Over the weekend I completed my first 5k. It was so much fun and am looking to do other 5ks in the near future. Today I did 45 mins of cardio and some strength training after work.

Weekend
 

I got to the office at 6:00 am this morning, so I thought I'd leave work early to go for a run through the forest while the sun was still shining. The trails were muddy but not icy. The snow on the fields sparkled. I could have sworn I heard a black-winged blackbird. I must have been imagining that. It felt good to be out on the trails again after a week of running on asphalt. :)

She made me do two lots of downsets. On the same machine. It's a whole new level of mean. My thighs are going to hurt tomorrow.

Gym: 1 hr stair master (45/50 intervals), 1 hr Arc Trainer (hill intervals, level 10), and a combined hour of abs, back, and stretching.

It's nice to see Jill, the gym-obsessive, bounding about the gym as always. I wish I could take a photo of her and post it here. Then I swear you'd say, "Wow, no wonder you always mention her. She looks absolutely fascinating." She doesn't like me I don't think (avoids my eye, VERY rarely will smile at me). Still I feel comforted by her presence, the way one does in seeing something familiar and thought provoking.

Why doesn't she like you, do you think? Not, why do you think she doesn't like you, but assuming you are correct, what's the reason that she doesn't/wouldn't?

I don't know you off the board, but you present as someone who would be non-judgemental, open, non-threatening, etc, so it makes me curious Maybe your simple presence of "openness" so to speak, makes her feel too vulnerable, threatened. What's your theory?

Dapper, you ask great questions. Are you a therapist? ;)

I don't know why she doesn't like me or even if she really doesn't like me. All I can do is muse about it. And there's a lot of time to do that working out next to someone at the gym for hours. Maybe I'm not cool enough. Maybe I look at her too much. Maybe she picks up on the fact that I get that there's something strange about her, and my eyes read her in a way that feels threatening/invasive. Maybe she's a guarded person and just ignores people until she knows them through something.

I felt like we had a moment of connection one day recently but it could have just been a mirage, like being in a desert and thinking you see water because you are in such desperate need of it. I had plugged in a dvd player in a way that would trip people. That sounds terrible but I was trying out something new and didn't realize it would do that. So Jill was the first person to trip, a minor stumble. i called out, "Sorry!" thinking it was not set up in a way that would trip everyone, maybe just that one time with Jill. So then Jill got on a piece of equipment nearby. Then this guy came off the basketball court and totally tripped (did not fall but it was a much more major tripping than Jill). I said, "I'm so sorry!" and the guy was embarrassed and also irritated and ignored me. Then I got off my machine and remedied the way I had the cord set up. Anyway before I got off the machine Jill seemed to chuckle at the guy tripping over the cord. However, maybe she was actually chuckling at the t.v. program she was watching. I tried to catch her eye and chuckle with her, not because I thought it was something good to do to laugh at someone tripping because of my stupidity (btw, it was a silent type chuckling that he could not see), but because I was taking my bonding with Jill in any way I could due to its short supply.

Sorry for such a long answer. I was struggling with an answer I don't really have.

Rainy day today. Went to the gym and did an hour on the Arc Trainer (Level 10, Strength program); then 45 minutes on the stair master (45/50 intervals); and then a combined 45 minutes of weight lifting and stretching.

Jill was beside me throughout. I made some efforts towards eye contact and eeked a little smile out of her. She was wearing her tiny tight black booty shorts and her Underarmour white top pulled up so one can see the very bottom of her breasts. I was wearing my Smurf-blue jean cut-offs and my wrinkled over-sized "Honey Badger Don't Care" yellow t-shirt that my mom got me. She was watching sports, and I was watching Caught in the Act (an engaging Court t.v. show where shop lifters are caught in the act).

I also hung out with my friend LaKeesha in the locker room. She arrives every single day at the gym at 4:55am on week days before work. She said, "I have to take care of me before I can take care of anyone else." I do that by sleeping!

Nyc,

I wrote a fantastic response to your post (what other kind of post would I write?), but then I lost it.

I think the bottom line is she thinks you are a creeper (actually, I have several theories, but don't feel like writing them all out again).

I love the way you tell a story...keep us up to date!

Jill has a few very select friends. A female trainer in particular and a tiny smattering of other cool people.

Dapper, I'm so sad your response disappeared :missing:

response to nycfem
 

If Jill would warm up to you, then she'd have one "extra cool" friend.

That's right!
:)

Jill and I are both weird but in different ways. I think that's part of why I'm interested in her. Her story, her "deal," remains a mystery. We're always within a foot of each other but I can't know her beyond what I see.

I have been a slug. I am not sure what is going to motivate me to "get back into the game." Obviously, not this belly I have accrued. Spring/summer, I hope.

Fitness