Monday, August 13, 2012

Smokin' Treadmills

As I completed my workout on the treadmill today, it reminded me of another workout a few years ago. Some good friends of mine bought me a gym membership and some personal training for my birthday that year. They were concerned about me, but I met the challenge with not much excitement.

The first time I went to the gym was 3 or 4 months later and found myself sitting down with the personal trainer. He said things like, "We need to set a baseline, so we know where to go from here." And, "you ready for this?" I didn't know if I was ready for anything, ready for what?

He hands me a music player and some headphones and says" I want you to go warm up on the treadmill." Here we go, this is not that bad, I may be able to handle this treadmill thing. The gym was crowded and there were about a half dozen ladies walking to nowhere with me.
A few months ago in front of cardio equipment
 that does not smoke.
I settle into my groove. I am pretty winded, but feeling good when the woman next to me jumps off her treadmill turns to me with hands waving in the air try to get my attention. I pull my headphones out as I hear her yell, "Your treadmill is smoking"!!! Everyone in the gym stops and stares at me...... Holy crap! I just burned up a treadmill!
The personal trainer walks up to me apologizing, "Sorry, that treadmill alway breaks. Let me set up you on a newer one." He is being kind so reluctantly I agreed.  Five minutes later with much less excitement and attention I stepped off the SECOND smoking treadmill.

I never went back to that gym, or any gym for a while. When your looking for excuses you find them. What did I learn from that experience?  Well, I know now that there are weight limits on treadmills and seeing smoke in a gym alarms people. But here it is....My friends cared enough for me that they tried to help. How many friends and family members do we have that we take for granted everyday?  The people that try to pick us up when we were down for the count. Thank you Tim, Marika and Rick.

~Mac

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