This week we traveled to Rye, New York for my cousin's wedding. I took Thursday off so that we could travel & attend the rehearsal dinner (my daughter is the flower girl!), and then I decided that Friday I would utilize the hotel's fitness center. This was my first time ever going to a fitness center in a hotel. My first time ever using a treadmill to run in front of a room full of strangers. My first time using professional equipment in close to a decade. Yes, I had used a treadmill in college and a few times back when I had a gym membership (laugh). But I had always just power-walked on it and I was with people I knew so there was someone to interact with. Somehow if I wasn't alone, it was OK.
This day though, I went to the gym by myself and braced myself for the eruption of laughter I was sure I would face. I guess years of being tormented have really taken their toll on me because I actually expected a room full of adults, who weren't paying any attention to me at all, who were focusing on their own workouts, to somehow take the time to point and laugh at me and call me a fraud. I was sure they'd find something to pick on or dig into me for. Part of it is that I kind of felt like a fraud; I still don't consider myself a runner. I can't run for very long at all. I don't even have decent running sneakers or attire. Heck, I've only been doing this for about 2 and a half weeks! So I was instantly transported back to 1991 where I have the world's largest glasses on, my hair is an enormous trainwreck, and I am unable to speak properly because of my retainer. I even expected someone to throw gum in my hair. This was full-on panic mode.
But I had to quiet my inner self-conscious tween, suck it up, and do the work. Of course, the gym had about 25 people in it and they were training to be in a marathon. At least, that's how it seemed. The truth is that there were about 4 other people in there. Two were middle-aged and walking on treadmills. One was a woman probably about my age on an elliptical, and the last was a Brazilian Adonis who really did seem to be training for some sort of race. And of course, the first treadmill that I attempted was either broken or I couldn't figure out how to work (typical). I'm trying to act like I know what I'm doing and I can't even get the thing to start! So the only other open treadmill is right next to the Brazilian. I peek over at his screen and see that he has already been running for almost 40 minutes, and his pace is currently set at an 8. Great.
I finally get the iPad set up, figure out how to use this space-age running machine, and off I am! This was a repeat of Wednesday's plan - Jogging for 3 minutes, Walking for 1:30, Jogging for 5 minutes and Walking for 2:30. I don't know at what point I decided I didn't care what people thought, but it did happen. Maybe it was because Adonis stopped running & went to a walk for about 10 minutes. Maybe it's because when he started running again we kept the same pace. Maybe it's because the creepy old guy two treadmills down kept smiling at me. Whatever it was, I felt much better about myself and was able to just focus on the workout and zone out. At one point, I even found myself smiling! I'm not even sure at what, but I was. Yes ladies & gentlemen, yours truly was using time ON VACATION to run on a treadmill and I was SMILING while doing it! WHO am I??!!
The workout itself was fairly uneventful. Not particularly easy, but not as brutal as the last one was either. And shortly thereafter the whole family headed to the beautiful pool where we spent the remainder of the 97 degree day :)
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