With the coming of winter and colder days, I’ve joined a local gym. Part of the reason is to keep my running going in a warmer setting, the other part is to pick up on resistance training as well as cardio.
I haven’t been in a gym in anger since 2011 or thereby but I used to be a regular in the gym at Victoria Quay when I was a civil servant. I had a more complete routine then based on various machines, but in the intervening years I’ve forgotten how to use them properly (and therefore safely). My current routine is based on three things, not including warm up and stretching: half an hour on a rowing machine, a series of bicep curls with hand weights and half an hour on the running machine. This morning that translated to rowing 5.5km and running 5km. I will broaden this out later, but my aim for the moment is just to get into a routine and get comfortable with the machines; running on a treadmill is different to running outdoors because the surface is springier and is moving.
I usually run outside without music – I like the sounds of the birds on my usual route and I like to be able to hear traffic when I’m near a road so as to avoid colliding with it. Indoors, I find headphones and a playlist help drown out the ever-present TV screens in the gym. For the moment, my two playlists are, for the rowing machine, something I put together for an eighties night and, for the treadmill, a list specifically for running at a higher tempo. I’ll probably need to put together a slightly faster one soon as fitness increases and I try to increase my cadence.
One big difference between 2011 and now – Bluetooth earbuds and so no trailing cables to snag.
You’ll find the playlists here if you want to sing along:
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