Visit to LTF Allen gym 1/5/12
When I am off school, my most preferred gym to visit is Lifetime Fitness in Allen/McKinney. (Will write on-school favorite by school soon.) Because I don’t have treadmill at home (but everything else! Refer to my StrEndurance entry.) I have to go to a health club. Because I was doing Spinervals challenge, I was away from it for so long. As you may recall, I am a loner at the gym and I do not communicate except for gym staff saying hi to me (part of their job). I don’t sign up with school gym, because I can’t keep up with friendly teacher persona in the gym. I am still a no nonsense gal at the gym. Still I felt like I was a kid in the candy store. Really too much stimulant. Good to see fit people walking around and flyers and announcements of events the gym put out. What a joy to be in a decent gym!
Since my main reason to visit is to use treadmill, I go straight in one of two areas. One area that is right above Life Café where I can catch Wifi connection. Another area is by where most personal training sessions are done by the big window because they have Woodway treadmill. Anthony from then-North Dallas gym liked this over other treadmill claiming that it is easier on knees. Somewhere sometime, I vaguely recall that Troy actually doesn’t like, or rather dread running on treadmill and this is the only kind he can put up with (right, Coach?). I like Woodway for this safety reason and also there is a handle that I can wrap my heart rate monitor and I can look at it without looking way down.
Before I got into cycling, when I did extreme diet, my best way to burn calories was on treadmill, so I routinely ran 4-5 miles a day. Once I started to shift treadmill exercise as corss-training, it became more like fastest walking I can do in the steepest incline I can do. Recently new athletic friends I accumulate tend to be triathletes and they are trying to suck me into their discipline as they love me and think of me (including, of course, Coach Troy!). Because treadmill is most available in my back-up gym, too, I have planned to do cross-training on treadmill so far. I believe it is a good idea to do some work off-bike. I have been working out with strict heart rate zone method and when it is zone 2, I actually can't even jog. The heart rate would not stay in zone 2. So what I used to have to do was to keep the pace in 3.8 and play around with incline, occasional jog, if necessary. The incline will get pretty steep and workout is not easy, but in this way, heart rate will stay even. I posted if I should make 1) how strict I keep in zone 2, 2) distance or 3) length of the workout a priority on cross-training and Paul Kriegler kindly responded with what is important is the intensity of the workout and the duration of time. And so far I am not pretending a runner, so I keep it low-key as simple as possible. So, I didn’t bring my workout log, therefore I conveniently forgot the exact distance. My brain, if I don’t write it down, nothing gets done right. Then now geeky me is thinking about another gadget to my Garmin, FoodPod! (I will point out just in case here. Sometimes I have to tell gym goers that Garmin is rarely read by popular gym machines unlike Polar products.) Or simply bring my workout log to the floor!
While I am a loner in the gym, I am very curious observing others, especially personal trainers on the floor. I say hi to Monica, the very first spinning instructor who really helped me with setting up spinning bike. She is from Australia, so I think of Susan and others from Down Under. She and Donnie, from Scotland, occasionally ride in Sunday group ride that Tony and I frequent. While Monica seems to be more bicycle gal, Donnie is a big triathlete, although he didn’t recognize the name, Troy Jacobson! (Shame on him.) When Greg left Lifetime, I had a quick thought that Donnie could take over to design my program. For some reason, Monica doesn’t even teach spinning class anymore. But since MyCoach program is more metabolic program, Greg assigned Bruce, who basically took over his position. You may recall that I mentioned that Bruce does not have knowledge of cycling in my blog. In case you are Paul Kriegler or curious about what is happening with now-former trainer, here it is. On the day I wrote that blog, 12/28, Bruce grabbed hubby Tony in the gym and asked millions of questions what is going on with me. Tony simply told him to contact me. Bruce never has. My payment to Lifetime is now without his program, but eNewLeaf still sends me Bruce’s program. As if he never noticed. As if he never cared.
If you re-read the 12/28 entry, I was very hard on a trainer whose advantage is said to be located local over Coach Troy in Tuscon. I know lot of you in Spinervals community are in the other side of training floor from me. They are the provider of the fitness services rather than receivers like me. I think the ultimate mistake Bruce made was to tell me that the access to PTontheNET, where Greg used to make a lot of use to put together weight program is not limited to personal trainers. I checked out the site and monthly fee is $11.50, yearly $115.00. I paid about $170 a month to MyCoach program and once a month meeting with a trainer. There are a lot more resources out there these days. For example, from the treadmill, I observed this man who set his iPad, exercise mat, medicine ball on the corner of personal training floor and just followed the video. He was doing quite advanced exercises. Anything is becoming competitive, but the reasoning that going with Bruce’s program just because he is local didn’t convince me enough to stop discontinuing the program, should be scaring a lot of fitness professionals. They have to be up-to-date, good at customer service, professional, accountable and produce results. That sounds like a lot to ask.
