I was watching a rerun of the Office tonight on TBS gearing up for Pitt’s game on ESPN immediately following. Just as Michael Scott was trying to frame Toby for having pot in hope of getting him fired, and as Pam was bitching about the dirty microwave…the W turns off the TV and tells me that I have to go to the YMCA tonight. After I put away the dishes.

After the dishes are dried and put away I lace up my shoes, grab my membership card and brave the 20 degree weather and head to the YMCA. You might know that I threw my back out a few days before Christmas and was unable to stand up or even walk for a few days. I had been running anywhere from 3-4 miles on the treadmill prior to the injury. After 2 weeks of inactivity and because of “doctor’s orders” I can only walk on the treadmill at this point. No running for another week or so–take it easy.

So I’m at the Y without my iPod and it sucks. The music is horrific. The best song I heard was John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Little Pink Houses” and I don’t even like that song. Interestingly, that was the 3rd time I have heard that song in public over the last 3 days (the grocery store and the WaWa). Anyway, I programmed my Cybex International Treadmill for 60 minutes of walking. Yeah that’s right-1 hour of walking. Add that to the music and we are talking about a “kick ass” good time!

While walking and trying to tune out the cheese-ball music I realized a few things about the YMCA: I have a hard time reading a magazine and walking on a moving treadmill at the same time (Had to put the Rolling Stone down). There are a lot of really in shape people there AND there are even more not in shape people there (New Year’s resolutions?). The lady next to me was, I can only assume, interested in improving the quality of her sex life as she was reading an article in Glamour with the title “Having Multiple Orgasms.” I hope it works out for her. I also realized there the majority of the people actually do wipe down the machines after using them. And I realized that it is kind of hard to people watch (especially females) at the YMCA and not feel mildly like a lurker/creepy guy. Finally I realized that the temperature this week will remain frigid as I saw the forecast about 600 times in my hour on the treadmill.

My final stats–in 60 minutes of walking I traveled 2.45 miles, burned 261 calories and got my heart rate up to 100 which is on the border of “warmup” and “fat burn” for my age group according to my trusty Cybex machine. The Pitt game is still on and I am about to make a gin martini to try to put those 261 calories back on.