early morning freaks...

I loathe gym talkers. You know, those people who come to the gym to socialize, not to exercise. Well, one such freak seems to have latched himself on me...

As some of you know, I train cardio at 6-ish in the morning, five mornings a week (except for when I'm sick or on holiday or something), when the gym opens. It's a nice way to start the day; when I do a good hard cardio session first thing in the morning, I end up with lots of energy all day. It's also nice that it's usually quiet and peaceful at the gym at that hour...

Until now?

I first encountered this freak Monday morning. I was in the middle of a sprint workout on the stationary bike and he took the bike next to mine and started talking to me. I ignored him. He started talking louder, thinking I couldn't hear him above the sound of all the cardio apparatuses, the music on the loudspeakers, my heavy panting, etc... I still ignored him, but it was getting harder to ignore him because he sounded like one of those annoying insects that get into your ear. Bzzzzzzzz...

After I was done with my workout, he started going on and on about how rude I was being. Uh, O RLY? I just glared at him, kind of like this, and left.

Fast forward to this morning. I was on the treadmill and guess who shows up? Ding-ding-ding! You win! It was indeed Mr. Freakshow! And, of course, of all the empty treadmills he could have hopped on, he hopped on the one next to mine. He blabbed something about how he was willing to forgive me for what happened on Monday. He also blabbed something about how he saw me on Wednesday but was still too angry with me to talk to me...

Uh?

Again, I finished my workout without saying a word to him. I'm sure I've ruined his weekend now. I'll be sure to bring some insect spray with me on Monday...

Oh, and speaking of treadmills, this is the second time I've been on a treadmill since the last time I tried to see if my Achilles was OK. I ran on Tuesday as well... both times doing intervals of 3 minutes running and 1 minute walking (where I walked and stopped to stretch), to make sure everything was OK, and to not "overload" anything. The Achilles seems to be dong better, but it (and my calf) seems to get "tight" after about 25-30 minutes of these intervals. I'm going to have to be more vigilant when it comes to (weights) exercises for my calves, as well as stretching...