The Fitness Center

The sun shining down on the snow is making everything sparkle like crazy. The sky is huge, and this perfect bright blue color that's usually covered by clouds, and the seagulls are flying around all light and free. The temperature is perfect for winter... that right amount of cold where your cheeks get pink, you can see your breathe, and the snow crunches a little when you walk on it, but you don't freeze to death the second you go outside.
If you go running when the weather's like this you warm up after five minutes, and you feel like you could run forever, because the air goes through your lungs so easily and it supercharges your arms and legs. When you get done your skin stays cold, but your muscles are warm, and you feel so healthy all you want to eat is fruit and vegetables. Your clothes smell like outside.

If you're biking at the fitness center when it's not too busy and the weather's like this, you can pick the bike furthest to the left and then you'll be able to see quite a bit of blue sky and a few seagulls out the window. If you're an optimistic type of person and you have to work out on the elliptical machines instead of on the bike, you'll tell yourself it's okay because you get to see much more out the window. On the other hand, sometimes the seagulls fly away, and after a while the blue sky isn't so exciting anymore.
Luckily, there are friendly people who go to the fitness center, and friendly people who work there. They have all the machines there I need for my strength training and no one ever complains when I use the bike for 70 minutes. The people trying to do a relaxed workout for physical therapy don't seem to mind that I'm panting, bright red, and sweating all over the place. So, if I have to be at a fitness center and not outside running in the crisp snow, I guess I'm at a pretty good one.

Patience is a virtue, so it's good for me to try learning it. Shin splints are not a very serious injury. With a little bit of patience I'll be back with TDR before I know it. An hour of warming up with the trainers, a hard interval practice, and then a long cool down. It will feel so good! And Sunday practices in the dunes again...

It's just that 70 minutes on the stationary bike, or 40 minutes on the elliptical feels sooooooo long.