Alone in the Gym

I've been blessed with such a flexible lunch hour that I can take any hour any time of the day to go to the gym. Which essentially means I get to skip the peak hour at the gym and go running on the treadmill at a sane period.

That worked well for me all along until lately where I've come to realise again that running on the treadmill with nothing to distract from the pain of underused muscles is mind-numbingly dull. I used to run at the track near my house, which is one-up from the treadmill, because it actually feels like I'm moving somewhere. The treadmill however, makes me feel like some hamster in a cage running for what feels like forever in one spot. The past few days, I've been heading to the gym after work so there were lots of people and body combat classes with people yelling every now and then. I could have a little bitch session in my head about the person two treadmills down, or silently compete with the person running on the next treadmill.

Somehow when everything is silent and there isn't all that movement going on around me, time just passes oh so slowly. I become very aware of each metre I'm running and the pain felt with each step I take. I'll sit there over analysing every ache and pain and mentally willing a sudden jump in the distance run on the treadmill register (or whatever it's called). Today felt like the longest, most painful 4km run ever and I was ready to throw in the towel at 800m. I guess it didn't help that somehow over the course of the past week, I've managed to gain 2kilos. And I've been the most active the last week in ages! Anyhow, obviously the extra 2kilos weighed heavily on my mind. There was a huge battle in my head involving thoughts like 'this is really tiring because I'm lugging 2 extra kilos around with me and theoretically, even if I ran less I'm working out more because I'm packing more' and 'I have to get rid of this stupid 2 kilos of weight!' Sigh, what happened to those days where I never gained or lost weight no matter how much I ate or exercised?

Maybe this is just one of my bad days. But I am seriously contemplating just heading to the gym when it's packed with sweaty bodies. Simply because it feels just that much more interesting and to a teeny tiny extent, the run feels just that much more effortless.