The Buddy System

This past week my big sister Melanie came to visit me. For the past 3 months I've been working out by myself, but I was excited to have her there with me and "show her what I could do." Melanie is a runner (training for her 2nd marathon), but doesn't get as much cross-training, so was excited to join me on my various vigorous activities.

We had fun in all my classes, going about my regular routine. She was surprised at how difficult yoga was. That was secretly (well, not so much now that I'm writing about it!) exciting for me to hear, because yoga has been one of my favorite classes, but one that really really challenges me. As in, after 3 months of yoga, I can finally hold most of the basic poses for nearly the whole time the instructor says too. Then again, there are still a handful of the weird contortions that I don't even come close to trying. ;)

Going to my session with my trainer Dave was exciting too. Dave runs me through a variety of weight stations alternating with things like cardio or abs. I alternate 2 activities doing a rep of 15 each time. With Melanie there, we just switched off activities. Dave has wanted me to burn 400 calories in our 30 minutes together the whole summer. The closest I've gotten is 350, usually it's closer to 300. It's hard to get that high since it's not strictly cardio. With Melanie there, I pushed myself harder, doing extra reps when she was being a slowpoke (in her defense, it was usually because Dave was having to explain the exercise...), kept my heartrate up better, and just pushed myself more. I wanted to "keep up" and show her how strong I was.

Well, I burned 390 calories in that 30 minutes! Thanks, buddy, for helping me break my record. :)

The best thing about having a workout buddy this week was that she helped me get back to the gym when I didn't want to go. I've done really well this summer not making excuses, but I have started to slack a bit as the summer comes to an end. With Melanie there, since we said we were going back in the afternoon, we went.  And I remembered that I actually do feel good when I follow through and work hard.

I'm proud of myself for doing all this hard work on my own, but it was a great change of pace to have my health buddy this week. Thanks for coming Mel!