I have been a big fan of Lifetime because it is 24 hours and equipment is fairly well maintained. I can easily spend half day at the gym. Amenities are amazing even more in Premier Place where I frequent during school time (an entry coming). Compared to other hardcore gyms, I call Lifetime, Chic Gym and Premier Place is Ultimate Chic Gym. But joking aside, I am a very happy customer and Tony ended up signing up recently. I have been saying that it is the only thing I would miss when I move to New Mexico to retire. In which case, hello back to Defined!
Since my main reason to visit is to use treadmill, I go straight in one of two areas. One area that is right above Life Café where I can catch Wifi connection. Another area is by where most personal training sessions are done by the big window because they have Woodway treadmill. Anthony from then-North Dallas gym liked this over other treadmill claiming that it is easier on knees. Somewhere sometime, I vaguely recall that Troy actually doesn’t like, or rather dread running on treadmill and this is the only kind he can put up with (right, Coach?). I like Woodway for this safety reason and also there is a handle that I can wrap my heart rate monitor and I can look at it without looking way down.
Before I got into cycling, when I did extreme diet, my best way to burn calories was on treadmill, so I routinely ran 4-5 miles a day. Once I started to shift treadmill exercise as corss-training, it became more like fastest walking I can do in the steepest incline I can do. Recently new athletic friends I accumulate tend to be triathletes and they are trying to suck me into their discipline as they love me and think of me (including, of course, Coach Troy!). Because treadmill is most available in my back-up gym, too, I have planned to do cross-training on treadmill so far. I believe it is a good idea to do some work off-bike. I have been working out with strict heart rate zone method and when it is zone 2, I actually can't even jog. The heart rate would not stay in zone 2. So what I used to have to do was to keep the pace in 3.8 and play around with incline, occasional jog, if necessary. The incline will get pretty steep and workout is not easy, but in this way, heart rate will stay even. I posted if I should make 1) how strict I keep in zone 2, 2) distance or 3) length of the workout a priority on cross-training and Paul Kriegler kindly responded with what is important is the intensity of the workout and the duration of time. And so far I am not pretending a runner, so I keep it low-key as simple as possible. So, I didn’t bring my workout log, therefore I conveniently forgot the exact distance. My brain, if I don’t write it down, nothing gets done right. Then now geeky me is thinking about another gadget to my Garmin, FoodPod! (I will point out just in case here. Sometimes I have to tell gym goers that Garmin is rarely read by popular gym machines unlike Polar products.) Or simply bring my workout log to the floor!
While I am a loner in the gym, I am very curious observing others, especially personal trainers on the floor. I say hi to Monica, the very first spinning instructor who really helped me with setting up spinning bike. She is from Australia, so I think of Susan and others from Down Under. She and Donnie, from Scotland, occasionally ride in Sunday group ride that Tony and I frequent. While Monica seems to be more bicycle gal, Donnie is a big triathlete, although he didn’t recognize the name, Troy Jacobson! (Shame on him.) When Greg left Lifetime, I had a quick thought that Donnie could take over to design my program. For some reason, Monica doesn’t even teach spinning class anymore. But since MyCoach program is more metabolic program, Greg assigned Bruce, who basically took over his position. You may recall that I mentioned that Bruce does not have knowledge of cycling in my blog. In case you are Paul Kriegler or curious about what is happening with now-former trainer, here it is. On the day I wrote that blog, 12/28, Bruce grabbed hubby Tony in the gym and asked millions of questions what is going on with me. Tony simply told him to contact me. Bruce never has. My payment to Lifetime is now without his program, but eNewLeaf still sends me Bruce’s program. As if he never noticed. As if he never cared.
If you re-read the 12/28 entry, I was very hard on a trainer whose advantage is said to be located local over Coach Troy in Tuscon. I know lot of you in Spinervals community are in the other side of training floor from me. They are the provider of the fitness services rather than receivers like me. I think the ultimate mistake Bruce made was to tell me that the access to PTontheNET, where Greg used to make a lot of use to put together weight program is not limited to personal trainers. I checked out the site and monthly fee is $11.50, yearly $115.00. I paid about $170 a month to MyCoach program and once a month meeting with a trainer. There are a lot more resources out there these days. For example, from the treadmill, I observed this man who set his iPad, exercise mat, medicine ball on the corner of personal training floor and just followed the video. He was doing quite advanced exercises. Anything is becoming competitive, but the reasoning that going with Bruce’s program just because he is local didn’t convince me enough to stop discontinuing the program, should be scaring a lot of fitness professionals. They have to be up-to-date, good at customer service, professional, accountable and produce results. That sounds like a lot to ask.
I have been a big fan of Lifetime because it is 24 hours and equipment is fairly well maintained. I can easily spend half day at the gym. Amenities are amazing even more in Premier Place where I frequent during school time (an entry coming). Compared to other hardcore gyms, I call Lifetime, Chic Gym and Premier Place is Ultimate Chic Gym. But joking aside, I am a very happy customer and Tony ended up signing up recently. I have been saying that it is the only thing I would miss when I move to New Mexico to retire. In which case, hello back to Defined!
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