Cluck, Cluck, Cluck

17 November 2008

so, i finally broke down and went to the gym

So, I finally broke down and went to the gym. I have been waiting (in vein) for my running motivation to return as the temperature steadily drops. I blamed the stress of the election, which will not conclude here until this week. I blamed the goddamned cold and the snow and the ice and the dark and the goddamned cold. I blamed well my own laziness and not wanting to be apart from Daughter for a whole hour and readjusting to living in the same house as my Boyfriend and well then I decided that this was happening a few days ago (Update: It is SO. NOT. Whew! Curious concern: What's up with the plethora of symptoms? Huh? Huh, body, don't start screwing with me now...)

I have had a gym membership for just about exactly two years now. Daughter and I use it to go to the pool. I mostly use it for tanning. On Election Day I went straight to the steam room after two hours of subzero sign waving. I Love The Steam Room.

I have been a very lousy gym member since I discovered that I actually enjoy running out of doors. Treadmills are kind of a bore after that. Also, the gym nearest my parents' house, the one with the pool that Daughter and I use, is my least favorite for anything but swimming. The room with the cardio stuff is not as well ventilated as it could be and is hot and has three rows of televisions which means that I always wind up running underneath a television which make me uneasy. Also, its full of housewives. Southside housewives. Who are kind of, in my opinion, the Stripmallville variety of The Housewives of Orange County. Really obnoxious oil company exec spouses who can kind of bite me. They also sort of stink eye me. I think they think I'm a trophy wife. Since I am about 15 years younger than they are and there with a young kid and really no one my age who has a kid lives in this part of town because it is damned expensive, etc. etc. etc. Anyway, according to my theory, the fact that CLEARLY I have stolen someones husband makes me their natural enemy so they get all clique-e and don't talk to me or my kid and they can bite my divorced and living with my parents single mother ass...(which, thanks to all the running is way hotter than theirs. So there.)

The gym I like is on the other side of town. It is conveniently located close to Daughter's school. So today, I got off my ass and after I dropped Boyfriend at the airport went to the good gym with the friendly, educated, less obnoxious and way more athletic people. Where, at 10:45 is filled primarily with retirees and a couple of housewives who are only five-ten years older than me. It only has one row of televisions all located at the front of the well ventilated treadmill room and the treadmills are much better as all the good runners in town work out there.

I did 45 minutes on the treadmill. I really don't like treadmill running. I used to. I'm better at pacing myself now and according to the treadmill I run a lot slower than I think that I do on trails. Which sort of bums me out, but I'm trying to work through it. I even did some crunches on a ball and some pilates push ups on a mat after I ran. And I took a glorious, glorious steam. So, I am resigning myself to get back into the gym routine. I am flirting with the idea of adding a twice weekly Pilates class and a couple of spin classes into my routine for the winter because, seriously, I can only do so much treadmill running before I ache more than I should. We are adding Boyfriend onto my membership after the new year and I think that spin would be good for him too. Although he hates group exercise and is reluctant to even run in public. Which I think is weird.

I also am going to force FORCE myself to run outside once a week through the winter. But only when it is above 20 degrees. Below twenty is freaking crazy stupid and painful.

Ok. So there it is. I went to the gym. I ran for the first time in two weeks. (Oh? Did I forget to mention I have been LAME?). I did not freeze my lungs. I did not fall on ice and break my bones. These are nice things. I DID fantasize about being in Seattle for four days and getting to run at Greenlake in 50 degree weather. I really can't wait for that.

1 comment:

Joanna/Steve said...

Tell boyfriend to call Oregon.