"Enjoy your nasty body"

Big showdown with my personal trainer A. He is not my trainer any longer. We had an argument about the price tag/conditions for his workout, text messages were going back and forth. What happened was that he started to ask me to bring him new clients so that “they pay for what I can’t pay for”. That is ridiculous though because we had a deal to work out for a month twice a week for a certain amount of money and we both agreed on that deal – there was no talking about the obligation to bring him new costumers, I am not a recruiter. I was really disappointed but also I got mad. It is one thing if you are a d*** during class but outside of class, I do ask for a little respect and a decent trainer-client relationship. Anyway, we argued back and forth and at some point I said that I don’t want to discuss this via text message because it is not going anywhere. He then said

“No redone to talk about it in person ‘cause we just talked about it.”

That really pissed me off. He cannot avoid a face-to-face conversation if I am asking for one, after all, I am the paying client and again it is a matter of respect and good manners. So for me – although I have paid in advance for a full month - our trainer-client relationship was finished. 3 days later, I get another text message:

“What day were you thinking for this week Sue?”

Seriously? Sure, just pretend that nothing happened!

“Hey A., based on our last interaction, I think it is best if we leave it as is. I am really disappointed. It’s unfortunate because I think you are a great trainer but I have to be able to trust you as a client and it seems like your conditions for the workout have changed. Take care, I am sure I’ll see you around. Sue”

Well I thought that was fairly friendly from my side. But now see what his reply was. Sit down before you read this…

“I think it’s safe to say that I won’t be dating or marrying a German woman. Way too weak mentally!! If you see me in the street you don’t know me. Enjoy your nasty body ;)”

WTF???? You gotta be kidding me! FYI, I wasn't planning on dating you either. Sorry to all German woman out there, you just all lost your chance to date this guy because of me...(you can thank me later). And I wonder who the weak person is in this case. Many things I could throw back but I won't, I am taking the high road.

Trainer, I think we are done. Game over. I will "pant and touch myself" as much as I want in the future. I can take a lot but I do have a little bit of dignity and pride, there is no need to get personal. And hell yes, I do enjoy my "nasty body" quite a bit!

jump - run - jump - run - jump - run -...

Yesterday, I started the day with 6 am Basic Training class. We worked out with Jenn at Fillmore Street. It is a tough hill but it wasn’t too bad as we were also running stairs and not just the hill. It was a great workout. I was quite busy at work and I worked all day before I met with A.T. in the evening for another workout.

Honestly, I was really scared to work out with him again, last time was really tough… This time, I worked out together with Ryan and Paul, so the atmosphere was different (more friendly). The workout was great. Although, when I think about it, people watching me must think I am nuts for doing this workout. We started with stretching and some agility exercises for “quick feet”. He lined up app. 20 cones for different exercises. The funny thing is that if you mess up at cone 18, you do it again. And again. And again… he is very consequent when it comes to educating people (in terms of paying attention, listening and focusing). Last time when we did the cones he told us to NOT start before the person in front of you has reached the last cone. As I got in trouble for an early start last time, I waited patiently this time.

“So now please tell me, what are YOU waiting for???”

“well last time you told me to…” (oops. I was confused...)

“Last time is in the PAST. This is not the PAST. This is NOW. You have got to let go the past.”

“OK.”

“Last time when we worked out it was sunny, but it is the PAST. Today it’s chilly, that’s NOW.”

“OK, I get it, ok!”

“You gotta let go the past!!”

“OOOOKKKKK, got it!!!”

