My friends, Zak the Trainer. Zak the Trainer, My friends...

Well, friends. I am officially giving Zak the Trainer the link to this blog ::gulp:: (Hi Zak!)... I *think* everything I've written about him has been positive... ...Anyways...

Now that you've had a proper introduction....it's high time that you all get to put a face with a name for (the now-famous) Zak the Trainer! These photos were especially taken for Mary-Theresa, who has been asking for this for a long time!!!

Here he is smiling:



And here he is doing pushups ::grin:: (Disclaimer: This picture was totally posed, but it really looks like this. The attempted photos mid-pushups did not work because I was using an iPhone and they don't handle movement so well and I was walking on a treadmill at the time...):



Look at him try so hard!!! I'll start with TEAM tonight, then move onto my (excuse me, Zak, OUR) plan for the next three months.

TEAM. Well, it was the last TEAM of this session! I know, so sad. But so we would forget how sad we were, Zak the Trainer kicked our butts. Bad. I am talking ridiculousness. Multiple long intervals at an incline of 15.0. Holding our arms straight up in the air with weights in them for a whole minute AFTER a series of arm weight exercises. As I told him in class, he was *clearly* trying to push us away so that saying goodbye would be easier. It's ok Zak the Trainer, we'll miss you too. But I won't miss him--cause I'm still gonna see him. We ended the class with a zone 4 run. I made it to 6 mph in the last minute. Yeah, I did. Yeah, I'm awesome!

My Stats:

Calories Burned: 531 (Treadmill)/530 (HR Monitor)
Total Miles: 2.79
Total Time: 53:00 (including cool down)
Ending Heart Rate: 132

Ok. So ZTT and I sat down and made our plan for me! So exciting! You should have seen Zak the Trainer's face when I told him I had color-coded, post-it flagged paperwork!!! But he agreed to all of my demands (I added one: I want him to still do pushups for every glass of water I drink the day before a workout. And since it is only me, he should *clearly* do them with claps). So the plan stands! Also, I realized (and none of you caught it) that I had no goals listed! So I came up with two goals:

1) To lose 100 pounds. (As mentioned before, Zak and I disagree on this. I see his point, but refused to accept it). This number is not set in stone. It is simply a goal. My goal is to be a healthy weight.
2) To prepare for the MCM 10K. My dreams of running it all are long gone, but I still want to put on a good showing!

I meet with Zak for the first session on Tuesday, Sept 22. At this point we will set the rest of the appointments up. I gave him a rough (or perhaps, very specific) idea of what I want:

Week of Sept 20 (Sept 22 6pm)
Week of Sept 27
Week of Oct 4
<Oct 9-19 in Italy>
Week of Oct 18
<Oct 25 MCM 10K>
Week of Nov 1
<Nov 6-8 Ladies' Retreat>
Week of Nov 8
<Nov 19-22 in NYC>
Week of Nov 22
Week of Dec 7

The week of Dec 13, I will either stop everything, sign up for TEAM again, or make another 3 month plan with Zak the Trainer.

Yeah....so...I'm excited for the change up. I am sad that TEAM is over, but excited for some additional flexibility in my schedule!