Chapitre 35: Alex's Training Regimen
Claire was frustrated by the ongoing lack of answers about who wanted to kill her and their fruitless search. She needed to blow off some steam but couldn't exactly go for a run right now. She really preferred actual running to using her mom's old treadmill (there was something about running in place that felt weird) but she was desperate.
She hadn't exercised properly since getting shot at in the park because she had been either too stressed or too busy keeping Alex entertained. It was overdue.
"I'm going to exercise," Claire said as she stood and removed all of the accessories she had found in the closet.
Alex blocked the door so she couldn't leave. "You aren't allowed to go outside."
"I'm not going to go outside! There's a treadmill in the spare room; I'm going to use that. I do need to get changed though so if you'll excuse me…"
He immediately stood aside and let her go. She headed into her room and changed into a sports bra, pink tank top, and yoga pants. She had to put on her running shoes as well because you couldn't exactly use a treadmill barefoot.
Claire discovered that Alex was already inside the spare room examining the treadmill when she got there. He didn't seem the slightest bit surprised or curious at the sight of it and he hadn't reacted to the word either so he probably had experience with them.
As she started it up, she asked, "Have you ever used one of these before?"
"Yes, they have them at headquarters along with a variety of other cardio equipment and weightlifting machines. Endurance running happened indoors where we couldn't be seen by others. What else could we have possibly used to do it?"
He had a point. She simply hadn't thought of him experiencing anything so common. Most people had used gym equipment at least a few times.
Treadmill settings could get pretty intense between the speed and hill options. Claire was a bit curious how high they were set and for how long to be considered endurance training. Alex probably exercised a lot based on what little he had said about his training schedule but it didn't seem like he had exercised at all since coming here.
Someone who exercised hard every day wouldn't fall out of the habit so easily. She felt a bit guilty for disrupting his routine.
"Hey…if you want, you can use this after me. It must be weird for you not keeping up with your training regimen."
Alex's reply surprised her. "I have already been using it…and running drill sets using whatever I could find…and lifting your couch instead of weights. Sorry. I probably should have asked, shouldn't I?"
Well, that explained why he let her go without any further questions when she said she was going to use the treadmill. He already knew of its existence because he had been using it himself. But seriously? Lifting her couch? How had she not noticed that?
He must have been doing all of this exercise when she was asleep. Her mother always said she could sleep right through the apocalypse. She had to set multiple alarms to get up in the morning at top volume because it was really hard for her to wake up.
"Yeah…asking would be a good idea in the future," Claire said feebly.
Using the treadmill and doing some sort of exercise drills were one thing. Lifting her couch, which had to weigh more than 300 lbs, was another.
Exactly how strong was Alex? He wasn't so beefy that his arms had burst the sleeves of the shirt he borrowed from her on his first night here. But she had noticed that there was almost no body fat on him the two times they hugged because he wasn't the slightest bit soft. He was all lean muscle.
She overcame her shock enough to ask him what a workout generally entailed. His reply was fairly straightforward, which was what she had come to expect from him.
"I can't do everything I normally do because of a lack of equipment but I can show you what I've been doing here if you're interested. It's nothing compared to back at headquarters but I've been doing my best to stay sharp."
Claire was curious so she said to show her. The treadmill's position in one of the back corners of the room allowed her to see what he was doing in the more open space as she continued to run.
Alex calmly jogged in place for a couple of minutes to warm up before doing the most intense set of repetitions she had ever seen. His circuit involved push-ups, sit-ups, lunges, squats, what seemed to be martial arts moves, and a whole bunch of other things she didn't have a name for. And he wasn't even breaking a sweat!
She ended up quitting her run before he was finished and he moved over to the treadmill, cranking all of the settings as high as they would go. His face was as blank as ever as he ran and his breathing was perfectly even.
Claire had never once turned any of the treadmill settings on high. He was going so fast that his legs were practically a blur. He went for a solid twenty minutes before heading downstairs, not even winded.
She watched as he slid under the couch and began lifting that too. She couldn't see his arms pumping but the couch was obviously going up and down with a rather alarmed Daisy on top of it. She had been sleeping on the couch before this and jumped off because of too much movement.
Alex continued lifting the couch for about five minutes before stopping and sliding out from under it. His face wasn't red or anything and there were only a few beads of sweat on his forehead from the entire workout.
The entire thing left Claire stunned. That was the most intense thing she had ever seen in her life and he said it wasn't even all that he usually did?!
"What else do you normally do?" she asked once she was able to find her voice.
He shrugged. "Pull-ups and leg presses. Timed runs through obstacle courses involving wall scaling and other things that are practical in the field. Jumping rope. Swimming. Agility drills. Oh, and sparring.
"Normally I train about ten hours a day. I took a few days off to sleep through the night after we first officially met but since then I've been doing about two instead. What I showed you was the condensed version."
Cadeaux
-- Cadeau
reçu État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone