Joining Gold's Gym

I joined Gold's Gym. *collective groan* I know, they're the evil empire of 'health clubs.' Numerous friends of mine have regaled me with horror stories about their abusive, money sucking business model and their meat market layout. About the fight you ultimately have to go through to cancel your membership early, and the clause that states if you're 25 miles (or some ridiculous distance) from a club you can't. Seriously, who's going going to drive 30-45 minutes to workout?

I don't really care about that stuff at this point. The bottom line for me when joining a gym was the cost benefit analysis based on the classes the gym offers. The Gold's is within walking distance of my home and work (supremely convenient), and offers a ton of classes. Every hour, on the hour, there seem to be at least two to choose from. From yoga, to strength training, to spinning, and the best part is the instructors are generally pretty good. I used to go to Bikram Yoga, and at a minimum cost of $10 per class my monthly $39.99 at Gold's is a much better deal. Granted, I'm not getting the Bikram experience, which is fantastic in my opinion, but I am getting access to reasonably new equipment and a far greater variety of classes. If I'm absolutely craving Bikram, I can do a drop-in.

I went in thinking I was going to low-ball them, negotiate like a pro. Twist the screws. Hit 'em where it counts... I ended up taking the package deal they have set up with my employer. I didn't even know it existed until I went in. It wasn't bad, a bit more than I wanted to pay, but it's only a year commitment, and I'll probably be around the area for at least that, so it's worth it. Plus, Lis gets a referral bonus of $50 in gift cards to spend on their massively overpriced gear and smoothies. I also brought up the fact that she never received her other referral bonuses from the roomies she recruited, so those should be in the mail too. Pretty sweet deal - of course that's how they engineer it.

There's already been one annoyance - no complementary towels. Seriously? That's just nasty. I know they have paper towel dispensers throughout the gym, but no towel stack to grab from? I come to find out you can add large towels onto your membership, for a nominal fee, of course. Still, for $40 a month I can bring my own. And, it's been cold and rainy the past three days and I've still fit in three treadmill runs rather than skipping out. I guess that means it's working. I'm also looking forward to hitting a class or two this weekend. I think for my reasons for joining a gym, and the added bonus of being able to workout with Lis on a more regular basis, it was a good decision. We'll see how it plays out.

Four Weeks - Wedding in three days

First, a week three summary: I've maintained my running distance of approximately 3.5 miles per run, and have increased the weight I'm lifting slightly. The Power 90 Sculpt 1-2 routine is pretty simple, but I enjoy it. I've also maintained the overall frequency of my workouts. I ended up taking two rest days instead of one due to a weekend trip to the mountains. On Saturday rather than run, I hiked for about 2.5 miles at a brisk pace over a rather aggressive amount of elevation change. Max, my fearless beagle, couldn't handle it. We started out the hike with him pulling me to go faster, and ended with me coaxing him up the mountain while attempting to maintain our initial pace that he had set.

I've slacked off a bit into week four. My left shin has been aching following the weekend camping trip. This is nothing new. When I began running and increasing my distance back in 2008 I would frequently have to ice my shin post-run. It's strange that it's cropping up now, since I'm not pushing any abnormal amount of distance when I've been running. I think perhaps it's due to the age of my running shoes. I've ordered a couple of new pairs of the ones I love (Saucony Progrid Guide) off of Amazon. This release of the shoe is no longer in production, but two more pairs should keep me going for about a year. Come to think of it, I've been running in the same pair for a year, so it's a good thing I'm replacing them now. I'll be sure to recycle my old pairs at my local running store so the materials don't go to waste.

UPDATE: The shoes came! That was fast - two days of turn around? Way to go UPS and Amazon.

I didn't want to run until I got my new shoes. I'm going to ease into it and not push my pace too hard when I do. Today might not be the day for a break-in run. While I'm not opposed to running in the rain, I'm just not feeling it right now. I'll try to sneak in a weight routine, and get a run in tomorrow before leaving Friday for the wedding weekend. I double checked, and the hotel has a gym, so I should be able to continue to keep up some semblance of my exercise regimen this week. Then I'm going to reevaluate. I've been thinking about training for a race...and while the wedding has kept me reasonably on track, I'm much more excited about the prospect of pushing towards an athletic goal.