Traveling to other Gyms. Review of LA Fitness in Towson (435 York Road Suite 300, Towson, MD)

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Robinson — Leave a comment

You can’t see it well, but there is a strip of white light on the building. That is an LA Fitness sign.

So my son had an extra practice this week, which meant Gym time!!! I decided to go try one of Baltimore’s other offerings. First off this place was a royal pain in the butt to find. It’s not that the signage isn’t good, that part is excellent. In fact, parking was even easy to find, as there wee big signs saying what garage to park in (although it is a pay garage, but LA Fitness does validate.) I found the building ok. When I walked around the building with the LA Fitness signs, it was an old empty mall. By empty, I mean every single store on the first floor fo the building is empty. Sadly, I dropped the ball on getting pictures of the outside again, although this time it was because I had no idea what building to go in! Lots of big empty stores didn’t help!

Looking in the windows, this is what EVERY store looked lie.

Finally, in my walking around the outside of the building in the cold rainy mist, found what looked like an office entrance with security guards. Those lovely ladies were kind enough to send me to the second floor, where some lovely General Dynamics employees brought me to the gym! This was a lot of work just to get in shape! Read more ›

Tagged with: Gym Review, LA Fitness, LA Fitness Towson, treadmill run
Posted in Product Review, treadmill run

Doctors Prescribing Exercise as Medicine – Wall Street Journal

Posted on December 10, 2014 by Robinson — Leave a comment

This is a great read on benefits of Exercise, and how it IS medicine. The blog it is from is a great read, from a gentleman giving great tips and information on how to and/or the benefits of adding exercise to your life!

Its like that Facebook post says: “The problem isn’t that high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity run in your family.. The problem is NO ONE runs in your family!

Wellness Secrets of a SuperAger

“The older I get the more medicines I find myself taking,” a Senior Citizen.

This is a common lament among seniors. But the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has a new and better idea. They declared May of 2014 as Exercise is Medicine month.

“Everyone should start or renew an exercise program now as an investment in life-long health,” said Robert E. Sallis, M.D., FACSM, chair of the Exercise is Medicine. “Every person, regardless of age and health, is responsible for his or her own physical activity. There are far more reasons to exercise than excuses not to.”

Research shows that exercise has a role in the treatment and prevention of more than 40 chronic diseases including diabetes, heart disease, obesity and hypertension, an ACSM press release pointed out.

“While there are numerous reasons for soaring health care costs, one undeniable explanation is the poor physical health of so…

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Posted in running

Traveling to other Gyms. Review of LA Fitness in White Marsh (8221 Town Center Drive, Nottingham MD)

Posted on December 10, 2014 by Robinson — Leave a comment

On Monday night my son had his usual Chorus practice. In the spring, this means a nice run outside in Baltimore, sometimes through sketchy neighborhoods where people wonder what I am running from. In the Winter/Fall, I’m not brave enough to go running in the dark in a town that can have a beautiful, safe(ish) neighborhood directly next to a scarey unsafe(ish) neighborhood. I have enough problems picking the safe areas to run in! (To the point that my son’s chorus director for the Maryland State Boychoir – Hi Steve! – found my blog, and let me know he would help me find better areas to run!) With this in mind, and the fact that my gym is a chain – I thought to look to see where the local LA Fitness was. A Town like Baltimore had to have a few right? It sure did! 20 minutes away was an LA Fitness in White Marsh. So I headed there.

Wow. Read more ›

Tagged with: Gym Review, LA Fitness, LA Fitness White Marsh, Treadill Run
Posted in Product Review, running, treadmill run

Exercising after Partying

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Robinson — Leave a comment

Friday night, my wife had her employee dinner. She works for a company that does contract work, and they work very hard… And party very hard.

This year, it was held at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, and in my humble opinion – was an incredible time. The dinner was Sea Bass, Steak, Salad, Roasted Veggies and an open bar. (Did I mention the open bar part? And that they Party Hard?) We left the kids behind for the evening, and had a hotel room – So you can see we did not have our normal limitations on partying. It was an awesome night with Dancing, drinking, eating and socializing. After the dinner finished, we all headed over to another Bar to continue the socializing. I was introduced to some wonderful drink that tasted just like Christmas.. No idea what was in it though.

I suspect that there might have been something wrong with the food though, because the next day my wife and I were not in top form.. For me personally, I know my stomach was off – and I had the worst headache I can remember having! I’m sure it must have been ~~a nasty hangover~~ Food Poisoning, it’s the only logical explanation.. Read more ›

Tagged with: Hungover Running
Posted in bad run, running

Stridebox Review – First Box

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Robinson — Leave a comment

The Stride Box Un-Opened!

For father’s day, my family thought a fantastic gift for their Runner Dad, would be a running gift! (Runner Dads are like normal dads… but cooler.) After much research, thought and debating (I can only assume that part), they settled on a StrideBox subscription.

