*Beep! Beep! Beep!*
Charlotte flailed her arm around a bit before clicking the off button on her smartphone. It was currently 2:31am in the morning, and she had to get ready for her scheduled workout at the gym. Now, normally she wouldn't be up at this ungodly hour, but she reserved a spot with a personal trainer and this was the only time he had available.
"Ugh...who even works out at this hour anyway?" Said Charlotte with the sleep still in her eyes.
She lumbered around the room realizing that a shower wasn't going to happen right now, so she lazily threw on her sweats and made her way downstairs. After affixing a bobble (hair tie) in her hair, she clumsily slipped her sneakers on and grabbed her keys for her car. Once on the road, she wondered if she had enough time to grab a coffee from McDonalds. She reasoned that she wouldn't have the energy otherwise, so a quick coffee pit stop was on the agenda. Unfortunately, she got stuck behind someone who's order got messed up, causing her to arrive at the gym 3 minutes late. As she rushed in the door she heard an extremely loud and raspy voice scold her.
"Well, it's about TIME, young lady! Glad to know the world moves according to your clock!"
"I'm so sorry Clyde--"
"MR. FLETCHER!" Said the 87 year-old. "That's MR. Fletcher to you, youngin."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Fletcher. I got stuck in the McDonald's drive thru longer than expected. I won't let that happen again."
"You youngins and your restaurant coffee. I make a fresh pot at the gym every morning. You'll be drinking that so that we can start on time in the future."
Charlotte inwardly groaned at the notion of drinking straight black coffee. She much preferred sugary indulgences like her French vanilla lattes. Although, part of the reason she was at the gym was because of these indulgences. Charlotte was 5'2" tall, weighing in at 130lbs. Not fat by any stretch of the imagination, but more pudgy than she wanted to be. Given that she just turned thirty, it was high time she got back to her ideal weight of 120lbs. Now Charlotte was a bit of a novice when it came to gym equipment and working out, so she signed up for a personal trainer to show her the ropes. She wanted to avoid the younger, go-getters who push their clients to insane limits. She had no false illusions about running a marathon or becoming a fitness influencer, she just wanted a relaxed old-fashioned approach towards training. But with Mr. Fletcher's initial introduction, she was a bit leery that this was the case. Mr. Fletcher then marched his way over, grabbed the coffee out of Charlotte's hand and popped the lid open to take a look inside.
"Just as I suspected. Are you trying to sabotage yourself before we even begin."
Charlotte's embarrassment prevented her from formulating a response. Mr. Fletcher then walked out to the water fountain and slowly poured the coffee into the drain. After emptying the cup, he tossed it into the trash and slapped his hands together with vigor.
"Alright, youngin. It's time to make up for lost ground. Onto the scale -- posthaste!"
Now this was no modern, electronic scale -- no! -- this was one of those old-timey beam scales with the sliding weights and all. Charlotte proceeded to step onto the scale as Mr. Fletcher vigorously shook his head.
"The bulky sweats need to go!"
Charlotte was a bit taken a back by this demand.
"You mean--"
Mr. Fletcher pinched her sweatshirt near her elbow with his thumb and pointer finger.
"Just this bulky one on top. It's too heavy. We need accurate measurements, youngin."
Charlotte was a bit peeved by Mr. Fletcher constantly calling her a "youngin," but she figured it's how he referred everyone under a certain age. She then yanked the sweatshirt over her head as she then became quite surprised when she caught her own reflection in the mirror. She had totally forgotten to put on a t-shirt this morning, meaning she was standing all the scale with sports bra in plain view. I mean, it was far from the end of the world, plenty of women wear sports bras in the gyms nowadays. The only concern Charlotte had was old-man Fletcher admonishing her for her "uncouth" appearance.
"130lbs and 6 ounces. We've got a lot of work to do, youngin. Back in my day, if a woman your height was over 110lbs, her prospects for finding a husband we're zilch."
Normally, Charlotte would've been incensed by a remark like this, but she decided to take a different approach.
"Well, Marilyn Monroe did well enough with her shapely body, I think I'll be fine."
"Enough with the sass, youngin. Time to jump some rope."
Before Charlotte had a chance to put her sweatshirt back on, Mr. Fletcher shooed her towards the jump rope section. Charlotte figured it wasn't a big deal, since her sweatshirt would've become drenched in sweat rather quickly.
"Alright, youngin. You'll be jumping for 30 seconds with a 15 second break. We'll repeat this for a total of five minutes. On my mark."
Charlotte didn't realize they were going to jump into the metaphorical pool head first, but that's exactly what was happening. And now she had to mentally prepare herself for a grueling workout.
"Go!"
Charlotte started jumping rope as the first thirty seconds went by surprisingly fast. Unfortunately, the 15 second break went by in the blink of an eye. This was the first time she engaged in interval training, and it definitely showed by the three minute mark. She was already bending down at the knees gasping for air.
"Go!"
The next thirty seconds felt like an eternity -- in fact, she could already feel her legs shaky by the end. Another 15 seconds went by in a flash as she found herself jumping once more. After the final break, she barely finished out the set as she panted vigorously for air.