ok, enough with the snow!

This past week has been GRAAAAAAAY. Oh so gray, where is my Denver sun? Blech. We've gotten some dustings of snow, but no sparkly sunshine to make it all pretty/warm/theenvyofminnesota. Yesterday amidst a snowstorm, I grabbed a ride to school. That ride ended up being over an hour long wait on a busy road in stop and stop traffic. Stop AND stop. Why is it that people can't ever seem to remember that turn signals exist when it snows? Are they concentrating so hard on the task of driving that they can't flick their right hand in a movement that has become so ingrained in their heads over the passage of time that they literally don't even have to think about it? It seems that way. BUT, gray ick weather aside, I've been putting in some serious gym time lately and am tracking my way to June. I took advantage of the YMCA's one free trainer appointment, and finally learned the ropes that are the crazy weight machines (no literal ropes, just metaphorical ones for the time being). I've maintained gym memberships for the past few years, mostly at YMCA's, and go to them dutifully, but for some reason I am super intimidated by the weight machine thingy-s with all the men looking at their arms in the mirrors and grunting extra hard while trying to make eye contact..and thus have never done much with that section of the gym. Generally I run on the treadmill, and take yoga and pilates classes, sucessfully avoiding all weight lifting related things. This time, though, I feel like if I don't cross train with some kind of upper body weight lifting, I will look like the bikers in The Triplets of Belleville when I'm finished in August and that's something no one would enjoy:




See what I mean? Noooooo thank you. And SO, I have begun conquering my irrational distaste for weight machines, helped in part by my friendly trainer (for one free session!) Nic. The extraordinarily nice thing about my gym is that it is downtown, this mean it is a) very close to my apartment b)busy at predictable and easily avoidable times and c) has a huge membership and a lot vested in buying the newest equipment out there. All of these things are lovely, but the amazing new equipment makes my training so much more bearable. After the new year, they upgraded to these crazy high tech machines and the FitLinx program. FitLinx, for those who don't know, is this great, great program that allows you to log in every time you go to the gym, punch in your code at every machine, and tracks all of your workouts! It breaks your information into every possible equation: time spent doing cardio this week, time spent doing weights today, calories burned in the past month, amount of weight lifted in three days time...IT'S AWESOME. It's so easy to use, and it is a great help for a noobie like me because all I have to do is log in and the computer tells me what machines I still need to hit up, where to put the settings for my body, and how many reps of how much weight I should do. No need to remember anything except my five digit code which happens to be my old zip code because no one else here is from good old Duluth! PHEW, that was a really long promotional speech for my gym's tracking device, but I'm sure that if you have ever worked out at a crappy facility you can appreciate my love for this inanimate program. I guess what I was trying to say in the last paragraph is that I have officially begun training, it's making my body feel like I just might perish on the side of the road this summer, but at least I can sweat myself silly while watching the newest episode of The Office from the seat of my gym.