So what is StrideBox? Think of it as a grab-~~bag~~box of running stuff. Usually there is one “item” of some sort, then different snacks/drink powders/GU/etc. As an example, I just happen to have pictures for my July box! (I may not have been blogging – but I was thinking about blogging!) Read more ›

Tagged with: product review, Stridebox
Posted in Product Review, running

Post Thanksgiving Lifting and Runnina

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Robinson — 2 Comments

So, Thanksgiving was awesome… So was the week preceding it where we went up to Boston for an incredible wedding of my Cousin Alex, and his beautiful bride Rinata. We did get to see some incredibly awesome historical items as well ( such as Paul Revere’s Grave!) Not to great on the eating health/working out part, but the other parts – like eating junk, drinking beer at the Samuel Adams brewery and then stuffing my face for the entire time I was at Mom and Dad’s (not just thanksgiving, but also before.. She made homemade Macaroni and Cheese!!!!!)

In fact, in the 10 days we were gone, the only form of exercise I did was the Pete Keye’s Turkey Trot. Its all good though. Read more ›

Posted in running

2014 Pete Keyes Turkey Trot 5 Mile Run Race Report

Posted on November 29, 2014 by Robinson — Leave a comment

The beautiful weather for the race!

So, With Thanksgiving arriving, the Annual Pete Keyes Turkey Trot comes along! I’m not sure why I missed it the last couple of years, as my T-Shirt Collection says that I last did it in 2011, a date easily verified by checking here in my blog. Just by comparing the pictures- it seems there was a BIG difference in the weather! in 2011, it was nice(ish), with blue skies.. This year, we had a wonderful snow storm the day before dropping 8-10 inches, with flurries continuing on throughout the entire thanksgiving day!

At some point in the last year or three, they changed it from an 8k (4.97097 miles) to a five-mile run. Read more ›

Posted in Race Report, running

Bike is broke. But I knew that when I bought it.

Posted on July 30, 2014 by Robinson — 7 Comments

(Long rambling post about my new-to-me bike that I bought off of Craigslist. Consider yourself warned.)

I know, I’m reusing a picture from a couple of days ago.

I have had a desire to try cycling for a while. I have even gone so far as to go to my local bike shops and talk to the staff, learning and pricing. First off, $1300 for a base line Trek Road bike? I don’t even know if I LIKE cycling!!!! I can get a motorcycle for that – it has two wheels AND propels itself!!!! After my sticker shock wore off, I tried to get my ancient 1980’s 10 speed working, but it seems to pop tires. I couldn’t figure out which spoke was causing the problem, and had an issue spending the money that would be required to actually get it really road worthy. IT needed new cables, new brakes, wheels trued, new handle bar wraps, seat replaced, and a full tune up. I’m not dropping a couple of hundred bucks on a 20 year old bike that cost a third of that at the time. Read more ›

Tagged with: Broken Bike, Craigslist, I love Craigslist, Rear Derailleur, Road Bike, Trek, Trek 2000
Posted in Road Bike

Personal Training – Overview & Catchup

Posted on July 29, 2014 by Robinson — Leave a comment

I didn’t have a picture for this post, so here is a random picture of lab puppies I found on the internet.

I suppose I should give some specifics on the personal training, before I start an update.

When we signed up, we met with the “head” of personal training, that talked about how we wanted to turn our bodies into “Fat burning machines.” I think they had a marketing meeting with that phrase, as we heard it a few times. I don’t think we really let him complete his sales pitch though, as I had already decided I wanted a personal trainer. The nice surprise, was that they would run one session with both of us! Like a Two-Fer! Since I had already planned on signing up, this was a no brainer. Read more ›

Tagged with: Bootcamp, Cycling, LA Fitness, Personal Training, Weight Lifting
Posted in Personal Training

I’ve been quiet again.. Let me catch you up..

Posted on July 28, 2014 by Robinson — 2 Comments

Usually my quietness means that I have been sitting around eating bon-bons.. Before I vanished, I mentioned that this was the year I was really going to get back in shape. Not just running shape mind you, total full-body shape. Drop the pounds, build some muscle, run lots, and do all sorts of things that fitness-y people do.

So based on my past history, I posted this whole “hoo-rah” style post,worked out for a couple of days, and promptly stopped. Very Average American of me.. And also not entirely the truth.

When I remember, we take a picture of every run!

We take a picture together every run!

I have continued to run with my son, when he isn’t out-of-town on tour/camp/visiting grandparents. I’m still under the impression that he doesn’t really enjoy running as much as he enjoys being a runner (and the responses when he tells his class-mates he ran 5 miles on sunday), and spending time with me. I’m totally ok with that – as I enjoy our talks and the time together as well! Unfortunately, he seems to get used to running, the cramps settle down/etc – And then he goes away for a week or so, and the couple of weeks of progress goes away. I think that with the school year coming up, this will be resolved.

I have talked about the need to join a gym for ages. While I could have joined Gold’s Gym at any point (no sign up fee,and only 10-20 bucks a month), it is always packed, and didn’t have the atmosphere that I knew would be conducive to my using it. The I wanted to join was LA fitness, but they have a sign up fee, and you have to pay first and last month up front. My budget doesn’t usually have that much “extra” cash in a pay period, or even doubling it – for my wife if I could sucker her into joining with me. Well, some times the world smiles and “found” money appears that was unexpected, and is not budgeted. I was lucky enough to have this happen and my wife and I joined LA Fitness at the beginning of the month. Read more ›

Tagged with: Cycling, LA Fitness, Road Bike, running
Posted in Cross Training, Cycling, Kids

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