I've posted before about why I work out in the morning instead of the evenings, but I had a pretty major snafu this morning involving Roy and the alarm, causing me to rush out the door rather than head to the gym.
Needless to say, it was after work that I hit the Dowd. I've had to wait for a treadmill before, but never more than a minute or two. Today, however, was different. I didn't realize just how awkward this can be until I was committed to the wait. See, that's the thing. The cardio machines are spread ALL OVER the Y, so it's not like there's one organized queue for the machines. No, there are as many as 5 distinct areas for treadmills alone (that I can think of right off). As I found today, you really have to commit to a waiting spot, or the process can take, well, forever.
Let's say you head into the first cardio theater and are dismayed by the crowd (and smell, to be honest - this one room has a particularly intense odor), so you head to area #2. When you get to area #2, which is inevitably full, you have to make a choice. Do I stay here and wait with this one other person who is waiting, or do I go back to the stinky line? Or do I move on upstairs and give up this possibly short line? I mean, I have no idea how long the wait will be upstairs...could it be shorter? Yeah, it's probably shorter. I'll just pop up there and see...Dang. Everything's full up here, too. I can't tell if there's a line, though, and honestly, these machines don't even have TVs and are therefore clearly inferior, so I'll just go back downstairs and wait in line #2. I bound down the stairs, thinking maybe there's not even a line anymore, and BAM, original line of just one girl is now three. DANG IT! DANG IT ALL! I start to head back upstairs, or down to the women's area, or over to the other side of this room, when I realize that it's all futile. I'm just going to have to wait.
I decided to make the best of my waiting and recruit the next lady in line to teach an apprenticeship, which she actually agreed to do. I mean, I have no idea if she'll actually call or sign up online (I didn't have my phone or a pen or anything), but if it works out, I guess all of this awkwardness was worth it. Thing 1 and Thing 2 got on their treadmills pretty quickly, but then there was me, just waiting. Being first in line is the worst. Everyone who comes up asks you if you are waiting, and you have to sort of apologetically admit that you are, which means that their wait is just that much longer. The only thing you can do is commiserate and comment on the one girl who's been on the treadmill for 45 minutes, when everyone knows the limit is 30 during peak times.
The worst part is that the treadmills, in this case, are facing toward the wall, and you have to wait behind the people. This means that you cannot help looking at each person's bum. I mean, there they are, all in a row. Bum bum bum bum bum, all lined up and running and doing bummy things. You don't want to look, because, well, then you'd be looking at a bunch of bums, but they are just THERE! A good ten minutes of pretending I wasn't watching old man bum and weird lady bum and super running girl bum later, I finally got a treadmill.
It was exactly at this moment that I realized that my bum was now part of the show.
It was also at this moment that I realized that I'd worn the illest-fitting pants and top combo possible. I spent the next 30 minutes doing my intervals (more on these in a sec) and constantly adjusting my clothes. I'm sure if I hadn't just spent the last 15 minutes starting at other people's body parts I would've just ignored the top creeping up and the bottoms creeping down, but I became obsessed. So this, then was how I spent Week 3, Day 1.
The run itself was decent. The new 3 minute running intervals were certainly a challenge, especially the last one, but I can't help but wonder if it was because I did nothing but make sure my undies or love handles weren't putting on a show for the new queue. I ran without my back brace again, which was a little unstable, but overall I'm doing quite well. More random discomfort in the foot department, but I really think this will be more manageable when I'm on real terrain. It looks like it's warming up all week, so hopefully by the weekend I'll be doing the real thing!
I learn a new lesson every day that I train, and today's was to double check the alarm. If you run in the morning, it's done, and your day will doubtless be better for it. If you try to cram it in in the evening, and you're unfortunate enough to work out at the coolest gym in town, it's waiting and then bum!
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