I go to my local English book club for people learning the language and yesterday we were reading Elephant by Raymond Carver. TL;DR at the end of the story one character (a coworker of the narrator) says "You’re in training for something, but I don’t know what". And I interpret that as him saying the main character is in training at his work (like training for a new job). Everybody disagreed with me. They thought that meant he is doing physical exercises (not work related) because right before that moment the main character was standing in a weird position with his arms raised. But i insisted that "in training" must mean something work related here. Am I wrong?
Here's the full excerpt for context:
I raised my arms—raised them up level with my shoulders. I was standing there like that, like a goof, when somebody tooted a car horn and pulled off the highway into the parking area. I picked up my lunch pail and went over to the car. It was a guy I knew from work whose name was George. He reached over and opened the door on the passenger’s side. “Hey, get in, buddy,” he said. “Hello, George,” I said. I got in and shut the door, and the car sped off, throwing gravel from under the tires. “I saw you,” George said. “Yeah, I did, I saw you. You’re in training for something, but I don’t know what.” He looked at me and then looked at the road again. He was going fast. “You always walk down the road with your arms out like that?” He laughed—ha, ha, ha—and stepped on the gas.