My Gym Worst Nightmare

Once upon a time I posted jokingly about being surrounded by college coeds in the locker room after working out. This morning after my workout (more on that in a moment), I got up to the locker room about 10-15 min later than I usually do... I was surrounded by college coeds! There were like 10 of them. Some team must've just gotten out of practice. There's nothing like a locker room full of young, fit, skinny, blonde girls to make you feel especially old and fat. Throw on to that fabulous image, sweaty and red faced and... I was a pretty picture. I may have to start using the faculty/staff locker room... And before anyone asks why I never used it before Jess & I had 2 reasons. 1 - We weren't actually sure it is for staff too. The sign outside says fac only the sign inside says fac & staff. 2 - It was never an issue. At 7 (when I usually get into the locker room) it is just the eastern european swimming ladies and that isn't intimidating. But now it is fall and we weren't there in the fall so...

I went back to the gym for the 1st time in two weeks this morning. I thought it would kill me, but amazingly enough I did really well and felt really good. MP3 player returned to me yesterday so last night I loaded it back up. Set up a playlist of high energy music and just kicked ass this morning. I worked out for 50 minutes. Broke 700 calories and spent most of the workout (this is all on the elliptical trainer for those new to my gym mutterings) in the low 160's (strides per minute I think) although pushed up to 170+ for a while too. By the end, though... I was dead. My face was bright red except for a weird white patch that ran down my left cheek to my mouth and encircled my mouth giving me a freaky reverse clown look. As much as I liked listening to books on tape while working out, I think they've run their course. I tend to be slower when I'm listening to them.