Cool Workout, Cold Shower

Business travel is always an adventure. My minimum requirements for a hotel are (i) high-speed internet and (2) a gym, but I’ve still been surprised on both counts–like when the only high-speed internet was in the lobby, or the hotel gym was being renovated so I had to go to a commercial gym down the street (at least it was open early).   This week I am at a Hyatt in Atlanta, so I had pretty high expectations on both counts.

I hit the gym a bit before 6:00 this morning and was impressed.  There were several areas with rows of machines, with space in between–so different from the Hampton Inn where the equipment was squeezed into a tiny room (but I did give that gym a good review, after all it was a Hampton Inn and it did have three high-quality Precor machines).

Today was my “elliptical + weights” day, so I can only vouch for the elliptical, and it was a nice LifeFitness machine with a built-in TV screen.

For weights, there was a section of machines, a bank of “plate” style free weights, and another area with lots of floor space and a rack with rubberized “dumbbell” style free weights. I chose to workout in the open area, and grabbed the 15 lb dumbbells.  When I was ready for 20 lb weights, I realized that there weren’t any in that set, so I went to the “plate” style weights, but they were really too cumbersome for me. I couldn’t hold the weights at my side without the big plates knocking in to me and found that I was straining my back/shoulders to hold them a bit further out to the side. (Can someone explain the benefits of the big plates? do they make you think you are lifting something heavier? is there a benefit from the awkward size/shape?) I put them back and stuck with 15’s (except for plie squats and French presses, where I could hold one of the plate style weights by one of its plates). I went through my routine and finished with some crunches on a fit ball that I am starting to feel already.

After my workout, I fed my Starbucks addiction with my iPhone addiction, by pulling up a map and searching for Starbucks. Of course, there was one 1/2 block away.  I got a grande Anniversary Blend and some oatmeal so I wouldn’t be at the mercy of the continental breakfast that was part of the conference program. (As it turns out, it was fruit, muffins, pastries and some egg sandwiches–I snagged some fruit on my way into the first session.)

So far, so good, but here comes the cold shower part.

When I checked in yesterday, I did notice that the bathroom wasn’t as nice as, say, a Westin, but it looked fine. When I went to take a shower this morning, and pulled the knob up to go from “bath” to “shower,” only half the water was diverted.  “Oh well,” I thought, “it’s not my water bill,” and the water pressure still seemed OK. 

It took a while for the water to warm up, though, and I was having flashbacks to my horrible experience (years ago, but it still makes me cringe) when I had no hot water whatsoever in my room at a Westin–a discovery I made only after a long, sweaty run in the hotel gym, and shortly before my meeting started, so I had no choice but to take a frigid shower which brought on an instant cold–did I mention that it was February and I was in Chicago?

Anyway, today’s shower wasn’t that bad, but it was at best a luke-warm shower, although the water that was running into the tub seemed warmer. It’s as if most of the water that was going up to the shower was the cold water, while the warmer water went straight into the tub. Unlike my Westin experience, it wasn’t a hot water problem (the Westin gave me some story about a new hot water heater system that they were still working the bugs out of) because there was plenty of hot water in the sink.

During my morning break I mentioned the problem to the front desk, and there is a note in my bathroom that “my request has been completed.” If I were smart, I’d test it out tonight, but I probably will wait until after tomorrow’s sweaty run to find out.