A Superstore of Healthy Machines

My last student of the day was on spring break this week, so The Hang™ got to begin a couple of hours early last night. Since my arrival time coincided with Halfling's usual workout time, he invited me to join him. This meant that I got to experience the new Rec Center for the first time.

This place just opened about a year ago, and it's amazing. The tall ceiling, allowing for a second-story running track that overlooks the ground floor, gives the place a certain feeling of grandeur, and the massive climbing wall at one end adds to that feeling. Walking into the main exercise area, it's almost overwhelming--machines, machines, as far as the eye can see. Even more impressive was the fact that, when we were there (~6:00 in the evening), they were almost all full.

My idea was to mirror Halfling's workout, but within the realm of common sense; Halfling is, after all, in training for a big bike ride in a few months, and he had a three-week head start on me on this whole thing. And, despite all my jokes beforehand about him having to carry me up the Bass Hall stairs for tonight's Directions in Music concert, mirror him I did. We did quite a bit of different things with free weights, which was new to me, and fifteen minutes on the elliptical trainer, which was five minutes longer than he lasted the first time. Like the time last year when I started playing racquetball again, I felt much more alive when all was said and done. This morning, I feel a little bit sore in places, but it's a "good sore." Even though I don't have the advantage of having a place like this just two blocks away like Halfling does, there is some stuff at the college that I can use for free, so I plan on doing a lot more of this in the near future.

Another "phat" big band: Halfling got the new CD from the Dave Holland Big Band, and we listened to it last night while driving around Denton. I'll post a review later, but this should tell you how much I like it: I'm ordering it the next time I get to a computer. Now all I have to do is decide what to bundle it with to get free shipping from Amazon...maybe this, which comes out Tuesday.