Help a friend out

Running is a way to escape stress. Scientifically speaking of course. It puts me in a good mood and improves my general fitness. Some however do not look at running the same way and they find it as a way of torture, pain, and misery. It’s a living hell for them and that just goes to show that running is not for everyone. This was the situation for my friend who shall not be named. However, we share a common goal, to meet the requirements to pass Marine boot camp. To do this you have to be able to run a mile and a half in 13:30 at the very minimum. While this is easy for me and I can already do this my friend cannot run a mile in general. So, I started looking up running programs for him and we even got a membership the YMCA together to start running now.

Getting a membership was not easy we did some research for the best and closest one but when we went to go look at it we had to see what they actually had for equipment. The first one we went to was the Y in Auburn but it just didn’t make the cut. Leaving it we felt a little defeated but a minor setback is nothing in our scheme. Getting in our cars only to go home empty handed, well not actually we both accidently took the pens they gave us…sorry. I was parked behind his and I noticed it was taking him an extra-long time to start his car and I was getting worried but it wasn’t until I see his face through a crack of his opened door looking back at me that has the expression of a scared man. His car wasn’t starting so I got out and went to investigate. “I’ll pop my hood and you tell me what goes shakey shakey” he says. I respond with a smile on my face and I laugh while in the middle of an “ok”. The entire engine block was shakey shakey and I am not a car guy by any means but I knew what the problem was, sort of. “Just start your car but when you hear the engine start for that brief second put some pressure on your gas” I said to him and stood back because I had no idea what could happen if it went wrong but catching a piece of hot metal from an exploded motor wasn’t something I wanted to tread lightly with. Luckily it worked and we were off to go look at the YMCA in Augusta.

We walk into the front door and I was already impressed compared to the other YMCA in Auburn as this one had much more to it. A bigger building that looked much more modern and it had a better pool. We got a small tour of the place and the equipment and decided this will work. Now we had our papers we went home to bring them back a new day. Now it was a new day and with our papers in hand we were ready to take on the gym and everything that it had brought with us. We spent the first day testing what we could do as while we had both worked out before it had been a while since I lifted and he ran. He did not exceed any expectations but we had a place to start and that’s something! We ran every day we were there and overtime I saw his mile progress increasing. I would offer tips on how to breathe correctly and techniques to adjust his pace accordingly. We had a program and a goal the only thing next was putting in our work to get there.

At the YMCA my friend also helped me. He was really good at lifting weights so he would always offer me tips on what to do and how to do better. He made a program for me like with running but instead it was for lifting weights to get stronger. It was a simple routine but it was working. I went from only being able to bench where I started five times to being able pounds fifteen times within a time span that was much shorter than I expected. Even my pull ups increased greatly as and that was helping towards my goal. In fact, my friend was so committed to helping me improve that he even got me a pull up bar to install at home when he just happened to be out and about. That meant a lot to me as someone who was so committed to see me improve spent their own money to see it happen faster. Of course, I could not let this go to waste so I did pull ups every day and pushups as well as that was a part of the program. Things were going great we managed out a plan between work schedules and I went from eight pullups to fourteen. We help each other by using our strengths and what know to increase the other persons strength in that area. When I bench I only look to improve not settle and he does the same with running.

There have been times when I did not want to go workout but he always pushed me even though he doesn’t know it. Adding more weight and failing only sets more goals not as ways to feel bad. Watching him lift weights that I can’t even bench once sets a standard and pushes me to become better. I can’t really spot him and he knows this but he has me do it anyways just to push him some more. When we are running side by side on treadmills I will just be warming up and he will be stumbling but I will give him tips and some encouraging words to keep him going. The best friendships are not always the ones where two people are the same but are different enough to create a balance.

Photo on Foter.com