Marshall Ramsey

The highest compliment I can pay a workout program is this: After seven weeks, I am sore.  That means I’m still being challenged and I’m growing (and shrinking around the middle).  Bravo to Paul Lacoste and the coaches. But wow: This week was a #$%#$.  It was REALLY tough.  I’m wiped out.

I mean, we ended it by hopscotching around a track. Sure, it sounds simple. But it’s really not. My ankles hate my guts. And the rest of me.

But Wayne put in perspective with a quote from both Zig Ziglar and Roger Staubach:

There are no traffic jams on the extra mile. 

Of course, there are broken down and abandoned vehicles.

At this point, we’re tired. It would be easy to quit. How many times in your life have you felt like saying, “#$% it, I’m outta here!”?   That’s where this kind of training comes in handy. It teaches you to perform when you are tired.

Sports isn’t life. But it’s training for life.  Finish it. Finish it strong.  Five more weeks until the next level.

I’ll be hopscotching it the whole way.

P.S. Found out that Coach Austin is from Georgia, too and that his father played at UT when I was a senior there.  While his dad was butting heads, I was drawing cartoons.  It’s a small world.

Ran into a friend this morning at the convenience store.  He said, “I heard you’re doing Paul Lacoste training.”

I nodded. I was still sweaty from this morning’s workout and was hoping not to be recognized. My luck had run out.

“I had a couple of friends who’ve done the training. They said it was really hard.”

I thought about this morning’s training. About having my feet on a chips and salsa tray and pulling myself across a football field with my hands. I thought of doing shuffle drills while bear crawling. I thought about how sore my shoulders were.

“And they said Paul is really tough on you and yells a lot.”

I smiled and thought about Paul pushing me to be better. I thought about his fuming and cussing. But then I thought about how life is so much tougher. How much it has pushed me. I thought about my doctor telling me I had cancer. I thought of my boss making me part-time and the pain that caused. I thought about how I overcame both. Paul is a piece of cake compared to cancer or a career change.

“One of my friends got injured,” my friend continued.

I thought of my shin splints the first time I did PLS. They hurt. But I started at 250 lbs and had a 41-inch waist. I was headed to heart problems or worse. Then I thought of my mom’s heart surgery. That hurt worse than shin splints.

“But you really look great.”

I thanked my friend for the compliment (even though I looked like hell since I had just had a rough workout full of bear crawls, indian runs and more.)

I then said,”You know, it has given me the mental strength to allow me to reinvent my career.  I have energy I’ve never had before.  It has changed me for the better.  Yeah, it’s hard. But life is harder.”

I bought a bottle of water and noted my friend’s Coke.  We said goodbye and headed on toward our day.

Maybe I am near the next level after all.