Another PR, another gym first
I thought I would give my raw hand a break today and do no weight work at the gym. Instead I decided to do yet another physical challenge, a “sprint” mile on the treadmill. I am by no means fast. My best 5k time is 24 minute something, somewhere around an 8 minute mile pace. Running that pace pretty much wipes me out after 3 miles. Well for a one mile all out run I needed to go faster obviously.
I set my goal as a sub 7 minute mile. Doing a quick look up on the internet, that came out to running 8.6 mph. For comparison sake, my normal treadmill pace is 7 mph which works out to an 8:34 pace.
I wanted to make sure I was good and loose before the attempt so I walked a 1/4 mile and ran another half mile at 7 before cranking the dial up to 8.6.
It didn’t take long until my body was protesting the significant speed increase. It was uncomfortable at first, really uncomfortable after a few minutes. About half way in I questioned my ability to complete the challenge. I just kept reminding myself I only had to endure another three minutes. You can endure almost anything for three minutes.
Finally the distance clicked to the 1 mile mark and I immediately dialed the speed down, exhausted. I could hardly imagine how human beings run distances much further much, much faster than the 6:58 pace I just kept. Man I was pooped.
I decided to round off my gym session with some more cardio, a much tamer variety on the recline bike. I decided to use one of the bikes in the Retro Fitness cardio theater. Each day they play a different movie on loop throughout the day. Evidently they pay no attention to the rating of the movie that is playing, today’s film was “Any Given Sunday”.
Anyone that has seen the movie knows it was an R film. In the 15 minutes I was in there I heard no less than 10 “mother f’rs” on screen as well as a scene filled with football players snorting coke off of a bunch of topless women. Now of course personally, I am the last person that would be offended by a R movie. However I have to admit I felt a bit embarrassed to be in there with three or four middle aged soccer mom types getting in their mid-day workout.
Even stranger was at the front desk the guy behind the counter was watching the movie as well with the sound cranked way up. It just seems like not quite the right image you want to be projecting as your customers come in the door.
I do have to admit I did laugh out loud when Jim Brown, who plays a coach on one of the teams in the movie is reaming out his players in a very loud and animated manner. One of the players says “Calm down coach, you are going to give yourself a stroke” Brown screams back “I don’t get mother f’in get strokes, I GIVE THEM!”
Maybe tomorrow they will be showing some soft porn?