You know how they say, "When the student is ready, the master appears". Well, that's how this week has felt. For two years I tried to look for gym partners and running partners to keep me motivated but it always fell through. Finally, when I've made a commitment to regularly work-out with or without any gym partners, is when they're coming out of the wood-work.
My 'master' in this case is a fellow Kenyan here at Penn State who I was put in touch with through a mutual friend. We met last week and hit it off. Due, in no small part, to the fact that he also ran cross-country events in High School and has been looking for a running partner. Ding, ding, ding. So we agreed to meet last Wednesday at the Rec. Hall gym. I don't know why, but for some reason, I had assumed that we would be around the same level of fitness, we weren't. After exerting all my will-power into completing a 2-mile (20 minute) run on the treadmill, he walks up to me and asks - ever so kindly-if I think I could run for 3 more miles. To which, I replied by holding back an incredulous look and explaining that "I'd love to but I gotta get in some abs-work as well". And true to his good nature, he gave me an understanding smile and proceeded to finish his 5 mile run.
So that's my target right now, to surpass the master and be able to run 3 five-mile runs a week. I've been working out 3 times a week for the last two weeks with my friends and I'm up to 2.17 miles. Which is an improvement of about 0.9 miles from orientation week. This isn't going to be easy, but most things worth doing never are.
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