I joined a neighborhood rec center on Black Friday for the sole purpose of completing the Concept 2 Holiday Rowing Challenge. I was initially going to get a 30 day punch card, but it was hardly $100 more to get a membership for the entire year. I did it. I know I’ll go in there and run occasionally or get in a little wod when I can’t make it to CrossFit.
But something dramatic happened today. When I arrived around noon, I saw a bunch of signs up about new cardio equipment coming in this month! YAY! I scanned the list hoping and praying for a new rower — they only have one and it is not very well-maintained. I’ve been tempted to try oiling it myself. Haha. Trust me, no one would notice there. Anyways, nope. No rower! I walked into the gym area, and *boom* no rower!!!!!!!!!!! It’s been replaced by some type of recumbent bike??? What? I did a few laps around the gym in a state of PANIC! Where is it??
Were they getting rid of it? Of course, for a fleeting moment, I thought MAYBE I COULD GET THEM TO GIVE TO ME!!! When I finally went to the front desk and inquired about it (trying to act calmly!), I was informed that it had been moved to the multi-purpose room.
The dark recesses of the multi-purpose room. Ha. Ha. Ha.
Hilarious! It’s the only thing in there!!!!!!!!
Here’s where it used to be:
In the gym! In front of windows! In front of a LAKE!! In Colorado!! Do you know how amazing that was???????
Well, I took a deep breath, and got on the rower.
I had decided to do one of the 24 Concept 2 Rowing benchmark workouts. I chose #8 because I am still trying to understand what some of the stats mean on the rower, and it seemed like an easier one.
I did about 1200m as warm-up before I started.
As I rowed, I contemplated some of the perks of being in this isolated location.
- I can take as many selfies as I want.
- Nobody looking at me weird when I’m breathing loudly.
- There are some little tables in there. I legitimately think I could bring my laptop in and watch some tv if I ever wanted to do a super long row. Seriously!!!! No one there would probably even see me.
- The rowing machine doesn’t “scoot” on the carpet like it does on normal gym floors. I was always running into the dumb leg press machine.
I started my workout, and after a while I got some company…….
The’s right. A nice group of senior citizens playing poker!!!!! Hahahahahahahaha. MY NEW WOD PARTNERS.
They said:
“do a few reps for me.”
“I remember when I used to go down to the Y and workout.”
“They didn’t have fancy machines like that back then….”
And so on. Thankfully, I was almost done with my workout although they insisted that I wasn’t bothering them. It was a little awkward since it’s a pretty small room. I’ll probably try to avoid noon from now on. :)
Well, my results were a little underwhelming. I was going for negative splits…. until I wasn’t. Haha. I have to admit that I probably wasted a solid thirty seconds on that last interval changing my music. It’s hard to row for 8 minutes with a boring song on!!!!! I was going for 25 strokes per minute, but I guess I got 26!! At least I was consistent, I guess.
Can you tell I’m starting to love rowing? Of course, I’m not as good as my mom!
I need to find a sport that my parents can’t school me at!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I guess I probably have them when it comes to lifting heavy. :)
Would you rather work out with cardio equipment all alone or with a group? At one of our old gyms in Greenwood Village, we used to play Jeopardy! on the treadmills versus some of the other members. It was so fun!!! There’s not multi-tasking at CrossFit! Haha.
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