Making Use of the Gym Membership

It's gotten cold and the days are short, which means long bike rides after work are over for a few months. Instead, it's time to once again make use of our gym memberships. You wouldn't know it during the summer months, but we've been members of Gold's Gym for a few years, it's just on rare instances that we step through their doors any time between April and October. Bring on the winter though, and we're each in there two or three times per week. It's always interesting to get back and see the same people year in and year out. The big burly guys with orange tans, that you just know were from the gym's tanning beds since they rarely if ever leave that weight room. Lucky us, it's the "social Golds" in town, so way too many girls in full makeup and guys with gelled hair. But it's huge and it's only two miles from our house.

Tuesday night spin class becomes a fixture during these months. "Dave L." is the instructor. Big guy -- if you saw him in the weight room you'd think he was just some meathead. But boy can that guy run a spin class! Unlike the instructors who approach it like step aerobics, he actually puts us through workouts that simulate rides --- long hill climbs, stretches of sprints, etc... Last night I somehow ended up with the bike directly under the fan, and as a result got no airflow at all. Sweat literally dripped to the ground before the hour was up. We know Dave up close and personal since last year he and I had a little argument based on a misunderstanding. I tried to tell him before class that I was going to do a time trial test and so he'd see me going strong the whole class rather than backing off when he said to recover. Basically I said "don't worry about me, but I'm sort of going to be doing my own thing." He thought I meant I was going to put an iPod on and just ignore him. Yeah. He didn't take too well to that concept and told me I was rude. We worked it out, and now we're all buds, but still, made for some tense moments. Stuart was not happy that he might be called upon to defend me. I mean, he's a big dude and he was pretty pissed at me! But anyway...now we're all friendly and say hi whenever we're there.

The point is that I started this year calling it the year of the bike, and the year I was going to love hills. Last year, Dave's class would leave me totally beat. I struggled to finish it, and would cut myself some slack on those long climbs. The past two weeks though, I find myself pushing harder. Sure, you can always max out on those spin bikes, but I'm not counting the seconds until the end of class. Once again, I'm getting the affirmation I need that my own hard work has paid off. You don't always see it on a daily basis, which makes it hard to stick with it. It takes faith, and race results, sometimes to convince yourself that progress is really being made.

I've just purchased my off-season training plan and that officially starts on Monday, 1 December. I could have just winged it, but know that I need structure. Even if I don't always follow it explicitly, at least it's something staring at me and reminding me that there's work to be done, progress to be made. And just because I'm indoors doesn't mean a workout isn't happening that won't pay dividends next summer.