Am I That Predictable?

I have an 11.30 meeting this morning which annoyingly straddles lunch. L forgets all about it and when I don’t respond to her emails, she naturally assumes I’m in the pub. Typical. Am I that predictable? The meeting finishes at 2.30. Now I need the pub.

L tries out the personal training plan I’ve given her. Though she's confused about the bit I've called 'warm up'. I know she is from the way she queries ‘Warm up? What's that?’. I tell her not to worry about it, just to do her own thing for the period I have specified. We can get more technical later.

Despite following my PTT she also insists that she MUST run outdoors tonight. So I suggest that my client joins myself and my two four-legged helpers on a run together tonight... and why not, they say that running on a regular basis can slow the effects of ageing. We all need a bit of that. Wonder if this still applies if you run with two collies.

The curse of St Swithin's Day continues to strike. It's foul again, thundering as well but then later, oddly its fine enough to train the boys in garden.

Then we do the promised run, with me attached to the two wayward collies. Although after a good training session they both look too tired to be too wayward. MD even runs at my side most of the way. Well actually just in front, so that I almost fall over him. I think it’s his way of trying to get me to stop.

It’s a pleasant run, made even more pleasant by stopping off on the way back to share a bag of Quavers with dogs, oh and a swift one to wash them down.

(Thursday 15th July)

Boredom Threshold

My first customer as a personal trainer is getting impatient. Well, my only customer, L. I’ve not got her PTP (Personal Training Plan) ready yet. I will finish it today and bring it home for her tonight. The question is... just how hard do you flog your nearest and dearest...

My brief is to help her take around 4-5 minutes off her 10k time. This means getting her to run at the required pace. So I’m starting her off running a km on the treadmill at this speed, then gradually getting her to increase the distance. Not that running too many km’s on a treadmill is desirable or even possible. The boredom threshold for treadmill running is very low.

In addition I’m trying to get her to do 5k bike sessions at a higher power level (getting technical now) than she’s used to, to strength her legs. Each week I hope to check progress with a timed km stretch on the road, to see how close we are. When I’ve got around to measuring such a stretch.

I’m reckoning that she already has the stamina to do 10k at the required pace, she just needs to acquire that pace... I reckon I can do it... and hopefully not fall out with my client. Particularly as she’s paying in kind.

Training is cancelled again. Yet I still go round to my father’s as pre-arranged, though was supposed to be after training. Its a sneaky way of letting someone else stand out in the rain and exercise the dogs.

(Tuesday 13th July)