Not voluntarily! Brie's car is in the shop so I had to take her to teach her dance/ fitness class. And she figured since I would be at the gym anyway, why not come in and work out? Um...because I wanted to sit in the car and read?
No such luck. I reluctantly followed her inside, signed in and had my temperature checked, changed into a pair of slightly not big enough sneakers (couldn't find mine so wearing Brie's) and then she led me to the back room that had treadmills and ellipticals and recumbent bikes. I was glad the room was empty because it had been a long time since I'd been on a stationary bike. But I had a Harlequin and a bottle of water so I was ready!
The recumbent bike was one of those new-fangled ones with lots of settings and such, so Brie set it up for me. "And mom it even has a fan!" "Oh good, turn it on because you know I run warm anyway." She did and it felt great! Then she set up the speed and the timing and the cycle and God only knows what else and then pronounced me ready. I commenced to cycling, gave her the thumb's up and began my workout.
I pedaled and pedaled, feeling good about myself. I looked at the timer: hmm, only 56 seconds had gone by. I pedaled faster, looked at the timer: one minute 12 seconds. Ugh. So I decided to read to make the time go by faster. However, that didn't quite work out for me because it was tiresome holding the book. So I put that down, took a sip of water and wondered why I was warm. Oh, the fan had gone off, Seriously. So I turned that back on. The TV was on the Tennessee / Auburn basketball game so I decided to watch that. I noticed my pedaling was down to 20 rpms. Whatever. Good thing I was alone because I had no one to impress.
Of course, as soon as I thought this, a gentleman came through to use the restroom. "How ya doin'?" he called cheerfully. "Great!" I said, picking up speed and pedaling furiously so he would know I was a serious cyclist. I even managed to keep up that pace until he came out, said "have a nice day!" and left the room. I was doing 70 rpms but backed off of that as I huffed and puffed. Man, I hope he's the only one that came through! But he wasn't! Probably five guys came through so I was like screw it! I don't have to impress these gym rats! However, I have a secret competitive streak, even with myself, so I not only pedaled faster to impress anyone that came walking through. But also to actually burn some calories. And eureka: I did! 62 to be exact, by pedaling four miles in 30 minutes. Not exactly my all-time best (I used to go 10 - 15 miles in spin class) but pretty good for a lady with bad knees and a long hiatus. So good for me!
And this past Saturday I went back! I am a warrior! I set up that bike myself and vowed to keep my rpms to at least 50. I was doing well, until the cute guy from the front desk came in and got on the bike one down from me. Hmm...out of the corner of my eye I noticed him pedaling at a pretty good clip. Well two can play at that game! So I immediately started a contest with him (of course he was unaware) and I matched my pedaling to his. However, I had been on the bike for almost 15 minutes and he was fresh (and young!), so I couldn't keep up his pace. BUT he also only stayed on for less than 15 minutes while I was almost at half an hour, so I won the contest! Of course he'll never know unless he reads this blog post, or we start dating ha ha. But the important thing is: I WON!
And I really did win because this Saturday I did almost 5 miles in 35 minutes and burned 84 calories. I'll take it! I'm getting there, and it's better than sitting home doing nothing and hoping I don't gain my lost weight back.
And just for fun: the first Saturday I saw those big ropes that you see people on Biggest Loser and sports commercials use. So even with my bad left shoulder I still had to give those ropes a try. They are heavy but I was so pleased to be able to do even a small bit with my left arm. I was killing it!
So until Brie either a) gets her car fixed (ETA end of April due to a part shortage); or b) gets a new car, I will be at the the gym at least every Saturday. And who knows? I could even add a couple of extra days. Go me!
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