Adventures in Business Travel (Or... How to Workout at a Hotel Gym)

All of this week and part of next, I'm on the road for work.  I flew to Spokane on Monday for back-to-back conferences and it has been a long week.  It's Thursday - I've done one full event, kicked off another this am, have had dinners and drinks every night and have just generally been super busy.  Even though I'm beat - this is one of the weeks where I love my job.  I love these particular events - the people are awesome and fun and it's way more casual than other events.  I love that I can wear a summer dress and call it good - it's refreshing to not be all stuffy sometimes (I know... me? Stuffy?! Impossible. No.  I'm totally stuffy around my old CEO/CFO groups.  Suits = blah.)

I know, I know - "Stop talking about your clothes!  We don't care that you've worn the same outfit to three different groups this week (true story).  Tell us about working out!!"  

Okay, fine... you win. 

Have managed to eek out time for a workout yesterday and today.  Even though this gym is definitely not state of the art - they do have a couple of kettlebells.  (10 points to the gym!)

Exhibit A: 

That's a 10lb kettlebell.  And I deperately wanted to use it.  I didn't.  But I wanted to.

I was the only one in the gym for this workout - so although people were walking by wondering why I was holding a funny shaped weight over my head - no one else was sharing the tiny gym space with me.  


20 Turkish get-ups (25lbs)
25 hand release push-ups
50 goblet squats
50 sit ups
Time: 13:09

I modified this WOD from one that DQ did earlier this week.  He did a lot more push ups (or maybe they were pull-ups - the PU description can be quite vague) but I did more squats and added situps.  Hey... I'm going to Texas tomorrow - time for a bikini and short shorts means more squats and sit ups. 


This is what the yoga mat looked like when I was done: 

Ew.  Sweat angel.  I feel like when you can see the shorts line - it's extra gross.  I'm glad I was the only one there to see this.

Then I did 15 minutes of much needed mobility.  I have a knot in my right shoulder that just won't go away.  Holy motherf-er, it hurt to roll out on that foam roller.  (Also - 10 bonus points to the hotel for having a foam roller!)

Today, I got up at the crack of dawn - okay... not that early.  But before 6am.  Anyways... this morning, I did: 

21-15-9
KB swings (36lbs) (I actually did 25 the first time - 4 extra! yeah!)
Burpees (yes... I willingly did burpees without a coach yelling at me)
Weighted lunges (25lbs) (these suck.  Horribly.)
Time: 11:01  

This morning... there were two other folks in the gym, one on a treadmill, one on an elliptical.  The woman on the treadmill was just running away - nice easy pace, didn't look sweaty, didn't look like she was even breathing hard.  She had the news blasting and was just going to town.  The gentleman on the elliptical was looking at me like I was nuts for throwing myself on the ground and jumping back up time after time again (yeah dude, I think burpees are insane too... but I can't argue that they are good for me).  I was in the gym for about 30 minutes after warming up - working out - and doing a few minutes of mobility. I get that isn't a super long time in the gym - BUT... I left drenched in sweat.  You don't even want to see the sweat stain I left on the yoga mat after that.  So gross.  I could practically hear this woman huffing at me when I walked out making fun of my short workout.  Just keep running lady - I'm going to keep swinging my kettlebells and getting workouts done in less than 20 minutes. I get that endurance training and CrossFit are different - but really?  Don't sneer at me - I can see you in the fully mirrored wall.  

Ohmygosh-- then, this guy walked into the gym.  Looked younger, fit-ish and like a TOTAL fish out of water in this tiny gym.  He looked at me - sweaty ball of mess on the floor rolling out my IT bands.  Then he looked at the ellipticals.  Then he looked at my kettlebell.  And then the ellipticals.  And then he looked at Ms. No-Sweat on the treadmill and then back at the elliptical.  You could almost hear his brain screaming: 'What am I going to do to look manly when I really want to do the elliptical?'. Hilarious.  His plan ended up being to grab 8lb dumbells and do awkward dip/lunge things with a foot on a bench.  I'm not even sure what it was.  But he looked at me with eyes like Bambi when I put back the 36lb kb.  He probably would have keeled over from shock at seeing the huge ass kettlebells that guys at my gym do.  

Yeah.  I'm a little judgy.  But not until people start giving me judgy looks.  Just because I'm confined to a tiny hotel gym doesn't mean I can't make the most out of it.  I love that CrossFit has given me the tools to create a great workout in any situation. Anyways... work travel + tiny gym = great hotel WODs.   

AND... I'll be in Texas tomorrow.  Can't wait. It's going to be a fantastic trip and I'm so ridiculously excited!!