The Blame Game

I had a feeling that this morning would be a bad weather morning and I was right.  It was pouring rain.  Which meant that it was probably a good thing that Laura and I had made plans to meet at the Columbus Circle Equinox and use some free passes that I had gotten when Drew and I did the Gay Pride Run.  They were three day passes, but I knew that there was no way we'd actually use all three days since we weren't going to go back tomorrow.  We also have several other passes from our Fitness Book that we need to use up before 2011! 

Laura called ahead and found out that they didn't have a hot tub, so that was a bit of a disappointment.  We had planned to meet this morning at 7:15 and this was our text exchange before we even met: 

Amy - 6:34:  I hate you.
Laura - 6:47:  I hate you too.  And I almost canceled.  Twice.  First just because it's too early, and then due to the rain.
Amy - 6:48:  Oh, I know.  Really don't want to go outside.
Laura - 6:49:  I hate your job too.  This morning thing was never a good idea.  We should live in a world where we can hit the gym at lunch or after work.
Amy - 6:50:  You should just come to our apartment instead and then we can all go back to sleep.
Laura - 6:52:  Don't tempt me.  I'm seriously tempted.
Amy - 6:52:  Do it.  It's a way better idea anyway.
Amy - 7:03:  Yup, I hate you.  This weather blows.
Laura - 7:10:  I blame you for this.
Amy - 7:13:  No!!!  You!!!

I'd just like to say that while all of this was going on I was slightly concerned that Laura wouldn't be on time since she obviously also had cell service (which doesn't normally happen on the subway), but we both got there at the exact same time, so she must have some sort of secret.  When we met in person, Laura said that she not only blamed me for getting up early, she also blamed me for the weather.  I thought that was taking it a bit further than necessary. 

The gym looked nice.  I'm not sure it was nice enough to justify the costs involved with Equinox, but it was nice.  They had very fancy Kiehl's products in the showers, which was a nice touch.  The pool was just okay.  Three lanes and it could have easily been five with the traffic that they had for the pool.  But I know that they're a big expense and it's nice that gyms have them at all. 

I started out sharing a lane with one other person, so we split the lane.  I liked the first 50 yards and then hated the next 100 and remembered that swimming is hard work.  After that, I sort-of settled into a bit of a rhythm and just kept swimming.  With about 5 minutes left of our pool time, a third person got in our lane, so we started circle swimming.  I wasn't too excited about this fact since I was in the fast lane, but it was nice that it actually pushed me a little bit more because I didn't want someone to come up and tap me on the toes! 
I wanted to keep my place in the lane, so it worked out pretty well. 

We cut our swim a couple minutes short to go in the steam room, which we ended up not loving.  Then we sat in the sauna for a couple minutes before heading to the shower.  Why couldn't they just have a hot tub instead?  We headed off to work and I got this text: 

Laura - 8:47:  I still blame you.

Swimming
Time: ~25:00
Distance: 1200 yards / 0.68 miles
Pace: 36:45/mile