Entry #459

George and I dropped by the "Athletic Club" (they changed the name) yesterday. I knew the deskman from high school: Nick. He refereed the beach fight that George and I had at Santa Cruz. As I walked in, his female assistant came up to the counter for formalities. Before she could speak, I held up my hand in interruption, and then solemnly grunted, "Weights." Nick stepped forward and nodded grimly, and then told me to follow. As we walked overhead, my eyes glazed over at the basketball court, the ab room, the machines...and then, in the last square, unused in the far corner, stood the power rack in all its glory. Human skulls littered its forefront, forming a metaphoric pedestal for permissive access. Rivers of molten lava crackled and simmered around it. Woe to the unbalanced. I whipped out my hand in front of my guide to signal the halt. He glanced down at my object of interest and shakily murmured, "Y-yes, the free weights...I don't know a whole lot about weightlifting, but they're pretty heavy, as you can see, and-" I held up my hand for silence again, and then voiced my approval. We walked back to the entrance. George spoke nothing, knowing better than to interrupt the grave procedure. The girl breathed a deep sigh of relief in seeing her compatriot return safely. Our work was finished.*

*Anecdote slightly dramatized.

Anyways, the membership pricing is rather steep. I'm going to hold out until the 20th, when the replacement gym for the old facility opens, so that I can compare options. The new one is called "Anastasia". I can only surmise that evil Soviet businessmen are in charge now. That would bode excellent for the atmosphere. In any case, I'm going to make due with TrainForStrength.com work-outs.

I did a double-run to the high school today in the 95 degrees heat, and it was vastly easier than before. Last month, I had trouble with just one, but today, I felt like I could have done a third go (but opted not to out of mercy for my ankles, which are improving in their own right, but through steady, careful progress). Afterwards, I was able to hit the heavy bag significantly for the first time in weeks. With hundreds of pounts of weight anchoring the bag stand down, in addition to the bag itself, the entire contraption still tips over with a solid hook. I'll have to get creative with stabilizers.

I'm placing a recent favorite here so I don't have to trudge through YouTube to watch it when I'm bored waiting for torrents to download.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvirljx6ob4]