Posted by FeedtheFiend

Date Posted March 10, 2007

Winter is finally just about over here in NYC. You know what this means? This means I no longer have to spend the same amount of time that I have been at the gym since sometime at the end of October. A little embarrassed to admit just how much time, but let's just say that I can run as many miles as I want outside now, and just do 60-90 minutes of strength training inside until it gets cold again.

Since I have spent so many hours a day indoors just training for myself, I have witnessed some rather strange things, and was wondering if other people might be able to add to my list. Some I am sure others have seen, and other things maybe not. But trust me, I found them odd or just poor etiquette. Here we go...

* The oddities began probably in November, when I saw this dude doing the tricep pushdown...with a phone between his ear and shoulder.
* Things grew more odd when I saw this girl, who turned out to be a trainer, working out on this leg machine, I guess to work out her hips/groin? Anyway, she was chatting with another trainer while she was working out, reached into her bag, pulled out this bag of snacks, started eating them, offered them to the trainer she was chatting with, then turned around to offer the snacks to the group of trainers behind her, all the meanwhile, still working out.
* Another strange thing was a trainer working, training a client, eating a salad, with tuna. It wreaked. I guess it shows dedication, almost like eating at your desk. I still thought it was pretty inappropriate, but hey, maybe not. It was setting a good example in terms of diet. However, I saw the same trainer a few weeks earlier, eating on the job, only that time, it was a McDonalds cheeseburger.
* Of course I need to mention the people who get dressed up to work out. I have seen lots of comments online about women who put their make up on, and I have seen guys style their hair before they hit the gym floor. The most I do is a smell check of my hat and heart rate monitor chest strap. I guess I'm still at fault for using them no matter how badly they fail the sniff test.
* I have mentioned previously the chick who would run out of spin class every time her phone would go off, then come back in.
* There was the spin instructor whose head spun around when she heard another woman's Blackberry go off during class.
* I developed a heated mental rivalry with a guy who also frequently takes spin classes at my gym. We each always sign up for a specific bike, him #12, me, #24. The bikes face each other. Every single time I go, which is at least 4 or 5 times a week, he is there. We never acknowledge each other, but I can tell, we are totally at war during class. I swear, I think he even smirked at me when he thought he "beat" me during a sprint today.
* A spin instructor nearly singled out someone she thought was the "silent farter" in class. I swear, it wasn't me.
* The girl who came into a 2 hour ride with a 4oz bottle of water. I guess 4oz is better than nothing...but in a 2 hour ride, surely you need more than 4oz of water!

Anyway, I found all these things pretty weird; who knows, maybe others don't? I am sure there are many more weird things, though, that people notice, and would love to hear about them.

Still, I am super excited that today will be the last cold day (fingers crossed) for a looooong time.