In my last post, I mentioned that I would start running at least a mile a day to try to get back on track. While that hasn't happened, I did have a much better week thereafter running / working out. I ran, often with additional "cross training" on 5 out of 8 days. I can live with that. This past week, I went to the SEMR Beer / Group Run in Royal Oak and ran today (Saturday). That's it. Oh well. I'm done beating myself up about it. I'm trying.
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| Fun at the SEMR Beer Run - Included a 5k-ish run, beer and prizes. |
I don't love working out inside, as I'd rather run outside, but it seems to be working out for me at the moment. Two of the five workouts last week were done at my home on my crummy treadmill. It is a hand-me-down that has a belt that moves, but it is relatively narrow and is not particularly comfortable to run on, but that's about it. I don't think the mph listed is particularly accurate. 6 mph on this treadmill is much more difficult than at the gym.
The gym I go to is Planet Fitness. For the price, it is tough to beat. They have two levels of membership - the standard one, which includes access for your home club only, for $10 a month and PF Black, which allows you to bring a guest, use other clubs and use of the hydromassage, massage chairs and tanning for $20. (There is also an annual fee of something like $39). I chose the $20 membership mainly to use the hydromassage and to be able to attend other Planet Fitness locations (though I have only done so once so far).
My local club is only a couple years old and it has already expanded. There is the main room, an area for a 30 minute circuit, tanning rooms, the massage and hydro massage rooms, red light therapy room (not sure if I buy the value of red light therapy yet), a smaller, new room with mostly cardio machines, and locker rooms. The machines are all in good shape with about half of the machines being less than 6 months old. The treadmills are the most comfortable I've ever run on. They're still treadmills, but they are good ones. They lack most fancy, custom workout features but have adequate preset programs. The ARC Trainers, Ellipticals and such are good too. Bikes are fine, but again lack programs allowing heavy customization. The weight machines are fine for anything I would use them for.
Overall, the vibe is pretty casual, which is what they shoot for. There is a dress code (no jeans, nothing overly revealing), they discourage grunting and they have a lunk alarm for the lunks that drop weights. I haven't heard the alarm this year. If you are "hardcore gym guy / gal", this place isn't for you, but if you're a casual gym user, it generally has what you need. There is no pool and no child care, which may be issues for some (I would love child care).
The weather continues to be brutal, I cannot run in my neighborhood because the roads and sidewalks are ice and snow covered, and my schedule continues to be unfriendly to running, but I'm not giving up. I'm still determined to be in shape for two spring half-marathons and any other races I may do.
I'm like you - the neighborhood is too icy, so I've been settling for the treadmill most of the time lately. I'm not thrilled about it, but I'm getting my runs in and that's the main goal. It sounds like you've been doing a pretty good job keeping up with your workouts and that your gym is working out pretty well for you. Hopefully it's more reasonable to run outside soon!
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