Friday, March 21, 2008

(R)efined F(a)tness

This photo shows me at my home away from home, our gym Defined Fitness on Juan Tabo Boulevard north of Candelaria Road in Albuquerque. Inasmuch as I never have more than an hour to spend at the gym on any given day (and given that I generally only go there four times a week), I stick to doing that which gives me the most rigorous workout -- running on a treadmill. My usual regimen is three miles a pop, but occasionally, if Dorine and I are behind schedule, I'll do two miles at a faster pace. I like to run at 8:30/mile pace, at least, if I'm doing three miles, and at 8:00/mile pace if I'm doing two miles.


(That statement is somewhat misleading, since I generally run downhill, setting the treadmill I'm on at a 2.0% decline. It's a long story, but Defined Fitness used to have treadmills that felt comfortable to me at 8:30/mile pace on a "level" setting, whereas the ones it has now feel like they're going uphill on "level." I'm not so self-deluded as to believe I could run three successive 8:30 miles on, say, an outdoor track -- I know the machines the gym has now probably are level at "0.0%" -- but my morale was going to take a beating if I had to slow down; therefore, I made a deal with myself, deciding to continue running at 8:30/mile pace and setting the machine's cant as required to enable myself to do that. I realize it's a wussy thing to do, but no one seeing me drenched with sweat after a run could say I didn't have a good workout.)

I don't call running a "hobby" or "recreation," since it hurts too much to fall in those categories for me; I've always had a below-average oxygen-transfer system, something I first discovered when I was a schoolboy half-miler and continually barfed my guts out after races. However, I'm sort of addicted to running, anyway, as it's one of a mere handful of pursuits in my life that weigh on the side of producing a sense of well-being and self-esteem. I've been going to Defined Fitness (or "Refined Fatness," as my brother-in-law once referred to it) for over eight years now, and I've literally run thousands of miles there in that time. The gym is currently oversold and under-outfitted with cardio equipment (an expansion is planned but has been postponed at least twice), but, given my sleep disorder and other health concerns, I don't know where I'd be without it.