We Made A Mistake

Yesterday morning I woke up, ate a bar, and went back to bed. Today, however, I woke up, ate a bar, and headed to the gym. Laura and I planned to use one of our fitness passes and try out the Bally's gym. She said that she really needed to ride a bike and I figured that any reason to get me to a gym was a good one, so we agreed to meet this morning.

Except that she told me that she was running late and then had a few issues that prevented her from getting to the gym for quite a while, so I just did my workout on my own. When I was first signing in, the guy at the front desk said that the locker room was in one direction and the pool was in another direction. Ugh. Pool? And then he said the magic words "hot tub"! Double ugh. So, now, because it didn't say on our fitness pass that there was a pool and I didn't go to the website to double check, we've now potentially wasted a pass with a hot tub!

The pool actually looked nicer than the one at my regular NYSC. Or, I guess I should say that it appeared to be 25 yards instead of 18 yards, which made it look a lot better in my mind. The rest of the gym looked a little run-down. All of the cardio equipment looked a little bit older than at NYSC and at NYSC there are individual TVs at each machine. This Bally's only had TVs scattered around the gym. I don't really watch TV at the gym, so it wasn't really a factor for me.

I started out on the stair mill. I figured I'd give it a shot and see how it worked. The downside of older equipment is that there isn't a spot to set your iPod on the equipment, so I had to hold onto it myself. (Actually, I happened to be wearing tri shorts, so I was able to stick it in my side pocket). I picked a random hill climb setting on the stair mill and off I went climbing stairs. I was able to do okay - I did have to turn the level down one so that I wouldn't have to hold on with my left arm. And then, all of a sudden, the machine stopped after 5 minutes and said, "Goal Attained!" I figured that was a sign that I should go and do something else.

There were a bunch of recumbent bikes right near the entrance, so I thought I'd do that while I waited for Laura to appear. I set the timer for 30 minutes and was off to pedal my heart out. I didn't see any bikes that had straps on the pedals, which is a negative in my book. I also didn't see any spin bikes, which would be another negative if I was going to switch gyms permanently. The one thing I really noticed while I was biking today is that this gym seems to run a little hot. Or maybe most gyms do. I'm just more used to having a bit of a breeze from being outdoors I guess. Nothing too exciting to report on the bike front. I sat, I pedaled, after 30 minutes, I got up and walked around a bit.

I looked at the hot tub longingly and then decided I'd do the elliptical until Laura got there. It was also near the front, so I was able to see when she arrived. I waited until I had done 5 minutes on the elliptical and then went off in search of her in the locker room. I showed her the pool and hot tub and then I headed home to shower and get ready for work and she did a workout of her own on a different cardio bike, I believe.

I'm hopeful that Laura and I will be able to meet up either later this week or early next week in order to check out the pool and hot tub situation at this Bally's. Even though I can't swim, Jon suggested water jogging. Not ideal, but I hadn't really thought of it before, so if we go back, maybe I'll give it a shot!

Stair Mill
Time: 5:00
Distance: 0.41 miles
Calories: 49
Maximum HR: 177
Average HR: 171

Cardio Bike
Time: 30:00
Distance: 10.80 miles
Pace: 21.6 MPH
Calories: 278
Maximum HR: 160
Average HR: 152

Elliptical
Time: 5:00
Distance: 0.45 miles
Calories: 45
Maximum HR: 160
Average HR: 149