Exercising twice

Tuesday:

I've been waking much earlier than I need to just about every day since getting Thor, even after he was gone and I no longer needed to wake up to take him outside, even when it was still dark outside at that hour, even when I was exhausted and really needed more sleep. It has been very annoying. I've thought a few times about getting up early but up until now I've been trying to break the habit of waking, and sometimes I do get back to sleep. And by the way, I see no particular virtue in getting up early. Sleep is more important to me, and going to bed earlier in the evening would mean seeing my husband even less than I do now.

This morning I gave in and got up (after lying in bed for a while). Yesterday was horribly hot and it was still uncomfortable in the house even though there had been a cool change overnight. I went for a 30 minute walk in the lovely coolness. This is my street.

I don't really have any decent "exercise music" as my taste runs more to ballads and musical theatre (Glee!) so while I walked I downloaded an app called "Rock my Run" which has lots of music compilations of different lengths for exercising to. You can make a list of the ones that appeal. It seems to be very American so I had to skip past lots of rap and bands I've never heard of, but there was plenty to choose from even so. For my walk, I chose two 10 minute compilations; some 70s disco which was surprisingly fun to walk to and then some current pop, finishing with "All about that bass".

I got up a good sweat and the house felt very hot when I got home. After getting the kids off the school, I went to the gym. First time I've been back for a while. Since I'd already done some exercise, I just did 30 mins on the elliptical. I used Rock my Run again, and hiked through Californian forests. I had it on a difficulty level of 4 but it isn't steady - when hiking "uphill" the difficulty goes up to around 7. I was pretty tired by the end.

Then I had a shower and did the grocery shopping and came home exhausted and had lunch.

Have I griped about the showers at my gym before? Tiny little cubicles, nowhere to put your towel so it won't get wet, you have to stand right in the boiling/freezing stream of water to reach the handle to adjust it, no space at the tiny sink array to do hair and makeup (which doesn't bother me but it must be a real problem for the crowd of women who do an early session before work then have to get ready there), and they didn't even have soap dispensers until I asked for them to be installed a couple of years ago. I got sick of taking in my own soap. They agreed to do that, which was nice of them, but to my other comments they said that "it wasn't a boutique gym" and I suppose there isn't much they could do without major renovations. But it was very poor planning. This isn't a small cheap gym, it is a huge well-gleaming place spread over two floors. With the toilets on the ground floor permanently locked for some reason. Anyway, unless I am going straight somewhere else after my workout like today, I prefer to drive home all sweaty and shower there.

Aside from the stupid showers, it was a good day.