Arrrgh! Take-home message: do NOT argue with Alhaji… Then my “main program” began: jump rope. Ugh. Me and the jump rope... I am not really good at it. Of course, it wasn’t just jumping rope – every time I messed up with the jump rope, I had to do 10 push ups. Then 10 crunches. Then 10 squats. Then 10 lunges. Each jump-rope interval was approximately 3-4 minutes long and in between, I had to run to a stop light that was approximately 200 m away. And jump rope again. Run. Jump rope. Run. Jump rope. Run….I guess you get the picture. Overall, I did 40 “punishment push ups”, 20 “punishment crunches”, 30 squats and 20 lunges *sigh* that’s how bad I am at jumping rope…haha. Well, at some point even 10 “punishment squats” felt like a nice break from all the jumping… I then did 100 (!) toe touches (for the abs) and 20 “Russian Twists” followed by 20 more squats with a 20 lbs kettlebell. He also made me do the “upswing”-highbar-exercise again. Last time, he had me try 30 times and I just couldn’t do it. Yesterday, I only had to do 10 but…tadaaaaa: I managed to actually do one, hurray! Sounds ridiculous but already better than last week. We did a little more agility training and a few more exercises for the abs, than I had do drag a 110 lbs disc weight across the green and back and the I was done for the day…

A.T. comes across a little harsh sometimes but I think that’s what makes me work out harder (although I do get a little pissed sometimes…). I am not even sure how much of this “meanness” is just a show, I think in fact that he is a nice guy. His workouts are incredibly hard but a ton of fun and I know he will help me to achieve my goals. And I have to admit that he is right in most of the things he says, it is more the way how he says it that I have to get used to… but I am a tough one and I can take it, I just have to stop talking back… ;-)

Running the Nike women’s Half Marathon

Today, I ran the Nike Women’s Half Marathon. Originally I had signed up for the full marathon (it seemed like a good idea in April…) but in contrast to last year when I was running 26.2 miles and trained together with the Nike running club for months, I hardly trained long runs this year. I did a lot of bootcamp, but I didn’t run more than 7 miles since the SF half marathon in July. So I didn’t expect to break my personal record on 13.1 miles but nonetheless I wanted to run the race. It was so much fun, the race has a fantastic atmosphere. It was chilly this morning at 7 am and 2h in the race, it started raining. But by then, I was sweating a lot and I didn’t mind the rain at all. As I officially signed up for the full marathon but dropped out after 13.1 miles, I probably won’t get an official race time (because I got disqualified) but according to my stopwatch I ran it in 2:18:43h – that is 2:30 min slower than my last race. It’s a 10:35 min/mile pace (which translates in 6.5 min/km or 9.2 km/h), it’s not great but considering the huge amounts of hills it could be worse. Running past the Cliff House approaching the Great Highway around mile 8 I felt really great and I even considered running the full race for a minute, but that would have been quite stupid (in respect to injury). And with the next incline in Golden Gate Park, I quickly dropped that idea… (why does it seem to me that even if you run a loop in this park, it is always uphill…?). I want to do more speed training to eventually get closer to a 2h-half marathon time, but it won’t be easy to take 15 minutes off.

Overall, I had a fantastic day and I enjoyed every minute of the race and that’s what it is all about, right? The finisher Tiffany’s necklace looks nicer than last year’s on the first glance but if you look closer, it is really poorly processed. Oh well, at least I got one – I heard that some finishers got a 2006, 2007 or 2008 finisher necklace because they ran out of the 2010 necklace…and the design of the finisher shirt is really nice this year, too. I love racing, I still feel the rush and I want to run another race in a better time (may be a race that is less hilly…). Woot woot, I feel great!!!

"Stop panting and stop touching yourself!" (....!!!)

Yesterday, I probably had one of the hardest workouts I have ever done. I worked out with A.T., a personal trainer. He is a really cool guy and definitely kicks your butt – but for a while I thought I was in hell. For a while I also thought that he felt like being in hell, because he got really annoyed about my bad performance….But let’s start from the beginning.

