Pure Boredom

   As the marathon continues to creep up, I am still pretty bummed about the fact that I am essentially sidelined from pounding the pavement for the next couple of weeks due to this IT Band issue.   In order to maintain my cardiovascular fitness I am continuing to utilize the elliptical at the YMCA across from the hospital.  Unfortunately, the YMCA, unlike a Gold's Gym or BAC, doesn't have a ton of cardio equipment and seems to be built more for after school activities for kids than a solid work out facility.  As such, there are only about 2-3 good ellipticals in the whole entire place. 
   Since I had a late meeting at work, I ended up getting to the gym during prime time .... 5 pm.  The place was pretty crowded and of course all of the elliptical machines were taken.  I did my 15 - 20 minutes of stretching / leg strengthening and when I checked back on the machines, there were still no openings.  Now, this was a crucial decision point for me.  Although it may not seem like that big of a deal, its really easy to lose motivation while wasting time waiting for a machine to open up (trust me on this one, I once drove to the Gold's Gym in South Boston, couldn't find a parking spot and decided just to come home without working out). 
    Despite my rapidly dissolving motivation to work out, deep down I realized that this was something that I had to do no matter how long I waited for a machine.  After about 15 more minutes of waiting, two of the girls finished their workout and I finally got my elliptical.  What was even more frustrating was that the girls were essentially using the elliptical as a social thing to catch up because after 40 minutes of being on it neither one of them had broken a sweat.
     Anyway, after my long wait I decided to hit the elliptical pretty hard.  I made up a series of "hills" early on in my workout to get my heart rate up and tried to keep it there for the rest of the workout.  After about 30 minutes I had to slow down for a minute or two because my toes went numb (a consequence of being on my forefoot with high resistance I am sure), and then I kicked it back in gear.  In total, I did 60 minutes on the elliptical.  While I was able to watch some pick up basketball games between a group of 12-14 yo Boston kids, it was still mind numbingly boring.  But ... since this is all I have I will continue to stick it out.