Thursday, August 5, 2010

Gym Etiquette


Warning!
This post has been written by an irritated and offended person.
Please forgive her rant.

Last week when I was running one of my short runs (3.5 miles) a new gym user came in to work out.
I saw her there the week before. She came in and hopped on the treadmill two feet away from mine. I was in the middle of my run, and it was very easy for me to see what she was doing. She started running. She started running at my pace. I was already at my faster pace. After running for two minutes, she slows to a pace that's too fast for walking and is bent over on to the console of the treadmill. I thought she was going to stumble on her feet and fall over. She was there for 10 minutes... hanging on to an obviously "too fast" setting on the treadmill. This has always bewildered me about some people at gyms. Why set the treadmill at that speed when it's so obvious it's too fast and you're inevitably going to fall and/or hurt yourself? So then I finish my run. I always spray the machine with disinfectant the gym provides and paper towels too. It was very clean when I gathered all of my belongings and got off of the machine. I started to stretch my legs and cool down. The minute I got off of the machine she quickly got off of hers (an identical machine like the treadmill I was on) and started disinfecting it and wiping it down AGAIN!!! I couldn't believe how rude she was! Was she for real? Yes, I was perspiring A LOT. That's what happens when you run for an extended amount of time, but I cleaned up after myself. After she did her "thorough" clean-up, she hopped on my machine and started running. Of course, she again was bent over and hung on to the machine and for her dear life. What I really wanted to do was unplug the stupid thing and see where she would land. Hehe. Okay... that was mean. Anyway... she could've waited five minutes and let me leave before she started her disinfection process. Oh, how irritated I was.

Gym Etiquette... some people have it and some people don't.

Today's Activity:  3.5 miles up that hill again, upper body with weights
Today's Fuel:  clean eating

I've decided that I'm going to start Insanity on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Core work on Tuesdays and Thursdays too.
I'll work with free weights on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
I'll only run 3.5 miles on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
I'll do something active and fun on Saturdays- walk with the twins, walk a mall, hike, etc.
This will begin on Monday, August 16. My 10K training will be done by then.

My stepkids leave tonight! I am so frieking happy!

Have a happy and healthy day! I'm not irritated anymore.

5 comments:

Silly Girl Running said...

I'm with you on this one! That is so rude! And so not necessary! You already cleaned it; was she trying to make some sort of stupid point?

MissHaneefa said...

Don't take offense, maybe she is super OCD? I had that happen to me, I think it could also just be a habit for some people....

Liz said...

Have a great night!

Crys said...

I love it that 3.5 is a "short run" for you... sound like a trip to morgue for me! :)

I'm not a fan of the gym competitor. I hate when that person gets on next to you and adjusts their speed every time you adjust your speed or resistance. I'm like, this only ends up with both of us with a collapsed lung! Craziness!

Thanks for stopping by my blog! I'm following you now and I can't wait to hear how your 10K goes.

Jennifer said...

Thank you for sharing this gym story. It made me chuckle. Yet, I know it was a totally uncalled for thing.

And how you started this post is totally how I should have started mine today...with a warning :) hehe.

Have a good day.

Jennifer