What a Difference

We joined the new gym yesterday and used the facilities today. For those who haven't read my previous posts here's just a short background.

Witbank only had one Gym for I don't know how long and lately the quality of the gym has really gone backwards. Even the "heated " swimming pool was not heated any more and I had to join another gym in the city where I work just to be able to swim in winter.

We are now well into summer and the swimming pool is still 17c. When I was there on Thursday they didn't even play music and it was dead quite while I did my weight session.

Last month a new gym opened in town and it is part of a nationwide franchise group. At first I thought I will stick with the current gym but it just became unpleasant to swim or train and I believe as soon as you don't enjoy what you do you might just stop doing it. I am definitely not going to stop swimming and therefor I had to join the new gym as the old gym don't seem to be upgrading their facility.

Yesterday after work we went down to the gym and asked for a tour to see what it looks like. I convinced Kim to come along and see if she wants to join. She is not a training freak like me and do some sort of activity but don't like the whole gym set up with Big guys staring at you while you try getting into shape. The new gym have a separate facility which is a women's only area. The area is totally secluded and no one can look from the outside into this area.

This convinced Kim and she was happy.

I could not think of going back to the old gym after I saw the excellent facilities at the new gym. Everything is world class. They have an indoor running track, which Dejone ran on this morning while I swam. The pool is 28c and there is an alarm that will be activated at head office if the water temperature drop by more than 2c. They have back up generators if they have a power failure and massive back up water tanks if there is a water problem.

Everything was just world class. They even have Pilate's and Yoga classes five times a week, which I will definitely make use of to improve my core strength and my flexibility.

Even the opening hours is something you can't complain about. They are open from 3am until 10:30pm. No more days where I can't swim because the gym is closed. And the best part is it is cheaper at the new gym than what it was costing me at the previous two gyms. They even have a special scheme with the medical aid company I am a member of whereby you get discount if you attend more than 10 times during a month.

It is amazing how a new gym and a pool of which the water is not freezing can give me new motivation. Although I am in my off season and just keeping myself busy until beginning of December when my Ironman training officially starts, it just gives me this sparkle to enjoy training again.

I am also still sticking to my weight loss challenge but it is difficult with all the year end functions where I try to nibble and eat the minimum. Not training 20+ hours a week is also not helping. One only realize in the off season how much one can actually eat when you train that many hours. Up to date I have lost 2.5 kilograms in two weeks and still need to loose just more than seven kilogramsto get into race shape.

The weeks training( or actually just keeping myself busy):
Swim: 1.5km
Bike: 58 km
Run: 19.1 km
Gym: 1 session
Total: 4h30, 78.6 km, 3653 Kcal