We started to work out at the stairs near the Fort Mason Center, it was only our second session. Next to the stairs is a steep sand hill and with a wall at the top of the hill, so it’s a great workout location. We walked up the stairs carrying 2x 15 lbs kettle balls and started with some kettle ball swings. We ran down and sprinted up the hill in the sand. Followed by more kettle ball exercises. Ran down, sprinted up in the sand again. Did 10 wall jumps. Ran the hill again. More kettle ball exercises, more wall jumps, more hill sprinting. I am not exaggerating when I say my legs were burning like fire, it was painful and jumping up the wall gave me the rest…I was breathing really heavy (oh well, not a surprise, right?) and he kept saying “Shut your mouth!” and “Your panting like a dog, shut your mouth!”. I didn’t even have the air to argue but I REALLY NEEDED TO BREATH through my mouth, my heart rate was up to 200… A. got really mad at me but I got really mad at him because I needed to breath or otherwise I would have collapsed; but he thought I am “breathing the wrong way” and that I was panting... people passing us listening our dispute gave me this pitiful look shaking their heads (like “girl, why the hell are you doing this…?”). When we ran up the sand hill another time I tripped and fell. He said “Stop touching the ground” (hey, I was falling on the floor, I didn’t touch it on purpose!) and as I was wiping off the dirt he said “and stop touching yourself! Shut your mouth, you are panting again.” Jesus Christ! And the one that was the hardest to take was “You are not a trainer, aren’t you?” Great. No I am not, but I am working so hard to reach my goals. That was a slap in my face. But guess what, I am not giving up because I know that I have it in me! I need some time but I will make my dreams come true. I thought he might jump in his car and take off, he was clearly annoyed (not to mention that I messed up almost all kettle ball exercises… I guess I was more focused on my breathing and on "not touching anything" rather than on holding a perfect squat with a straight back…).

We worked out at the Marina pull up bars afterwards. He showed me an exercise that I couldn’t do – I don’t have the strength to do it (it was something similar to an upstart on a horizontal bar). He made me try 30 times before he allowed me to stop… As he got mad again, I said “Look, I am trying, do you see this??? I am trying! But chances are, after trying 20 times, it probably won’t happen because my muscles are getting weaker with every single attempt!” and he answered: “Look around – everybody is trying, everybody! Stop trying and start DOING it! JUST DO IT!” *Sigh* (later he admitted that he stole that slogan from Nike...I suspected that anyway...). We did push ups, crunches and exercises for the legs, it was the most serious and crazy workout I have ever done. At some point he wanted a "Yes or No answer" from me but I needed to say more than "Yes". As he wouldn't let say more than "yes" I started to get really frustrated so I started yelling "Can I actually say something PLEASE???". He started laughing and said "Is that how people communicate in Germany?" Haha. Sure, we are usually yelling (just like in WWII movies...).

When you read this post it is probably hard to believe that I tolerated all the insults and actually paid for it, too. I wouldn’t say it was exactly fun but I definitely felt great afterwards. I felt (and still feel) every muscle of my legs, my backand my arms. And I truly believe that he can push me to the next level. After the workout, I told him that I don’t want to feel like I am constantly failing and annoying him because that doesn’t feel too great. He said that he is not my friend, he doesn’t like email, facebook or all that kind of stuff, his job is not to be nice,we won't go for coffee, his job is to kick my butt and bring me in good shape. His mission is “to transform me in a Munich beast”… hahaha, that sounds a little dangerous! We left on good terms but I definitely have to get used to his work ethics – I don’t think I had someone talking to me like that before but I also think that this was one of the hardest and most efficient workouts I have ever done! It sounds a little sick but I am already looking forward to our next session on Tuesday!

Hitting the wall (literally)....

