Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The Gym

Just as the concept of running/walking a half marathon in nine months is no longer triggering an anxiety attack, my traitor girlfriends are upping the ante. It is not enough that I have committed to this fool's quest, but now they are bombarding me invitations for 5k races and 10k races "just for fun."

Whatever happened to the days when peer pressure involved fun things like drugs and alcohol? When I attended the DARE program in the 6th grade, the police officer never warned me about the hooligans that pushed horrific things like exercise, unprocessed food, and water. Had I been fully informed, I may not have found myself in my current predicament.

Never the less, I am a girl of my word. I committed to completing a half-marathon this year, and I will prepare accordingly. I have downloaded a training schedule for beginners and began following it on Monday. Coincidentally, Monday's assignment was to rest (I have chosen to ignore the fact that I also chose the previous Saturday as a day of rest). I have made a science out of resting, so I completed Monday's task with flying colors.

Today's task was to walk for 30 minutes at a comfortable pace. This task presented a dilemma. I am fairly certain that the pace I consider as "comfortable" is much slower that that of the average person. My mother describes my usual pace as "lolly-gagging." I never walk with any sort of purpose and am often distracted by various shiny things along my path.

I ventured into the gym with my friend Sara. As a general rule, I hate gyms. They smell like sweaty feet and are full of skinny athletic people who grunt a lot and prance around like peacocks displaying their tail feathers. Plus, the combination of fluorescent lighting and floor-to-ceiling mirrors does not inspire confidence in those of us who could go a lifetime without seeing our extra flesh in motion.

My boss provides a gym membership as one of our benefits at work. In return, he expects us to actually use the membership. He once ordered me to go to the gym at least once a week for a month and informed me that he would be checking to make sure I went. Instead of actually using the gym equipment, I went three times a week and used the free tanning bed.

So here I am at the gym. Sara and I chose side-by-side treadmills. I selected a treadmill setting of 3 (don't laugh, on Sunday my speed was 2, so I am improving). I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my legs felt stronger today and I was able to keep a steady pace for most of the 30 minutes. I successfully beat my previous mile time by 7 minutes. I walked a mile in 22 minutes.

When my 30 minutes were up, I stopped the treadmill and stretched my legs (in hindsight, I would have gotten off of the treadmill before I stretched). Somehow, the belt began to move again, thus causing me to lose my balance and roll toward the front of the treadmill. I looked to my ever supportive friend for help, but she could not see through the tears of laughter that were clouding her vision. I eventually untangled myself from the treadmill and made a hasty retreat to the locker room.

Tomorrow's assignment: walk 30 minutes, run for at least 1 minute

6 comments:

  1. Congratulations! You are making progress. Keep it up.

    PS- you are hilarious!

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  2. i can't believe you went to the TAMBED!! you're the traitor :)

    i'm proud of you!

    love,
    Traitor K

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  3. Your Gym post reminded me of good old SRT days when we would put on workout clothes, walk to the SRT...err, well...near the SRT and then go get a coffee or an ice cream. :) We are turning over a new leaf! It only took us 10 years.

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  4. 10 years ?!?! Lord have mercy, we are old!

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  5. Great job, Lynn --- keep the momentum going! Proud of you!

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