The requirement to go cycling for an hour (I do better with miles than times, but the Challenge 5 training plan is all in times) means that I have to get myself to the gym earlier than usual (otherwise it'll be shut before I'm finished my hour). This means that there are more people in there along with me (aaargh! Company! Hide!!), and that it's still daylight when I start my training.
The other night I was surrounded by: Mirror Bloke (who once again prostrated himself at my feet to bend and flex most enthusiastically - I'm not sure why he needs to study himself closely while in the mirror while he does so, but there you go); Serious Bloke (who was weights and running focused - mixing things up by leaving out the rowing); and a new gym-goer who really has to be named Gym Club Barbie. She was little and very thin (and had to have Serious Bloke help her adjust the weight machines to her delicate little frame), dressed all in pink (pink shoes, pink socks, pink trousers, pink top), and no matter what she did she never quite managed to break a sweat. What other name could you really give her? Not only that, but she shared Mirror Bloke's obsession with the mirrored wall. After spending a little bit of time delicately using the machines in the gym, she cam over to the mirrored wall, kneeled down, and then lay herself back flat on the floor with her knees bent double and her calves running parallel to her thighs. All very impressively flexible - but at the end of the day she just looked like a human pretzel.
Although it does occur to me that I should be careful with the names that I invent for the other gym goers. After all, if I was inventing a name for myself, it would probably be "Long John Silver" at the moment, due to the on-going trouser-shortening issue when I'm cycling. I should probably bear that in mind in future. Or start wearing different clothes when I cycle in the gym...
Other exciting things that I've noticed in the gym - after only 18 months - is that the windows between the 2 mirrored walls are not blacked out or mirrored (as I've always assumed). They are in fact perfectly normal windows which look out onto a wall. When it's dark, they look mirrored (i.e. they are black and all I can see is me on the bike), which I find a lot less distracting. Yes, it's true, I can be distracted from exercise by a wall. Not entirely sure that the "habit-forming" element of the 5x50 challenge is working...
:o)
Today's stats
Cycling (in gym) - 1 hour, 12.1 miles [Level 5]
Walking - 25 mins, 1.47 miles [to the library and back... Forgot to do anything else!]
No comments:
Post a Comment