Let the gyming begin!

As a pasty computer nerd I was as surprised as anyone to find that what challenged me about my time at the gym tonight was not my ability perform physical activities without collapsing in a heap, but rather using the new-fangled high tech gym gear.

I should have known something was up when the Pandora station I was listening to decided that what I really needed was the mellow side of country/blue-grass for my work out, playing it consistently until any moment I might be doing a cool down or stretch at which point it instantly transitioned into the upbeat techno pop I more normally associate with a work-out mix.

I started with a "Spin" bike. I surely cannot explain to you what made this bike different from the other exercise bikes other than that it had a shiny screen and did not respond to any of my attempts to set a program, or make it tell me any useful metrics about what I was doing. I know this was my failure to understand the technology and not a lack of ability in the tool, since the woman next to me had an incredibly complex display up. Of course, none of this really mattered. Turns out when you pedal a bike, it goes, and you get exercise, regardless of whether or not it's hooked up to a fancy paper weight.

Turns out it's secretly a bike

Things went pretty well after that until I hopped on a treadmill. I jabbed at all the buttons until I realized I probably couldn't handle whatever the treadmill would throw at me if I let it decide, and went for a manual setting. Or so I thought. I was jogging away, actually quite pleased with my ability to make it more than 30 feet without feeling exhausted, when the treadmill told me I had two minutes left and put me on mandatory cool-down. I upped the speed in what was ultimately a vain attempt at self-determination as it just turned off and gave me a workout summary at the end of my "cool-down" anyway.

All of this left me somewhat bemused but generally pleased with my first deliberate work out in I don't even know how long. So far so good though we'll see how I feel in the morning. Right now I'm riding the high of everything seeming totally doable. Now I can just add the challenge of figuring out all this fancy equipment to the rest of the things I've signed up for.

And since I'm a consultant, and consultants love metrics, here are a few numbers to help track progress:
February workout count: 1
Miles jogged continuously: .5
Miles biked: 4