never trust a personal trainer

i should know, as of this week i am one.

brief recap: about a year ago i signed up for an outdoor, early morning, core-strength 'boot camp' thingy; one of those 'get-up-early-run-around-outside-and-do-lots-of-exercise things. it sounded like fun, and because i'm a freak it was fun. after i'd been doing the class for while the folks who were running it asked me if i wanted to teach it, and i said sure. i figured since i was doing it anyway i might as well get paid for it, plus, if i was teaching it would be harder for me to slack off.

since i had never done anything like this they sensibly, suggested that i get some training, and to that end i went to sacramento for two days on a weekend to take a class from a woman who runs an outfit called 'outdoor action fitness'. other than the unfortunate acronym, the instructor's predictable blond ponytail, and somewhat creepily over-worked-out other people in the class it was fine. none of the information was especially earthshaking, but a lot of it was good, and she brought up a few things i wouldn't have thought of on my own.

most of the other people in the class were certified trainers of one kind or another, and after talking to a few of them it seemed like it would be a good idea if i got some kind of certification too; it would allow me to work for other organizations if i wanted to (most of which require some type of certification) and to get insurance if i ever decided to go into business for myself.

after some looking around i decided to try to get my a.c.e certification; it's pretty widely accepted, and they offered tests in my area every three months or so. so is sent them a bunch of money so they’d let me take the test, bought their textbook, and started thinking about studying.

and that's what i did, i thought about studying. i probably thought about it at least once a week. i think i actually opened the book twice.

when the test day came i went running instead, and then sent them some more money so i could reschedule, promising myself that i'd study this time, especially since i had 3 months until the test.

this time i studied for at least 90 minutes. almost all of that studying was done while sitting in my car waiting for n. to feed her menagerie, or to run an errand, or while listening to the end of a particularly interesting npr story.

so i went and took the test with 2 hours of studying under my belt. and this week i found out i passed. it's a little worrying to me; i mean, i like to think i'm a pretty smart guy, but...2 hours?