Tonight was my first time back in the gym after 16 months away and I’m embarrassed to say that I lasted all of 10 minutes on the new elliptical machines.
Seriously, it was pathetic. I’m so completely out of shape that my legs were nearly turned to jelly after my dismount, which surprised the heck out of me because when I stopped working out back in the Fall of 2008 I could have gone 45 minutes or longer on a similar machine (depending on what was playing on television at the time).
I didn’t even make it through the end of the Seinfeld episode where everyone is trying to avoid Crazy Joe Davola at the opera which was TERRIBLE because I LOVE the scene with George scalping tickets in an alley.
Still, there was a bright side to Day One: I didn’t throw in the towel.
I mean that literally. After having my ass handed to me by the new elliptical machine I walked over to toss my towel into the return bin and head back to the car when I was gripped by the realization that I needed to do just a little bit more if I was serious about trimming down a bit.
So I wobbled over to the recumbent bicycles and pedaled gamely for another 20 minutes while trying to remember how to work the television on the stupid thing. I never did find the end of that Seinfeld episode but I did get to watch a replay of International Space Station Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson trying to repair a space dishwasher (or whatever) on NASA-TV.
Gripping stuff.
That’s the amusing thing about the Georgia Tech Campus Recreation Center – nobody bats an eye if you decide to watch NASA replays on your workout equipment’s mini-televisions and they provide FREE issues of USA Today and the New York Times in the vestibule as you leave.
Almost makes it worth the risk of getting mugged by some clown on the way to your car.
