Archive for the 'Fitness' Category

Post #546

Published
by
Sara
on December 19, 2007
in Fitness, Thrifting and Trivia
. Closed

1. First I have to repost these great work-in-progress photos that Erica put up of the story we’re doing for the Snow Stories anthology.

It’s about getting lost, and getting un-lost.

2. I don’t have a gym story this week, but I have a couple of snippets:

Dude on treadmill, breathing heavily, to his trainer: “Now, I expect my stomach to be gone when I get off this thing!”

Trainer: “Uh uh, I am not responsible for what you do when you’re outside this room.”

Dude: “Well, that ain’t gonna work!”

And there was a bald guy with an eyepatch on the next weight bench over. We were resting between sets, also breathing a bit heavily. He got his breath back: “It ain’t fair we have to work so hard!”

3. I will not explain why I know this, but hey, if you ever just happen to be obsessively cleaning out your house and take a whole lot of things to Goodwill, and then you realize, possibly after someone else in your house informs you of the fact, that one of the things you donated really, really should not have been given away, there is a thing you can do. If you still have your donation slip, and it has not been very long since you have made said donation, you can go to the Manager and fill out a form called “Donation In Error.” And then, if it hasn’t been too long, and nobody’s, you know, bought the thing, then you can have it back.

4. Oh, and in case you haven’t seen it already, Free Rice is, to me at least, way more addictive than Sudoku.

Gym story

Published
by
Sara
on December 13, 2007
in Fitness and Music
. Closed

There was one of those guys at the gym this morning.

One of those guys for whom every rep of every set must be accompanied by a long, high-volume groan.

The sort that typically goes along with…other types of activities.

Now, lots of people, including me, find that some kind of forceful exhaling when you’re lifting weights is helpful. And usually, the music — the radio’s always going in the gym — is loud enough to mask it.

But let me reiterate: this guy was REALLY. REALLY. LOUD.

He groaned his way through “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” “Buttons,” and “Baby Got Back.” (The station calls itself something like “your feel-good connection.” Um. Yeah.)

Finally one of the other folks in the gym kind of looked over his way, chuckled, and said, “Damn, boy!”

“What?” the guy demanded. “You mean I’m supposed to be SILENT through my set?”

The other gentleman shook his head cheerfully and said, “Nah, nah, nah, bro. You make your noises.”

“Yeah, well,” the guy said, “it helps, you know — sometimes it SCARES ‘em into movin’ — UUUUNNNHHHH!!”

I believe the “‘em” referred to was the guy’s muscles.

For a little while, things got quieter. There were some commercials on the radio, people talked quietly about holiday plans.

Then the music returned: “Life is a mys-ter-y, everyone must stand a-lone, I hear you call my name, and it feeeeels like ho-ome.”

I realized that there was another voice singing along with Ms. Ciccone.

I looked around to see who it was.

Sure enough, it was Groaning Guy, who, it turns out, is possessed of a totally awesome falsetto.


(N.B.: Not Groaning Guy.)

This, that

Published
by
Sara
on December 11, 2007
in Fitness and Portland
. Closed

1. An item in support of that new career path I posted about.

2. Thanks, runners, for all your wise advice. I’ve been doing the “add a minute each time at the faster pace” and so far I am up to fourteen whole minutes at the 10 minute/mile pace, and then I try to run at least another mile at my slower jog pace. I am heeding folks’ cautions about allowing for adequate recovery time as well.

3. In a related note, man alive, when you go to the gym in the early afternoon, it is silent as the grave. When I unpacked my stuff in the locker room, I took up, like, the whole entire bench without a qualm. (Have you noticed that even if there’s only one other person in the locker room, inevitably they have picked the locker next to yours, so you get in each other’s way regardless?)

4. Saddest sight — well, I guess not saddest per se, but the most indicative-of-neighborhood-change — that I’ve seen since returning to Portland: the ex-Clown House yard, put into service as a Christmas tree lot. Sigh.

Paging the runners who read this

Published
by
Sara
on November 29, 2007
in Fitness
. Closed

So yesterday I had the (not very earth-shattering) revelation that perhaps one of the reasons I run (more like jog) so slowly is that when I do it, I almost always do between 3 and 5 miles on the treadmill, and if I did a shorter distance, I might be able to increase my speed. Sure enough, after pilates yesterday I ran a mile in just over ten minutes, which is, I am sure, unconscionably slow for some of you who read this, but like, two minutes faster than my usual slow jog.

My question: so okay, now that I know this, how do I work my way up to running farther, faster? I don’t want to push myself too much and get injured, and I also want to keep weights workouts, the elliptical trainer (easier on the knees) and pilates in my exercise mix. So I probably wouldn’t be running more than, say, twice a week. Ellie? Greg? Mette? Other lurking runners? Any advice?