Friday, June 08, 2007

Laughing All The Way

The Last Second of Sunset, 5/21/07. Most likely the last post before my trip.

Thursday was the last workout with my trainer, Guido, before my vacation. I don't know if it was the upcoming break or our moods, but we laughed through the entire hour.

It started as soon as we began talking.

I joked that Roger Clements (overpaid, aging pitcher soon to start for those Damn Yankees) has a "tired groin" because scar tissue from an earlier injury is starting to break up. Scar tissue from my foot surgery last January is breaking up, too, so I wanted to be excused from doing some moves because I have a "tired toe." Yeah, that didn't get me as far as it's getting Roger.

I whined. I still had to do the moves.

During bench presses (I'm using two twenty-pound dumbbells!! Twenty Freaking Pounds!!), I got a new nickname: The Debinator. I like it as much as a name the kids gave me when I was a substitute teacher: Roby-wan Kenobi. I was always teaching them stuff that went beyond the lesson plans...

The laughs continued through funny stories about earlier workout session: the Jim Brown story while we did wall squats; the time I threw a fit about an exercise; the time I almost fainted:

I breathe poorly while working out, gulping air like a guppy then holding my breath. Not a good thing. Guido can spend a third of my workout telling me to breathe. (Breathe in, Deb. Now out. Now you have to remember to breathe back in again...) I was doing lunges across the basketball floor and apparently gulping and holding my breath. When I turned to start back, it was time to stop and catch my breath or time to faint. I chose catching my breath.

"We stopped and went on to something else at that point then, right?" Guido asked Thursday.

I gave him "that" look. "No. You let me rest for 30 seconds then told me I still owed you eight lunges."

He couldn't believe that he made me continue and that I did.

Well, yes, he could. That's the relationship we have. He pushes me a lot further than I'd ever push myself. And afterward he marvels that I do it all (with a minimum of whining). We always surprise each other. Makes it worthwhile doing the work.

While we did the weight and measure thing, he asked me for details about my trip. I told him we were flying into Istanbul and staying at a hotel with a view of the Bosphorus Straits.

"That sounds beautiful, Deb..."

"Um, Guido, you haven't the faintest idea what the Bosphorus is, do you?"

"Nope. Not a clue! But it does sound beautiful!!"

Yes, a geography lesson followed. I earned that Roby-wan name long ago for a reason!


Check out my other blog: Deb's Daily Distractions

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