Sunday, February 26, 2012

Another new gym

It has been a busy but fun weekend full of quality time with the family.  Knowing it was going to be a crazy weekend, I wanted to plan ahead to be sure I got in at least one good run.  So my first stop after work on Friday was to join another gym and get in some quality time with the treadmill.

Yes, another gym!  I am so happy I took a few minutes to research my health plan's fitness options before joining a gym.  I hate everything else about our health insurance plan, but I love that they offer the Healthways Prime membership.  In a nutshell, I paid a $25 initiation fee and pay $25 a month for a gym membership that works at a ton of different gyms.  It is awesome for me because I live 20+ miles from where I am interning, and I'll be graduating and looking for a job elsewhere in the near future.  I could be anywhere in the greater Pittsburgh area looking for a gym and didn't want to be limited by a chain's options.  I also wasn't keen on the idea of shelling out big money on a gym contract for a gym I may not love.  I've only joined 2 so far, but I have a list of a handful more to check out soon.

On Friday I tried out a large gym just down the road from work, and I'm a fan so far.  They have showers (a little important for pre-work sweat fests), loads of empty cardio equipment, and I think I even spotted free/cheap coffee!  Oddly, there were also about 20 males there for every female.  Not interested in the eye candy, but I literally had the whole locker room to myself!

Locker room, with mirrored optical illusion included.  Super outdated 90s fab, but clean and empty!
But really I just wanted to share how happy I was after pounding out 8 miles on a Friday night!  My longest run so far, and it felt so good to see that 8 when I was done.  My Motoactv tells me thorough my headphones every time I hit a new longest distance or time, and it is such a running high.  It's a little "that's the farthest I've ever ran... and now I'm going to just keep going!"  The reality is that before I started running a few weeks ago, I had never ran more than 3 miles at a time.  I am in totally new territory for running continuous miles.  90 minute soccer games, yes.  But never just straight out running.  It is such an incredible feeling to hit each little milestone.

Tomorrow comes a new milestone.  I have 10 pre-work treadmill miles planned out for the morning!  Guess that means I should pack my gym bag and get some sleep...

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