Gym

So today I hit the gym. I still strongly dislike them and can't ever see myself becoming a full fledged member of one.

I am however, not stupid and know that the MS Climb to the Top event is in about a month. If I'm going to have a chance in hell of finishing, I NEED to get into better cardio shape.
Hence, the gym and all it's intimidating machine glory.

I started out on the stair machine today. I didn't have a goal other than not to collapse and fall off and to try not to sound too much like a hippo in heat with the huffing and the puffing.

I set it to what seemed like a decent acceptable "normal" speed and started walking.
The gal next to me who hopped on at about the same time was originally going at the same pace I was and so I didn't feel like too much of a wuss.

Then I noticed she was speeding up, faster and faster till that bitch was RUNNING up the stairs. Sprinting as though Jason Vorhees was chasing her.

My reaction without thinking was to click my machine up a few notches too and walk a little faster.

It was at that moment that I realized you can drive yourself nuts in this sort of a setting. I turned my IPOD up to max volume and turned back to my own machine to do what I was doing.

I  slowed down,  and concentrated on one foot in front of the other.

I meant to count each step I took as I didn't know what the machine counted as a flight. (The Rockefeller Center flights are 9 stairs each with two flights between floors. 66 floors for a total of 1215 steps) At 22 flights I decided I wanted to hit the stationary bike so I got off the stairs and went to the bike.

Goal was 5 miles in 20 mins. I started out with no resistance and gradually built up keeping my rotations at 80. The last half mile I cranked the resistance up till it felt like I was pedaling in concrete and rode like the wind. I got the speed up to 90 and held it there for 3 mins. When I stepped off, I had to grab a hold of the machine so I didn't fall over. My legs were Jello.

My heart rate was up around 160 the whole time I was pedaling hard.

Was I doing it right? Was I in a good zone? Was I using the machine correctly? No freaking clue. All I know is I'm feeling it in my thighs as I type this.  Since building the muscles in my legs is one of the goals here (the other is to build stamina) I've done something right.

While I was on the bike I watched guy work with the weights, preening and strutting in front of the mirror, grunting and slamming down weights. I think my eyes got a good workout too from all of the rolling they did.

Tomorrow I'm going to go back and I'm going to count the steps on the stair machine. Goal is 500 steps. If that's less than the machines 22 flights then we go to at least the 22 flights. If it's more, then we keep on climbing.

How badly do you want it?

Clearly badly enough to go to the gym and work with machines...