Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

Before I was able to walk into the new fitness facility, a colleague regaled me of how beautiful the place was. She'd just been inside, not to work out but just to tour it, and emphasized with arms flailing how wonderful it all was. My excitement increased. I entered the building and met a student worker at the desk. She asked for my ID, something I've never had in the 11 years of working for the college, but I did have my employee ID number. With that, all I had to do was punch in the numbers on a keypad. Wa-la. I was in. Without any trouble I found the locker room. A bit on the small side and no benches to sit down on (what's up with that? I kinda wanted to check out the guys' locker room to see if they have benches), but it was clean. In a matter of minutes I was ready to hit the cardio machines. I started on the stationary bike, choosing a hills program, and cycled for 30 minutes. I definitely need to figure out how to use the bike. I kept trying to up the ten...

I ran three miles this evening, followed by two miles of walking at a 3% incline on the treadmill in the garage. The temp was a chilly 38 degrees. I've learned how to dress for the garage, so I usually am completely warmed up after the first half mile, and by the end of my hour workouts, I'm sweating pretty good. Tonight, though, might be my last garage workout for awhile because tomorrow the new fitness facility at work opens for faculty use. I'm all set. I've already pulled out my gym bag, packed it with shorts, shirt, shoes and other assorted workout paraphernalia and am ready to test all the new equipment. It'll be heaven to wear a simple t-shirt with shorts rather than three layers of clothes that end up feeling heavy by the time I'm finished. The last time I set foot in a gym was three years ago. Hubby and I joined a gym here and went regularly throughout the entire year. We enjoyed the swimming and the use of the cardio machines, but we hated having to ...