The Return of Joe The Trainer

Last year I joined a gym and had a trainer named Joe The Trainer. As Ironman Wisconsin got closer, I stopped going to the gym to focus on the bike and run (but not the swim, natch). Then Joe The Trainer quit working there and my membership expired. I rejoined the gym a couple months ago, but it's been tough to get back into the swing of things. It's just hard to be motivated without someone yelling at you.

Well last night I went to the gym and who was there but Joe The Trainer. He's baaaaaaack. First thing he asked me was if I was still doing Ironmans. I told him about the Kona lottery slot and I don't know if he fully understood the implications but he did say it was awesome. I kid you not - he told me I was his "hardest working client" (so suck on THAT, Mrs. Agnes O'Donnelly!) I've told Joe The Trainer many times before that I don't care if he tells his other clients that they're his favorite or whatever, as long as he says it to ME as well. Needless to say I'm bringing him back on the payroll, although I'm a little embarrassed for him to see how much progress I HAVEN'T made in his absence.

Later on in the gym a woman came up to me after seeing my tattoo and asked which Ironman I did. I told her Coeur d'Alene, and she said she thought it mouth have been for Florida because of the killer whale. OK, kudos to her for actually knowing it's a killer whale; I can't believe how many people think it's a dolphin. Has nobody seen Free Willy? When I told her I have a killer whale squeaky horn on my bike, she said "oh, I have the dinosaur horn." Awesome.

She did Coeur d'Alene the same year I did. We commiserated about the freezing cold swim and how we were bother obsessively going online the weeks before to check the current lake temperatures. She told me she was on the Pasadena Tri Team, so of course I asked if she knew Tri Team Tammy. (Anybody who's anybody knows Tri Team Tammy.) Turns out, she borrowed Tammy's squid lid for Coeur d'Alene. It's a small tri world after all.