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.

Running... NOT at ZX Fitness.

I got off work early today as we are traveling to Atlanta to celebrate my boyfriend's 30th birthday. I thought I would allow time for myself to hit the gym before we get on the road... however, instead I've been dealing with this situation below. Here is my message to the gym.... after I spoke with billing for half an hour and then went in to speak with the manager without any resolve:


"I'm very disappointed with the level of service I have received from ZX Fitness. I have been a member for a while now and recently had my debit card number compromised. My bank deactivated the card and sent me a new one. I got an email from ZX saying I needed to update my billing information. I came in and did so, and was informed there was a $20 decline fee on there as well. I asked if that would be removed since it was not my choice to change the card number and was told that it would. I tried to contact the billing on 6/6 to be on hold for over 20 minutes. I went in the gym again on 6/7 and asked if there was any other way to go about this and was told no, I would have to call again but also assured that the $20 would not be charged to me. I spoke with billing today 6/8 and was informed that I had been charged the decline fee and there was nothing they could do. I went into the gym, hoping the situation could be rectified there since that it where I was first told I would not be charged the decline fee and that it would be waved. I was told there was nothing the manager or his manager could do unless i get written proof from my bank. 


I've brought in 3 additional members to this gym and have diligently paid my dues monthly. I'm highly disappointed in the run around and that I'm having to chase down an email from my bank to "prove" this - because obviously I would make up a story like this and then willingly come in and update my number. It makes no sense. 


I am considering canceling my account with ZX after this situation is rectified, as well as my boyfriend moving his account and my two friends that have joined with me. I will gladly pay cancellation fees for them as I do not want them to have to endure stressful and unnecessary situations such as this one... ever. 


You might want to make sure your front desk staff knows what they are talking about before you let them inform your members that fees will be waived. And what's the point of having a manager who has no authority to do anything? 


Highly disappointed in this company and my gym in particular." 


Needless to say, I did not get to run today. Hopefully Atlanta will provide some time for rest & relaxation!

Running Thru December

I doubt I have to say this - but the holidays are ROUGH.... rough on your diet, your work outs and your waistline. If you don't set aside time to work out and prepare your meals... you will very easily get sidetracked by holiday colored wrapped Hershey's kisses, candy canes or Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Latte. 


I vowed to not eat sweets for the month of December to help combat all of the meals that I would be (over)indulging in. On December 1st, my team at work threw a party for me with chocolate cake to celebrate my last day in that role. Epic fail. 


On December 5th, also day 1 of my new job, my new boss bought me a brownie... I'm pretty sure it was laced with some addictive substance. It was heavenly and I immediately wanted more. They had obviously taken it out of the oven a couple minutes early to preserve the gooey-ness.


On December 6, one of my new co-workers delivered a bag of Andes, Hershey's Kisses and Hershey's miniatures to my desk. I devoured them all by 11 A.M. Except for the one that I saved for my boyfriend to help sweeten up his day (we have lunch together pretty much every day). 


Anyway, you can see the trend... I thought it would be a lot easier to avoid sweets and chocolate at least until Christmas day but I couldn't do it. There were too many temptations. So here's how I've negated all of those calories to avoid looking like this: 

Monday - Class day which equals no working out
Tuesday - Made a buffalo chicken wrap for lunch, with carrots and an apple as my snacks throughout the day
Wednesday- Ran 3 miles on the treadmill with intervals on incline of .5-8.0
Thursday - 90 day supreme Total Body workout 
Friday - Ran 2 miles with the dogs
Saturday - 9:15 A.M. Group Power @ ZX Fitness and then a 1.25 mile walk with the dogs
Sunday (tomorrow - but I'm doing it!) - 10:30 A.M. Group Ride class @ ZX Fitness 


The only chocolate I've allowed myself to have at home has been chocolate milk (1%) after a work out. So that's at least partial success. 


Maybe I'll try again in January... but until then, I'll keep planning calorie burning workouts to kill all the sugary goodness that would otherwise go straight to my love-handles.