A week in the life of a gym rat

"Alice, did you workout this week?"

"Just a little"

Monday

• Went to the gym with Betty where we did something called 24-step class. Essentially, it was a step aerobics class with weights (a bar and some hand weights). It was a pretty fun, fast paced workout. Next time, I'll work with more weight though. I was thrilled because I'm stronger than I would have thought and overall, the workout was easy.

Tuesday

• Met with the trainer at 24-Hour Fitness. What a jerk! He completely didn't listen to me AT ALL.

OK...I have to rant about this for awhile. I know it was an "orientation" the one they give to all new members. And I also know that the "typical" client who registers for a gym membership in January probably hasn't worked out in awhile. In any event, I met with the trainer and told him that I am a runner and that last year I ran four 1/2 marathon's, but that I had hurt myself, so my goal was to use the gym to maintain my cardio-fitness, and do some strength training. I made it clear that my primary goal was to become a stronger, better runner. I also mentioned that I was thinking about doing a triathlon in the spring or summer.

In other words, dude, I am a runner.

This, he ignored. First he had me hang onto some little machine that purportedly measured my body fat content (37%...thank you very much). I was not much surprised by this. I know I have some weight to lose. So, he made weight loss one of my goals (ok...it's always a goal, but not my PRIMARY GOAL FOR JOINING THE GYM). He also lectured me for not using supplements. (I'm not opposed to supplements, per se, but I would want to talk to a nutritionist about this, not some 24-Hour Fitness trainer who has a vested interest in me buying Omega-3 supplements from him...GAH!)

Finally, we went to workout. He asked me if I ever work on my core and on balance. (uh, yeah, I do one legged squats off a bench or off a step 2 or 3 times a week). He pretty much ignored this too and had me balance on one leg, lift it forward, then do the other leg...yeah. I usually do 3-4 squats on one leg at different angles - front, side, back, behind, before switching legs. The guy made no comment other than saying that this should be challenging (uh...it wasn't).

Then he asked me what I usually do when I get to the gym. I told him, warmup, stretch, and right now (because my freekin' goal is to maintain my cardio) I do 45 or so minutes on a bike or on the elliptical. Then I do some weights. He proceeded to tell me that my workout was all wrong. That I should do weights first and that I was doing too much cardio that I didn't need to do all that to lose weight. Huh?

Did you hear me dude? R.U.N.N.E.R....

Whatever.

When we went over to the weight machines, I told him I'd been doing some research, and I'd prefer to use free weights. He said the machines were just fine. Then fter watching me do 10 reps on one of the leg-lift machines, he told me that I was doing it all wrong.

I suggested to him that I'd prefer that he tell me how to do it right before I begin instead of having me do it first so he could tell me how I was doing it wrong.

Finally, he asked me if I be interested in signing up for three additional training sessions with him. Because in a "real" training session, he'd have me work harder.

I think not.

Now I certainly don't think I know it all about training, in fact, I don't know much, but I do know some things, and I would be very interested in learning more about how weight training can IMPROVE MY RUNNING AND CYCLING.

But mostly what I know is persuasion. It's what I teach my students. If his intention was to sell me some more personal training sessions, then he really needed to tell me how all of this was going to improve my running! (elementary sales theory dude).

((rolling eyes))

Wednesday

• Tortured the rest of the country by posting beautiful, SoCal weather from the herd's fabulous morning bike ride.

Thursday

• Went to the gym with Betty again and worked the rowing machine at the gym for the first time. I had no idea how to even get the thing to work, but a really nice man next to me helped me out. Next time I'll try to go farther/faster and it seems like I should be doing something like windsprints (short bursts of speed, with a recovery time).
  
• I think Anne and Glenn are mind-readers because both posted resources for rowing this week.
  
• I've also uncovered Glenn's secret plan to turn all of us into part-time rowers (bwahahahahahahahaha).

Friday

• I went to the gym workout with Betty again. I did 4 miles/45 minutes on the elliptical. I discovered that if I "run" on it, instead of using the handlebars, my foot doesn't fall asleep after 20 minutes.

Saturday

• Early Saturday morning, I went to the first workout for the San Diego Track Club's Rock and Roll Marathon Training Program. A good 600 people (at least) showed up to listen to all of the information. A part of the meeting that, with all due respect, took WAAAAAY too long. When I got bored, I took pictures. Here are Elise and me.

Elsie forgave me for neglecting to pick her up at her house. She was ready to run, hence the headphones.

BBJ signaling the number of seconds left on the clock. The previous evening he was running the timeclock at a high school basketball game and (apparently) neglected to hit the start button because he was so into the game.

This year's RnR Program shoe tag is HOT PINK, a color not often seen in BBJs wardrobe

• Then the club went for a short run. You'll all be impressed that I very maturely and wisely DID NOT RUN. Instead, I hung out with Irene, who was also not running due to having a cold.
  
• The even bigger news from the morning is about the marathon itself. There have been rumors circulating for the last MONTH that there would be a 1/2 marathon this year. A representative from Competitor (who must have made the rounds as both Sara and Lisa have also reported that a rep from Competitor made the same announcement at thier WCRR meeting) announced that there YES, there will be a San Diego RnR 1/2 marathon this year!!!
  
• Since I didn't run, I managed to convince Walter to go to the gym with me later. For the first time, I wore my heart rate monitor during the workout. The difference in reported calories burned on my Garmin HRM and the one on the elliptical was about 300 calories. (seriously!) If this is true, it explains plenty about why I haven't lost any weight. I am looking more into this. Another 30 minutes on the 'mill.
  

Sunday

• This morning I went to a CrossFit workout with Clarence and Daisy. Clarence is COMPLETELY into CrossFit and has been trying to get me to go to a Sunday workout with her for a couple of months. The Sunday workouts are free, so I finally went. CrossFit is a really excellent workout with lots of squats, lunges, pushups (which I suck at) pullups (which I'm even worse at) and freeweight work. I liked it. It's very fast-paced. After a 20 minute workout I was a sweaty mess.
• I really need to work on my upper body strength. Even one or two "girl style" pushups, correctly done, are difficult for me. But anything with the lower body? I am a rockstar!
• Since there was only a little cardio involved in the workout, and since I was already a sweaty mess, I went over to the gym for another round with Elly (the elliptical)...45 minutes. My legs are going to feel it tomorrow.
• This afternoon, Walter and I relaxed in the spa for awhile

Don't hate us. It was another beautiful SoCal Day. We HAD to do heat up the spa.

So...that's the week of workouts for me. I figure I've got one more week of a full-fledged workout week before I go back to work.

I am still thinking about the weekend of Feb 4-6 and my serious overbooking. I'm likely to not go to San Francisco at all (I'll just tell 'em I have some family commitments that are conflicting) since I'd never be able to get out of SF on Saturday in time to get to Walter's Gala.

It's also becoming less and less likely that I'll run the 1/2 marathon either. I likely won't be ready for it, and it'll probably be another opportunity to hurt myself. My foot is feeling much better, but on days (like today) where I've used it a lot, I can feel some tenderness, not pain exactly, but not right either ((sigh)).

Thanks so much for all your advice and wisdom. I need peeps to point out to me that I should STOP occasionally. As you can see from my above discription of this week's workouts, I have a tendency to think I can do EVERYTHING.