Running on a real track rocks!
The grand opening of the new 24 Hour Fitness in the Denver area — Aurora, actually — couldn’t have been more timely. I have been training for the Denver Marathon on the jogging trails only on Saturdays, with my group. My weekday training has been on the treadmill at the gym. I was starting to wonder why I could run so well on the treadmill, even on an incline, and just really struggle when I hit the trail.
On Saturday’s run, after dragging myself through 14 miles, I realized that the treadmill just doesn’t let my legs work hard enough. I was looking around for a nearby high-school track when I discovered that the new Super Sport had opened on Parker Road just the day before.
So I grabbed a friend and drove up there for a tour. I’m already a 24 Hour Fitness member with all-club membership but it’s definitely an upgrade and sign-up fee, so they gave me a 10-day free pass to check it out. My first track workout was this morning.
I have to say, that track workout was my best morning run yet! The track is on the second floor and runs all around the perimeter of the huge workfloor. With total square footage of 85,385 feet, this is a gigantic facility. There are two run lanes and it takes six laps to make a mile. Signs on the wall tell you which direction you’re running because they alternate days. You run past large windows so you can look down on the basketball court or the pool area, and, of course, you run past the personal training area and the jogging and elliptical machines. To me, this is much more interesting than watching TV on a treadmill. There are bathrooms and a drinking fountain placed to be accessible to the runners, with small break-out areas with mirrors for stretching.
This was only their fourth day open and it was early in the morning. There were only ever one or two other runners on the track when I was there, and they were not doing laps. I was able to open it up and do some serious “fartlek” training, where you periodically sprint fast for short bursts. On the treadmill, I haven’t ever run that fast, I was too afraid of flying off! But since I want to do intense heart rate training during the next 54 days, this is going to be the place to do it.
One corner of the second floor is devoted to stretching equipment, so I started there. I quickly became a huge fan of the Precor C240i Stretch Machine. Wow! It has always been very difficult for me to stretch out my hips and lower back. Naturally, those are the weakest parts of my body and they give me the most trouble the last part of the run. I stretched lightly before the run, through the circuit posted on the machine, and then stretched for longer periods afterwards. It felt great!
After three miles around the track, i thought I’d try out the new treadmill that allows you to run downhill, FreeMotion Commercial Treadmill. It’s great! A whole different way to train, now.
with an easy 90 minutes of training behind me, I hit the showers. This is a very upscale gym, they have shelving with fresh, white towels so you don’t have to bring your own! The dressing rooms have sitting areas and lighted makeup mirrors with ottomans to sit on. It was a whole new experience, putting make-up on while I’m sitting down and I’m NOT driving! It really was quite elegant. They also have hair-blowers available and lotion and mouthwash at the sinks. And, of course, there is shampoo and soap in the showers.
The only downside was that the facility is so new, they don’t have everything in place, yet. There were no scales to weigh myself! I KNOW I’ve lost weight over last week, I wanted to SEE it!
There is a small cafe onsite so I stopped by the nrgize Lifestyle Cafe for a Chunky Monkey smoothie on my way out. It’s been very difficult for me to squeeze in a good breakfast between the gym and my office. But that peanut butter and banana meal replacement shake was 42 grams of protein and 36 grams of carbohydrates, 520 calories, PERFECT for a runner!
I’d been wondering if I could really build up to strong miles in the next few weeks. But honestly, just that great experience on the indoor track and those morning breakfast shakes really gave me a shot in the arm. I left the gym feeling like I could really do this!
Not a bad way to start the day!
Filed under: Training | Tagged: 24 hour fitness, marathon, running, team in training
