Who: Ren and Pyrrha What: Going for a run together Where: A park When: Recently Warning/Rating: Low/none Status: Complete
This had seemed like such a great idea at first, but now Ren was regretting his decision. His legs burned, and he couldn’t breathe. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep running. But he had to keep going. He just needed to concentrate on trying to breath, to keep the pavement moving under his feet.
At least until that bench.
“Pyrrha,” he managed to weeze as he pulled up in front of it. He collapsed into the seat. “Let’s take a break.”
She’d barely broken a sweat, and her knee wasn’t even aching yet. It had, after all, been barely five minutes. Still, she laughed good naturedly and sank onto the bench gracefully, and crossing her toned legs. “You haven’t done cardio in awhile have you.”
Ren shook his head. “I haven’t run like this since I had to chase Nora on an Ursa,” he wheezed. It was a different life, but honestly, he couldn’t really remember the last time he’d done very much running in this one. Jumping, yes, and the cardio he had to do with his competitions, but none of them were as prolonged or as steady as just going for a run. “Do you really do this every day?”
That had been quite the sight, and Pyrrha had known she’d like Nora then and there. She still couldn’t believe they’d kept that secret from her, but she was glad she’d known them here first, at least a little bit.
“Twice a day,” she clarified. “Most of my events are sprints or fast runs, but keeping up some stamina is still important!”
“I don’t know how you can do it,” Ren said. At least now his breath was starting to come back. He stood up from the bench, his feet feeling solid under him once again. “I hope that I’m not slowing you down too much.”
“Time, patience and practice,” Pyrrha said. She stretched out one of her legs to rub and stretch her shin, and then her knee. “You’re not slowing me down. At least, not a bad way. I think I could use someone to hold me back a little. I don’t want to push myself too hard yet. I’m starting to get impatient. I want to compete again. It’ll help me qualify for next year’s Olympics.”
“I’m glad,” Ren said. “I would be happy to continue running with you, if it will help you qualify for next years Olympics.” Maybe happy was too strong a word, because running made Ren anything but happy. But he knew that his stamina could use improvement, and so far Pyrrha had proven herself to be an amiable running partner.
“I’ll accept all the help I can get.” Pyrrha stood, giving him a considering look. “What if we … what’s it called? Power walked?” Or jogged. Something light, as she realized Ren needed to be ease into everything.
Ren shot Pyrrha a small smile of relief. “Yes, I think power walking would be a much better option. At least to begin.” With enough practice, he’d probably be able to get the endurance to at least keep pace with Pyrrha on a casual run, but for now… well, he had always thought he was in good shape, but apparently not as good of shape as he had thought.
She nodded at him, smiling easily. It might be easier to talk, get to know him while they did that, versus jogging which took up too much air to allow for much in the way of talking. Gesturing for him to follow her, Pyrrha set an easy pace. “Would you like to get something after? A frozen yogurt?”
Healthy, and also delicious!
Ren did rather like frozen yogurt, and it sounded like exactly the kind of incentive he needed to make it through the rest of this run. The slower pace was much more comfortable, but even so, the idea of a reward at the end made it much easier. “Yes, that sounds lovely,” he responded.