Dear Meredith: How Do I Remain Friends with a Fitness Junkie?
Meredith Carroll has been providing her opinion in newspaper and online columns for more than a dozen years, so the time seemed right to start asking her questions instead of her doing the asking.
Q: My friend lives as if she’s in perpetual training for the Olympics. That means meeting up for anything past 7 p.m. is a no-go (bye-bye, concerts and long dinners). And she’s up at 5 a.m. to start biking, running, etc. Needless to say, doing anything athletic with her means I’d be killing her buzz. How can I maintain our friendship beyond the occasional quick lunch?
A: Welcome to the club. Aspen is exceptional in many ways, particularly in that there are, in fact, many actual Olympians among us—plus even more who aren’t but probably could be if they weren’t too busy excelling at literally everything else. Usually what separates these uber-achievers from you and me (besides their six-pack abs and our six-packs of beer) is that it’s not entirely unusual for our nights and their mornings to overlap.
But don’t give up on the friendship just yet. Even Olympians have days off or at least light(er) workouts. Ask your friend to name a time or two when you can join her at conversation pace. If those times are fewer and farther between, see which nights she may let her hair down. This is Aspen, after all; I guarantee that drinking lattes with non-organic, non-soy whole milk isn’t her only vice.
