Running.... in silence.

Sometimes I want my music blaring... sometimes I need Lady Gaga to push me through that extra half mile, sometimes.... but other times, I want to run in silence. I want to be alone with my thoughts. I want to escape whatever is happening in the world and just run.

Today, I wanted to work out without my iPod on, I just wanted to bust out a quick 20 minutes on the treadmill, 10 on the stair stepper and 15 minutes of abs/core. That was my plan...

Instead, I was preached at, and had gospel rap (if that's possible) screamed at me while I was attempting to have my peaceful morning workout. The entire gym was staring at this 30-something meathead who was at first pacing the cardio machines and preaching at us (I say at because he was yelling). Then he decided that the best way for him to get his message across would be to join me on the treadmill. I tried to block him out, listen to the music that the gym was playing, and get into my own zone but that was next-to-impossible. The girl on the opposite side of him went to complain to the guys at the front desk who politely asked him to keep it quiet.

Whew.... now I can work out in peace.

Wrong! He turns to me and starts yelling, asking why we are embarassed of God, why we are ashamed of God, why we don't want to hear about it.

My response was, "SHUT UP." Plain and simple, shut up. How incredibly rude to go to a place and disrupt what everyone else is doing. That is in no way going to get you a favorable response. He continued on and I finally explained that we are not embarassed of God, or ashamed, yet annoyed by him. Even after my comments telling him he was being disruptive, rude and annoying, and both people (including myself) leaving the treadmills on either side of him, he did not stop. He floated around the gym to the areas that were the most crowded and continued his ranting.

I believe in God. I was raised going to church every Sunday (like it or not). I am Christian. However, when I want to work out, I just want to work out.

Am I wrong here, people? Tell me your thoughts on merging Sunday Service with your interval session, kill two birds with one stone? Fact is... now I need another work out to de-stress from the first one.