Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Tortoise on a Treadmill

Last night, for the first time in a while, I went to the gym. While running on the treadmill, I noticed this middle age guy over on another treadmill who was walking at an extremely leisurely pace. He was going so slow that if he were walking along a sidewalk or in a mall it would be awkward to walk next him. There was absolutely no way he was coming close to breaking a sweat or increasing his heart rate. It wasn't like he was just cooling off either because he was walking for the 30 minutes that I was running. He probably walked only 1 mile in that half hour.

My question is what is a person like that trying to achieve or what is their motivation to get to the gym? Are they just trying to get their mind off things? If that is the case I can think of a lot more things that I would do to relax other than creep along on a treadmill.

7 comments:

JDL said...

Maybe you should have scoped his knees right there in the gym to see if he had cartilage issues.

Jenny said...

Whether or not he is breaking a sweat at least he is getting out to the gym. right?

Maybe he has heart problems or cancer. Now wouldn't you feel bad.

Andrew said...

Yeah, you're so judgmental, Aaron.

DVD said...

The best way to handle those situations? Please refer to your taunting post below.

Anna Casey said...

I was totally thinking what Jenny already posted, maybe it's actually quite a feat that he was there at all! I can think of times when I've barely stumbled to the gym and crawled around the track, just glad for the diversion from something else, and it is healthier than the entire package of cookies that I was craving!

Geez, Mr. Compassion, it is not always as our eyes understand it to be...

On the other hand, he could be a lazy ass looking for an excuse to get out of the house to avoid his overworked wife and needy children, warming up on the treadmill before heading to the bar to drown his pitiful life in the bitter amber liquid of solace.

Still though, I'm sure he could use some grace from the Good Doctor.

Way to go on getting out the gym though...

DVD said...

even worse, people, he could be suffering from plantar fasciitis....

Erick said...

That is plantar for "foot" and fasciitis for "mythical disease to make old white dude feel good about why he can't run as well as he used to" right?

I kid. Or do I?