1. Exercising

Community Care Physicians is a leader in the field of healthcare. With a strong focus on wellness and prevention, we are the first multispecialty medical group in the Capital Region of NY to open fitness centers that are available for little to no cost. Whether you are improving your lifestyle, restoring your quality of life due to a medical condition, or continuing a personal rehabilitation program, our gyms allow you access to the latest fitness equipment and personal training options conveniently offered by Community Care Physicians, PC.

Community Care Physicians has gym locations in Delmar and Latham. These gyms are unstaffed facilities that require you to enroll and get a key tag prior to entering. With your key tag, you will be able to access both gym locations during gym hours, Monday through Friday 5 am to 11 pm and Saturday and Sunday 7 am to 7 pm.

YAY!! FREE with my health insurance. I live in Delmar and it is 5 mins from my house on the way to and from work.  Double YAY!

You see, I don’t belong to a gym. It’s matter of money and convenience and time and motivation to go.  I had a treadmill in my basement but it is broken. Where I work, there is a treadmill back stage where it is dark, dreary and cluttered with junk. Yes, I use it when it is virtually impossible to run outside – thunderstorms, snowstorms, icy conditions, etc.

I know that strength training is beneficial to runners.  I plan to go ONCE a week and ONCE on the weekend.  I even signed my hubby up. I’ll keep you posted.

Speaking of exercising, they are offering an exercise class at work on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Sounds perfect, right?  I wouldn’t have to leave the building.

I play tennis on Tuesdays so I went on Thursday.  There were about 10 people there (out of the 25 who signed up), a few young students but mostly older women.

Well, it was total torture!!!

The young buff trainer proceeded to lead us on training intervals that involved running, hopping, jumping jacks, burpees, push ups, etc. Definitely not explaining the moves, not helping you do them at your own level…he just kept you moving like a drill sergeant.

Yea, I did sweat but I was at a loss to follow along on many of the moves and unable to do some at the level he was asking.  I honestly didn’t get much out of it and vowed to never return.

Then I thought that I was too hasty and was going to reconsider until the gym opportunity arose.

2.  Running Groups

Last Sunday when I bumped into an old friend, she mentioned this program.  She trained for the Freihofer 5k this way and is enrolled in it for the Troy Turkey 10k. (Incidentally, she has run 5 races, is training for a half and considering a full…I must be  a slow learner!!)

The training runs are on Monday evenings and Saturday mornings.

I can do the Mondays with no problem but I have races on most weekends and can only do 3 Saturdays.

I still think it’s worth it so that I can have some people to run with once a week and also for the drills that will come along with the training.

There’s an info session  tonight so we’ll see but I am leaning toward doing it.

3.  The weekend

I am not going to race this weekend!  You know I want to…and there are quite a few races out there that I could run…

especially this one:

I was very close to signing up for this one as my fall half marathon.  I know this is shallow but the deciding factor was no medal but then they changed and are giving one for the first time.

Instead of racing, I plan to do a long run on one of the bike trails on Saturday.

And spend Sunday on Lake George probably BBQing on one of the islands and maybe hiking.

Happy Running!  Do you belong to a gym?  Are you part of a running group?  What are your plans for the weekend?