Weather and Workouts

It is a hot day here in town. Because it is October, I see lots of girls dress in “fall clothing” such as riding boots, sweaters, and scarfs. To me, they look out of place, because even though it is “fall” it is still extremely hot outside, with temperatures getting into the eighty’s on the daily. I understand why they are dressed this why, they probably want to wear their fall clothes that they haven’t worn in months, which I understand. But not today for me, I am wearing shorts and a t-shirt, a practical choice for the weather. I am walking towards to gym to work out in the cardio room. Right in front of the gym, there is a cross walk that I am waiting to cross. Even though it is my right-of-way as a pedestrian, three cars drive right past me without letting me walk across. They all notice me, but apparently do not want to follow the laws of traffic today. They all appear to be driving pretty fast with their music cranked up, either country music or rap music. I enter the gym and hand the lady behind the counter my ID card. She greats me with a “hello” but is not very friendly nevertheless. I walk past the desk into the cardio room, where I notice that most of the machines are taken. I pick a stationary bike in the back, which has a perfect view of the entire room. Behind me, there is a large rock climbing wall, where I can see three college-aged men congregating. They seem to be friends, and they are all wearing similar attire of earthy fashion. One of them has dread locks, and one of them has long hair pulled back into a pony tail. I appreciate their hippie fashion. I watch as dread locks approaches the rock climbing wall with know harness. He begins to climb up the wall with precision. He makes it look easy, even though I understand that it takes pretty good strength to rock climb. He climbs up the wall about eight feet, but I can see that he is at a loss and does not want to risk slipping. So, he allows himself to release from the wall, and drops onto the mat. His buddies all congratulate and high-five him. That must have been a good accomplishment for him. I am very impressed with dread locks.

I turn around a find a new subject to observe. Running on the treadmill I see a rather tall blonde-haired guy, who appears to be extremely tired. He is wearing loos basketball shorts, and a dry-fit t-shirt. He is what I would call “sweating buckets”. He is running at a decent pace, and checks his watch exactly every minute. As each minute goes by, he runs faster, trying to hold a quicker paces as time goes on. This must be very painful. I can hear him breathing all the way over here. I can see his face in the mirror, and he is definitely grimacing. I wonder why he is doing this to himself. Finally, after about fifteen minutes of this painful running, he slows the treadmill to a more comfortable pace, and finishes his workout with this speed.