2009 Not My Most Memorable Fitness Year

So 2009 has come and gone, which means I’m also turning another year old on January 3rd.  It seems that since I was 23 I have done some very memorable fitness things each year.  Usually dealing with running, first 5k, first 10k, first half marathon, and then first full marathon.  This year was a little different.  I have nothing to show for it, well sort of…

I didn’t really run this year, I did the Omaha 10k on a whim, but that was about it.  2009 was the year of me changing gears and trying to “look” like a fitness enthusiast.  I spent the last 3 years in the best shape of my life, but still looked anorexic, and not very fit.  Which at the end of the day just pissed me off.  How can one run 26 miles, but not look as good as the guys that lift weights 3 times a week.  So after my marathon, I decided I need a trainer.  Someone to tell me what to do, so I could build some muscle mass.  I did some checking around, and was pointed in the direction of Steve Auxier (www.fitnesslincoln.com).  I made my first appointment with him, mid January 2009.  After discussing with him, it became very apparent that doing cardio everyday of the week, and on the off day that I do lift weights, having the same weights routine for 3 years wasn’t going to cut it.  It doesn’t seem like rocket science to figure this out, but you have to remember I was a runner, that was all I knew.

So Steve met me at the YMCA, with a new weights program, and a limit to how much cardio I could do per week.  I was also heavily obsessed with spinning.  So if I wasn’t running, I was spinning.  Cardio, cardio, cardio…I was now limited to 120 minutes of cardio a week.  Or 2 hours.  At first it was very hard, very very hard.  Running was my go to exercise.  If I couldn’t run outside, I ran on the treadmill.  For 3 years, that’s all I did along with spinning.  In addition to my weights program Steve said he also had bootcamps he was conducting throughout the week, and I should come and check it out.  I can still remember the first saturday I went, and I wanted to die.  The warmup, was a 3 mile run.  This was usually my workout during the week.  3 miles and I was done.  After the 3 miles, we went right into a lot of plyometric work, situps, pushups, lunges, all of that stuff that looks easy but can bring a man to tears in minutes.  I loved it.  I remember calling my dad on my way home, and explaining how I have never felt so much pain in my life, but it was a different kind of pain.  I was used to the pain from running, and not only tolerated it, but began to like it.  This was a whole other pain.  And I quickly realized how weak I really was.

So thus began my year of circuit training, weight lifting and just general muscle building.  Steve would change up my weights routine frequently throughout the year, and I attended bootcamps regularly, as well as a Fusion class taught by one of his trainers, Marika.  My goal was to never get comfortable.  Whenever I felt something was easy, I switched.  I’d go back to spinning, or run, or do both.  Just trying to confuse the hell out of my body.  So in closing I don’t have any medals, or PR’s, or much to show for 2009, except I look the best that I ever have.  On a whim for Halloween, I decided to be a Chippendale’s stripper as kind of a joke.  But you can see the me as a runner, and then me now as I broaden my fitness horizons.