Hotel Gym Redux

This is NOT the same post I wrote last weekend. Yes, I am on the road again. Yes, it is for a wrestling tournament that my son is in. Yes, I am going to tell you about another mix-and-match workout that I did at a hotel gym. But, hey–consistency is one of the keys to getting fit and staying fit. Besides, this time we drove north instead of south. This time we are in a Courtyard Marriott instead of a Westin, and this time my son is competing in the National Prep Wrestling Tournament since he did so well at the state tournament last weekend!

Between the excitement and stress of last weekend and the long hours spent in a very breezy arena, I finally lost my battle against that cold that started as a sore throat the week before. I needed Nyquil to sleep, so Monday I started my day with a 40 min/2 mile walk to shake off that grogginess. Tuesday I felt a bit better, so I opted for the elliptical and a freestyle weights routine, similar to the one I did today. Wednesday I felt better still, but not “better,” so I stuck to the elliptical again, and did different strength moves. Yesterday I was ready for the treadmill, but not as ready as I thought! I slogged through 50 min (40 min running) but had to keep to a moderate pace (6.0 mph) for my breathing to keep up.

For today I was planning on another elliptical/weights combination workout. I had set my alarm for 5:30, but woke up at @ 5:00 (my usual alarm time). I decided to go ahead and get up and get moving, and I’m glad I did. There already was someone in the small hotel fitness room (on a treadmill) when I got there @ 5:15.

The fitness room at this hotel has two treadmills, 1 bike, 1 elliptical, a set of free weights and a bench. But as I walked in, I saw that my plans to use the elliptical were not going to work out:

What did that note say:

Yes, I could have used the elliptical without the TV working, but “without being plugged in” meant no program, no resistance, no lights and numbers to keep me entertained.

Even though I usually limit my runs to alternate dates, since yesterday’s treadmill workout wasn’t intense, I decided that I could use the treadmill again today if I stuck to 30 min running and kept the incline low (level 0.5). So, I hopped on the other treadmill and got started. It was a nice LifeFitness machine with a built-in TV:

Shortly after I started, four more people came in! Yikes! One woman started doing a weights routine with that new Nike iPhone App. One man sort of hung around stretched and did some weights. One man got on the elliptical. One woman got on the bike.

I worry about gym etiquette and try not to hog equipment in a hotel gym, but since the man on the other treadmill started before I did, I figured he would be finishing relatively soon. And, I was only planning to run for 30 minutes, although with my warm-up and cool-down my total time on the treadmill was 40 minutes. After the first man finished with the other treadmill, the only person interested in it was the man who was sort of hanging out. So, I didn’t feel badly about finishing my program.

Then I moved on to my free weights superset routine.  

• dead lifts/overhead press/push-ups
• plie squats/tricep dips
• lunges/bicep curls
• squats/French press
• lateral arm raises
• chest flies/crunches

Since I’ve done this a few times this week, I thought I remembered everything, but now I see that I forgot plie squats. I did remember the lateral arm raises that I forgot skipped last weekend and–bonus!–did short sets (8 reps) with 10 lb weights because the 5 lbs felt like nothing! (At home I have 8 lb weights that I use for that move).

I grabbed some coffee from the hotel lobby (I will be fixing a cup of Starbucks Via soon!) and saw my son and his teammates heading out as I was heading back to my room.

When a gym has a time limit on cardio equipment, does that include the cool-down time that most programs add to the end?

Do you have that Nike iPhone App?