Saturday, January 17, 2009

Mill-jacking

I don't talk to other people at my gym. I'm not a "social" exercizer. Unless I'm there with Sharon, I pretty much don't speak two words the whole time I'm working out.

Today, though, the woman on the treadmill next to mine tapped my arm after I'd finished my first running interval (I hate running - so why the hell am I doing it twice a week now???)

I'm huffing and puffing and not in the mood to carry on a conversation with a complete (and sweaty) stranger while I was equally sweaty. But I was raised to be polite.

EEE: Yes?
Complete Stranger: Your heartrate monitor is taking over my machine.
EEE: Huh?
Complete Stranger: (pointing to display on HER treadmill) See.

Sure enough, the heartrate displayed on her treadmill was my own 167 (and dropping) which would have made no sense at all for a woman walking a gentle 3.3 mph unless she was completely out of shape. And she didn't look completely out of shape.

I'd never seen that happen before.

EEE: I'm sorry! (This is not an apology, of course, since I've done nothing to apologize for - it's an expression of sympathy)
Complete Stranger: (laughing) No worries! Yours must just have a stronger signal than mine.
EEE: Well... You can have the heartrate, but keep your hands off my calorie-count!

5 comments:

Angela said...

Interesting! I have never used a heart rate monitor (probably should, smart idea). My gym is pretty lousy (YMCA and it's the most rundown one I've ever been to) so I don't think their machines are modern enough to do what you described here.

Anonymous said...

167!!! You're psycho girl!!! I hope you were just sprinting at the end and not holding that too long. If so, I'm going to tell Sharon.

Speaking of calorie count, I put up 1400 during an extended trainer ride yesterday. How bout that number? (I had to burn off the 3 pints from the microbrewery Sat. night)

Happy exercising!

EEE said...

You're insane, Garth. 1400 calories?!?! INSANE!!!

And 167 is the low end of Zone 4 for me.

I never stay longer than 2 min at a time in Zone 4.

Anonymous said...

I know. Thus the afternoon nap.

Speaking of insane...
http://www.vikingbikingclub.com/course.htm

I'm thinking about it. Lots of training required for this one.

EEE said...

Yep, Garth.

IN-SANE!!!!

A lot of my friends do RAGBRAI

http://www.ragbrai.org/

I might do it next year. This year is still too soon, I think.

It depends on the route. I could do a few days near DM - I don't camp.