Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Whats with the gym being packed at 5:30am?

About 4 months ago I was a 5:30 regular at my local gym.  I loved hitting the gym in the morning right when they opened their doors and knowing that no matter what machine I wanted to get on or what lane I wanted to run on for the track I was hooked because there were never very many people there.  There were at least 20 treadmills to choose from and the track always had less then 5 people on it, bikes, got my pick there too and always had a lane to myself if I decided to go for a swim. 
Just before I broke my toe I canceled my YMCA membership and chose to join a different gym.  My new gym membership was not even active yet when I broke the toe. So I have only been using the place to work out the last month.  The gym transfer was a financial motivation and nothing else.  My husband indicated that between working and going to school and just being a dad he did not feel that he was getting the most of the membership and said that we should drop him off it to save some money.  When I talked to the Y they said it would be the same price whether he was on the membership or not so I decided to inquire about the price of this other place.  Turns out I could have a membership myself and leave Ryan off it saving me around 20 bucks a month.  This place is the bomb!  I feel like I have hit the jack pot with this gym.  The kids beg me to go workout because the childcare is so good.  They have a cafe, Physical therapy place, salon, sauna, two pools... enough to keep even people who do not want to workout coming back.  The place is seriously off the hook, and I am saving money!  The only downfall I have found thus far is the bike that I LOVED at the Y is not at this gym and my bike workouts since switching have been less then desirable.  Something I will just have to figure out on my own I guess.
Fast forward to today ~until this morning when I have gone to the gym I have tried to plan it for when the kids could come with me because they love it there so much.  Great idea in theory but the children have so many extra curricular activities that finding the time was stressing me out this take the kids with me attitude had to change.  I started the morning workouts again today!  I pulled into the parking lot at 5:25am and the parking lot was full, I am talking like more cars then at 6pm.  I was totally thrown off by this (but apparently they open at 5 not 5:30)  I went to the locker room to change and by the time I got out I was afraid I was not going to find a treadmill.  The music was loud and the energy in the building was awesome.  I fortunately found an open treadmill and got on.  That's when I heard "okay lets kick it up to a 4.2 to continue the warm up"  OH SHIT!!  LOL apparently at 5:30am there is a treadmill class.  Taking so much time off and only working out here and there I figured there was no way in hell I could keep up with a treadmill class but the open treadmill I found was in the front row.  I felt stuck, I did not want to do a walk of shame workout style in front of so many people.  32 to be exact, The wall I was facing was a big ass mirror so I counted all the people on the treadmills.  32 people on just the treadmills at 5:30 in the morning... at the Y there was probably a total of 32 people in the whole building including staff at 5:30 in the morning.  I was shocked to see so many people. I tried to take is easy because I did not know what to expect.  She laid it out in a way for walkers or runners and when she said "walkers bump it up one and runners bump it up 2"  I had a decision to face, I do the whole run/walk thing, does this make me a runner or a walker.  I was freaking out a bit but I bumped the treadmill up 2 ~I should not have let this class put doubt or fear into me even if it was just for a split second... I AM a runner!  The great part was that there is a pace in which most runners and walkers feel good at each person was told to pick that pace for them and bump up or down from there depending on what she told us to do.   So the walkers, the fast ass runners, and then the people who fall between them all could do the same workout.  It was awesome!  I felt like I kinda held back a little bit today in fear of not knowing what was going to come next.  For example at the end she for fun decided to add on sprints, well I did not know how many she planned on us doing (after all I had no idea how long this class would last and we had only been on your treadmills for about 35 min) so I kicked it up a bit but I know I could have run faster.  I did not slack off totally though, trust me I got my sweat on.
After class I spoke to the instructor and she said if I wanted to come back that when I walk in to stop at the desk to get a pass to reserve a treadmill, she said as it gets colder the treadmills get completely filled.  The class was awesome but I am still shocked that there are so many people there that you have to reserve a treadmill.  Just blows my mind!  I am looking forward to doing it again on Thur. although I did hear her say something about hills and hills scare me!

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