You Can Do It!

Day One at the gym was on Saturday. We were there when the place opened, 6AM.

It's a great place, and I have to say, I like the fact that our schedules are pretty conducive to working out at odd hours.

But man, my girlie gym has spoiled me. I am used to friendly people, and this place has the desk clerk who is cracking her gum and reading OK! magazine and who answers, "I dunno" to every question you ask.

I am also used to machines that are scaled to someone about my size. And their elliptical machines? Not my friendly little Precors, oh no. These things are by StarTech or something like that, and they are scaled for giants. Also, getting started feels like you are booting up the Space Shuttle. Once you enter program, level, intensity, upper body preferences (push, pull, or none) and weight (in 1 lb increments)and then the time you want to spend, you're so intimidated that you want to spend the rest of the hour hiding in the locker room.

The first day was the hardest. I was ellipticating away, when suddenly the machine hit a plateau which I would describe as "wading through Jell-O". I checked my heart rate monitor at the end, and it took me 30 minutes to burn almost 700 calories. Holy Crap!

I hopped off the machine, panting and red-faced,with legs that wobbled precariously. Then I happened to glance down at the pool, where The Man had sort of draped his upper body onto dry land while the rest of him bobbed gently in the waves generated by the other lanes of swimmers. He looked like a shipwreck survivor.

By the time we admitted it was time to hobble home, I had a migraine and he had thrown up. Today, however, was better. We are learning how to pace ourselves, and are actually having a lot of fun!

Also, a small celebration- today, for the first time, my heart rate monitor pronounced my recovery heartrate "fair". I have been "poor" without fail for the last month, so "fair" is worth celebrating over. Yay "fair!"