My Unscheduled Thursday Workout

I really like pizza. But I figure if I’m going to eat pizza for dinner on Tuesday and Saturday, then I ought to climb onto an elliptical on Monday and Wednesday evenings, and also Sunday afternoon. I’ll spend a half hour on an elliptical. I don’t mess around, I go at it pretty good. There are pulse sensing handgrips on the ellipticals and once I get warmed up I try to maintain a heart rate of 120 per minute. I sweat. It’s not pretty. I don’t know how people can read a magazine while on an exercise bike, elliptical, or a treadmill. I’m too busy concentrating on keeping up my pace. I do all of this at a gym that has a couple of dozen treadmills, exercise bikes, ellipticals, and a huge section full of weight lifting machines.

Yesterday a guy climbed aboard the elliptical that was on my right. As is my practice, I tried to discreetly give him a glance. I do that because I am both curious, and a normal girl. From what I was able to gather from my two second glance, he was a muscular, good-looking guy who was probably around thirty. My nose told me that he was also odorless, which is always a good thing.

In the past it has occurred to me to slow down and go into a kind of “non-sweating mode” when doing cardio alongside a good-looking guy, but I’ve never actually done it. I guess I figure if I’m going to get dressed and drive to the gym, I might as well do what I intended to do. Anyway, the guy had been alongside me for about five minutes when he said a hello and asked how I was doing. I thought he might be talking to someone else, so I gave a glimpse out of the corner of my eye. There was no one on the elliptical to his right, just me, on his left. A few seconds later he mumbled something about meeting him for a drink. He said that he had already “lifted” and he was just doing a little cardio to finish his workout. He then said that he could meet me in about twenty minutes anywhere I wanted.

For about two seconds I was flattered. Then the arrogance of his offer angered me. I mean, where does this guy get off asking me to meet him? What kind of girl does he think I am? It ran through my mind that he was just like all other muscular guys; egotistical. And if the muscular guy is also good-looking, the self-absorption is doubled.

I stopped my pedaling, turned his direction and in no uncertain terms said, “Forget it. No way.”

The guy rotated my direction as a puzzled look overtook his face. It was then I saw the Bluetooth in his right ear. Clearly confused, he muttered. “Excuse me?”

For a few seconds I could not utter a sound. Finally I was able to babble, “Oh… never mind. I thought you were someone else.”

I still had twenty minutes left in my workout, but on this one occasion I figured I had better quit early. I climbed from the elliptical, grabbed my towel, and hurried towards the door. This week instead of Wednesday, I’ll workout on Thursday.