Today – just like on every other Friday- I went to the 6 am Basic Training class. It is hard this time of the year because it is pitch-black at 6 am in the morning and working out outdoors is definitely more fun (and less dangerous) when you actually see what you are doing. I should buy a head-lamp or something. Anyway, we ran to the Marina-pull-up bars and did a little circuit with jump ropes, tricep dips, pull ups, push ups and resistance bands (for a chest press). After doing each exercise twice, we ran to the Fort Mason Center to run up the stairs (or, to be more accurate: to run up the dirt path next to the stairs…). There is a wall at the bottom of the stairs and our task was to climb up the wall…Mission: impossible. I think the wall is approximately 2.2 m high (but I might be totally wrong with this estimation), I cannot even touch the top of the wall without jumping. So we ran towards the wall to get some momentum and some people actually managed to get over the wall…I felt more like a fly smashing against a window or something, it was hard to get a grip…but I will practice to get up this wall, it would be a great skill to have, I can’t believe that I had such a hard time. I wasn’t even close to get up there….But hey, the challenge is on! We kept on running and did some exercises for the abs and many more push ups, it was a really great and challenging workout. I stayed to assist for the 7 am class but there were only 4 people today and another assistant trainer, so instead of assisting, I took the class as well…we ran to the Crissy Field center to do some pull ups and plyometric push ups and then headed to the Lucas lagoon for many more tricep extensions, rows, hammer curls, crunches (including decline crunches…) and laps around the pond. It was fun but by 8 am, I was REALLY exhausted and incredibly thirsty. From tomorrow on, I will try to work out twice a week with Alhaji who is a personal trainer. He sent me a text message yesterday telling me to hydrate – I am scared…! I have only worked out with him once but my upper body was sore for 3 days…If I am still alive after tomorrow’s workout, I’ll let you know how it went. Happy Friday!

Back to Basic Training!

I didn’t work out as much as I wanted in Germany because of my cold…now I am back in San Francisco and can’t wait to work out again – I missed it. Alhaji Turai, the trainer that I have once met with the Basic Training instructors contacted me today to ask when we are working out again….I am not sure if I am ready for another Alhaji-workout and also, I am not sure if I will be able to afford it… But without doubt, he would bring me back in shape! But right now, I feel like Basic Training will keep me busy enough, it is already very challenging for me, I am not sure if I need an extra-trainer right now… Our workout this morning was really hard, we worked out with Jenn. It was no joke. We ran approximately 1.5 miles to a place near “la petite baleen”, which is a great place for a workout. There are many square rocks so it’s ideal for step-ups and squat-jumps, toe-taps and all other kind of stuff. We did many exercises for the legs (including endless "wall-squats" and sprints) and for the abdominal muscles, I know that I’ll be sore tomorrow. Jenn is now giving me more responsibility which is great but sometimes I wonder if I will be able to meet her expectations. I really want to be a personal trainer but I also know that I have to make major improvements in order to get there. I can’t guide a group of people where 80% are running faster than I do. I have to get faster and fitter. I think that I have neglected my rest-days as well, I will try a new strategy now. I won’t go to the Bar method as often anymore (may be twice a week) and I will try to push myself beyond my pain-threshold in Basic Training workouts more often. I really want to perform well and follow my dream. I know I can do it!

A great day in Munich

Last Saturday, I met my friends Netty and Christian from Dachau. Christian had to work on the Oktoberfest (he is a MD) so Netty and I decided to join him to stroll over the “Wiesn” and get some drinks in our favorite restaurant in Munich afterwards. The Oktoberfest was CRAZY! We arrived there around 4.30 pm and it was insane…thousands of people and pretty much everyone was drunk. Most of the beer tents had closed their doors because they had too many people in already… we didn’t go there to drink beer (we prefer cocktails… but we wanted to buy some souvenirs). It was almost stressful to be there sober, seriously…being surrounded by so many drunk people isn’t funny, particularly if you have to pay so much attention that no one burns you with a cigarette, drops some mustard on your clothes while eating a sausage or – even worse – starts vomiting next to you. We also saw a pair of jeans that had no owner (unfortunately, we didn’t see the owner who must have been “pants-less” at that point…). We escaped the Oktoberfest fairly quickly and had dinner and drinks at Joe Penas, which is our favorite place for cocktails. We picked up Christian at the Oktoberfest on our way back home and as we got there before his shift was over, we were allowed to wait in the waiting room for the medical professionals. It was so interesting to see what is happening “behind the scenes”..! If you see how many people get injured you start thinking twice whether to party at the Oktoberfest again…it’s quite scary. That night alone, almost 50 people needed to get stitches (most of them get hit by a stein)….It was a great Saturday and despite all the drunk people, it made me realize how much I miss Bavaria, its people and all its traditions. I love California but my heartbeat is still Bavarian.