A New Experience

Yesterday I stepped out of my comfort zone and went to the gym at work during my lunch break.  We have free access to our gym and yet I've never taken advantage of it.  Oh sure, I've gone in the bathroom a couple of times to change into outdoor running gear.  I've gone to the basketball court on blood donation days.  But I've never ventured into the cardio room, the weight room, or the locker room.  Until yesterday.

It's a pretty old facility and the locker room is a little nastophonic, but the cardio equipment is fairly up to date.  My real fear of the place stems from the tons of other people who use it.  I don't want anyone watching me workout-there's an aerobics room right behind the treadmills and the two rooms are separated with a wall of glass.  Even if no one is really staring at me, I know I would feel like they were the whole time.  Also, I don't want to share the locker room with anyone.  I didn't like changing with other people in high school, and I think I would like it even less with other worker type people. 

I decided to wait until after the rush.  I know most people go to lunch from 10:30 to 12:30 so I waited until 1:00 just to be safe.  Thankfully I was the only one in the locker room!  There were a few people in the cardio room, but no one in the aerobics room to stare at me!  Everything was working out great!

And then I ran.  It was the worst run of my life!!!  It wasn't bad because of the facility or anything.  The treadmill was nicer than the one I have at home so it was great.  I guess it was a little hot in there.  At home I have a fan clipped onto the treadmill and pointed right at my face.  At the gym there was no fan and no air flow.  So maybe that's part of it.  But mostly it was all me, I think.

I ran at a 1% incline for 22 minutes (I set out for 25) and went 2.19 miles (10:03 pace).  It was supposed to be my tempo run for the week, which means I warm up, run at my goal race pace for as long as I can, recover, repeat to the end of the workout, then cool down.  Recover usually means slow down to a comfortable run pace slightly below my normal easy run pace.  Yesterday recover meant stop the treadmill, stand there panting and sound like I have asthma, gulp water like I'e never seen it before, then a minute later get back on the treadmill and repeat.  It felt horrible having to stop in the middle.  And furthermore, it's the second workout this week where I've had to stop and rest!  I know I was sick for several days this week, and I want to blame it on my lungs still being clogged up, whether that's true or not.  But even if I do have a valid reason (and I'm not truly subscribing to that belief-I think maybe I made an excuse instead) it still felt horrible to have a run like that.  I'm too far in the training process to have to flat out stop and rest!

And because stories are more fun with pictures, here's one of me after a run I didn't hate:

See?  Happy!