New Gym, New Friend Ch. 01

It was a new year. I promised myself to keep fit after gorging every last morsel of food during the holidays. I suspended anything remotely related to "working out" for the past two weeks. A few co-workers massaged the idea of participating in a half-marathon in April and spontaneously I offered to join them. I could not back out of it so I quickly pressured myself into drafting an elaborate plan to work myself up to the 13 miles I needed to run.

Contemplating my new resolution I wondered how the atmosphere of the gym would be. January 2nd always meant a crowded gym with everyone hoping to begin the New Year with a steadfast commitment to his or her shared resolutions of losing weight and keeping fit. This idea detracted me away from heading out to my regular gym.

I noticed a new gym had opened up down the street that catered more toward the executive bunch boasting squash courts, executive style lockers and showers, massage rooms, and a few other amenities absent from the huge national gym chains. A local ad also offered a two-week trail period for local residents. "Sweet," I thought to myself, by then most people would have abandoned their resolutions and the gym will return back to its normal capacity.

The gym was nice, not as big as the mega-chain ones, but enough to satisfy any workout buff's dream without feeling like a Costco. Browsing around on my first day I checked out the crowd. Mostly older business men with a few young guns, but the ratio of men and women was at least 5:1, but most of the men looked married and the women uninterested.

Settling down on a treadmill, I opened up my training notebook that outlined my week's workout. "3, 10-minute intervals 10-K pace". I already felt tired trying to remember what pace 10k pace meant. I was not a runner, but swimming was sort of the same and was able to pick up some things from my runner friends.

"Training for a race?" an older voice said from my right side.

I looked up not remembering anyone next to me when I first came up to the treadmill. He was older maybe 50 years old with gray hair. He was leaning on the edge of the treadmill apparently finished with his workout, as his breathing was heavy and beads of sweat slowly trickled down his forehead. Normally I would respond causally and quickly try to ignore anyone trying to interrupt my concentrated workout mode, but as I scanned down I noticed his muscular legs. These were definitely runner legs.

"Yeah," I stammered. "Training for my first half-marathon."

"I've done a few of those before, but I'm looking for a new type of workout to keep me fit," he responded. I was intrigued. His tone was cool and I could not for the life of me stop looking at his quads that seemed to pulsate out of his running shorts. I let my imagination wander.

"I haven't seen you here before, names Caleb," he said wiping his hand with a cloth before stretching it out for a shake.

"Derrick," I responded pulling my hand out giving him a firm handshake. We held our handshake enough to meet eyes, but not long enough to questions each other's intentions. "Yeah I'm trying this new place out. You know, tired of all that mega gym madness down the street," I continued.

"I understand that," Caleb said with a sigh. "You'll like this gym, not as packed and it comes with all the bells and whistles those national chains skimp on. Plus its usually an older crowd so there's not a bunch of that showing off business going around. Your probably the youngest one here!" We both laughed in agreement, at 25 years old I honestly must have been the youngest there. "You have a trainer?"

"No, I'm just on a trail membership and the trainers cost a grip more than what the other gym charges." I noticed a flicker in his face that only lasted a millisecond.

"Well I've done a few of these marathons and ran collegiate in my hay day. I really don't mind helpin' you out if you need it. It looks like you got it all planned, but technique is important and the tips I collected over the years really saved my ass during my last marathon."

I paused. Usually I would say thank you and would brush this off, but his knowledge pushed me to actually go through with this half-marathon madness. I've never ran competitively before and this could be a chance for me to really brush up on my running skills. "Sure", I said.

Caleb grinned. "You don't know it yet, but you just recruited your worst nightmare." We laughed. "Mind if I see what you got? You know, being a newbie at all this running stuff."

Caleb was already cracking jokes, which eased off the uncertainty of the arrangement I just haphazardly made with him. I needed a professional to guide me anyways and he seems like a nice guy. This could also be fun having a gym buddy to workout with.

Caleb keyed in some numbers into the treadmill. "Normally I prefer running outdoors, but for the sake of our first training session we'll just use the treadmill." Caleb pushed start before finishing his sentence jolting me into an already brisk jog.

He kept me at a quick pace for about 20 minutes talking about the importance of psychological readiness for training and the race. Half-listening I took a closer look at Caleb. He was about the same height as me, lean but dense like most of his body was muscle. He was wearing some running shorts that accentuated his perfect quads. He was good-looking for an older man. I also wondered why he took a keen interest in me.

He slowed my pace back to a brisk job for another 10 minutes as we exchanged small talk about our lives. Caleb was a successful business owner and happily married. I told him I was a college student at the local university working to maybe get some government job for the security.

"Alright. I got to tell you Derrick for a newb, you're doing pretty well." Caleb said as he shut down my machine. I reached up pulling my heads over my head to let more air in. "You an athlete?"

"I was on the swim team in high school, did a stint in community college, but now I swim every once in a while to keep fit." I said proudly. "You know, you said you were looking for something new to do. How about swimming?"

Caleb looked at me staring blankly as in deep thought. Catching himself he shook his head. "That sounds like an idea, I train you for you half-marathon and you teach me some tips on swimming."

This put me more at ease as I felt the deal was more balanced. A little reluctant still, we shook on it still feeling a little nervous for some reason. However, I felt Caleb could be trusted he was nice and genuinely wanted to help me.

"Look at the time." Caleb said pointing at the wall clock. It was nearly 9:00pm. I looked around the gym seemed empty except for a few late stranglers finishing up their workouts. Unlike my other gym this one closed at 10pm. "Gotta hit the office early tomorrow." Caleb began to walk toward the locker room speaking to me, which made me walk with him. "Tell you what I'm here tomorrow night at about seven. You up for a training session then?"

"Sure," I said quickly. By now we were in the lockers. With no choice I began to change out of my cloths. I decided to shower not wanting to soak my car seats with sweat from Caleb's grueling running assessment. Confidently, I stripped down to my briefs tossing my other articles casually into the oversized locker. Caleb was behind me doing the same, but from the corner of my eyes I could see his head begin to tilt toward me.

Pulling a towel around my waist I tucked it in pulling off my briefs underneath the towel. I did not mind stripping down in front of strangers, but was a bit more self-conscious since I knew I would see Caleb more often. Turning around I caught Caleb quickly turn as he stripped off his running shorts revealing his tight butt in a jock strap.

I was turned on by the sight of his lean runner's body and the depressions on each of his ass cheeks. Pulling my eyes up I cleared my throat.

"The sales guy gave me a lousy tour of the place man, do you know where the showers are?"

Caleb peeled off his jock strap bending slightly to pull it off his legs. I adjusted my towel feeling my cock jump a little when his ass cheeks parted slightly.

"Imma hit the showers myself, I'll show you where there at. Hold on" he said over his shoulder.

Wrapping his towel around his waist he lead me to the shower room. The showers were nice compared to the grimy gym ones I was used to. Outfitted with removable shower handsets the stalls were large and fitted with shower curtains. I was a bit disappointed about the curtains as I would not be able to sneak a peek of Caleb's full body. We took the opposite showers as we both closed the curtains. I carefully closed mine purposely leaving about a foot of the curtain open just in case.

--To be continued.. in Pt. II