Not a "Stairway" to Heaven

Every once in a while I have these grand plans to learn one new thing every day. Usually these grand plans fail relatively quickly but every once in a while I go in learning spurts. Like since I've been in Ireland, I've learned how to make a turkey, how to pack for a weekend in just a backpack, how to pronounce Irish names and the rules of Gaelic Football to name just a few.

But part of learning new things is trial by error. Sometimes in order to learn, you may fail in the process.

And today failure happened....

with the StairMaster.

Yes, that same StairMaster that is ubiquitous in gyms around the world. 

During one of my rare bouts of exercise enthusiasm, I went to the gym today.   Now as previously discussed I'm not a huge fan of gyms and so I'm a bit behind the curve when it comes to gym equipment. For example, the treadmill. Seemingly simple, right? Not when you are an outside runner by experience and so when you turn to talk to your friend, you forget that the machine is still running beneath you and you may or may not have flown off several times.

But finally I felt comfortable enough with the treadmill, I was a pro at the bikes and I could mostly figure out the weight situation. It was time to master the Stair Master. First problem, the machine asked for my weight...in kilograms. I've been writing papers for days and my fried brain could not compute conversions. I did a random guess. No idea if it was correct or not.

So I got on the machine and I tried walking up and down. It's a machine that is supposed to mimic stairs, how hard could this be? And then that moment that I fear in the gyms happens. When you are trying to look confident on this contraption, some person who works at the gym kindly walks up to you and gently asks "has anyone showed you how to to work this machine?" So she attempted to show me, and said a bunch of stuff about compression and to take baby steps and don't lift my feet off the pedals (which is incredibly difficult for runners). I was told to loosen my hips and knees and then she stood there watching. While it was a necessary intervention, I still felt awkward. I tried my best and finally she was satisfied enough that she left. So okay, I think I have the hang of this. I supposedly have walked up 7 floors and am averaging a floor a minute. Sweet. Yay, gym success! .... Then the machine kept thinking that I wasn't on it anymore and kept asking me to resume the routine while I'm attempting to walk. Finally the beeping noise every 30 seconds was making me feel self-conscious and declared defeat.  On the plus side, I was a bike fiend today. Not enough that the Tour De France will happen but maybe I can find a niche at gyms.

So in conclusion, I may or may not go back to the Stairmaster. I'm sure there is some other contraption in the gym I could try...