Training Log - Wednesday, November 30, 2011 (Plantation, Florida)

My newest accessory...courtesy of a strained peroneal tendon.

Unfortunately, I keep accidentally rolling my ankle when I'm just walking around and forgetting that I still have a weak ankle, but it isn'r really painful. I'll just continue to "actively" rehab my ankle. I didn't get to get my run in today until after it was dark and since I didn't know the local area very well, I decided to just hit the treadmill for the workout of the day.

My training plan called for a 1 mile warm up and cool down at 8:30 pace and 3 miles at 7 minute pace. When I walked into the small fitness center at my hotel in Plantation, Florida, I noticed that one of the two treadmills was already occupied by another guest, but one was all I needed anyway. I put on my headphones, cranked up AC/DC on my Blackberry and turned on the treadmill. Since this entire fitness center was barely 12 feet by 15 feet in size with no windows, sweat started to flow pretty quickly. About a mile into my run, I thought my "workout buddy" on the other treadmill was starting to strike up a conversation with me. Odd, I thought, can't he see I'm listening to music and working my butt off trying to keep my pace. Surely, he can see that I am in no shape to have a conversation right now.

When I looked over and he wasn't looking at me but straight ahead at the small TV screen attached to the treadmill, I thought wow, I guess he's talking to himself. But no that wasn't it, either. Instead, he appeared to be talking on the phone, and rather loudly I might add, loud enough that my AC/DC tunes were not drowning out his voice...at all. OK, I thought, oh well, it's probably just his wife wanting to wish him a good night or something and he would be done soon anyway. No such luck...instead this guy kept yapping at the phone for almost 30 minutes, loud, obnoxious and just plain rude. When has it become acceptable to force your personal business on other people not just in public places but in confined places that are usually meant to allow people to de-stress and relax.

Am I overreacting here? I just kept looking over. Here this guy was, barely even keeping a walking on the treadmill, leaning on the support bar like a drunk ordering a drink at a bar just before last call, making me listen to his annoying phone conversation. I kept thinking how good it would feel to just tell him turn off that d@mn phone or to take his call outside, but I didn't. Instead, I just kept thinking if this was now the norm and widely accepted. Maybe I was the one in the wrong here. Maybe I had already turned into that old guy that every neighborhood had that complained about everyone and everything. I don't know, I just can't believe that people have become that rude. End of rant;-)

All that thinking made me tired and I was struggling to maintain pace for the final half mile, but I managed to complete the workout as scheduled. Hopefully, I can do some exploring of Fort Lauderdale during tomorrow's training run. The weather down here has been fantastic, blue skies with temps in the mid 70s.