earlier this year. I did the 3 intro sessions, she signed up for another 10 +1 sessions.
Since that time, I decided it was time to have a go with the
C25k (Couch to 5k) program. Made some decent progress; I wasn't able to progress at the expected rate. Turns out I was trying too hard (treadmill speed set to
, and after dialing it back to 7, I made a breakthrough and continued to progress. Then I got a cold, started to recover, got another cold, finally recovered, and discovered that the time off was a notable setback. I've since made some recovery on the progress, and of late have become fairly busy.
That said, I really feel like when I was at my peak with my running this year, I was probably the fittest I've ever been. I've probably been stronger in the past with weights, but I'm revising my view of what I consider to be fit. I'm less than 5 years from the age my dad died of a heart attack, so you could say I'm a bit motivated to keep pushing my cardio fitness efforts.
At least when I was focused exclusively on weightlifting, I didn't find it boring. If anything, I've felt I couldn't always budget the time I wanted to. Conversely with running, I find I'm keen for it to be over. I've got my music, which helps, but I find I'm spending most of the time staring at the treadmill console. I'll look up and pay attention to attractive women, but there are quite a few TV's suspended from the ceiling. I can try to follow a show on one of those TV's, but invariably some garbage advertising comes on, frequently promoting unhealthy foods. It seems there's no greater buzzkill while trying to run than when a food advert comes on, especially if it's grossly unhealthy comfort food. They aren't the only ads which detract from my attempted focus, but they sure figure prominently. It's hard enough to fight through the lower abdominal pains which crop up late in my run.
Before signing up with the gym, I was seriously considering springing for a treadmill for home. I figure that this way, I don't have to go through the rigamarole of driving 10 mins (best time), getting changed, subjecting myself to someone else's idea of entertainment, which is to say something frequently punctuated with adverts. At home, I'd be able to put on a DVD or Netflix or some such.
Hmm, maybe I'll pull the trigger on that in the New Year.
I still enjoy lifting weights at the gym. The distractions when I do that aren't sufficient enough to irritate me.
So yeah, when talking about a healthy lifestyle, I wish running weren't so unpleasant.
