Ordinarily, if TC screwed up any aspect of my graduate school career, I'd be more than a little irked. The on-time, full payments with which I respond to their horrifying tuition statements should, I feel ensure that records are accurately kept and that nothing is overlooked. I was delighted a few days ago, though, to discover that TC dropped the ball in terms of keeping track of my academic progress. Luckily, it's in my favor.
After waking up at 7:00 and discovering that it was too hot and muggy to run outside even then, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and pay the fee for summer use of the Columbia gym. It's not a great one, but as a student it's cheaper than any other option, particularly for a two-month stint. Because I'm not enrolled in summer school, I'm not allowed to use the gym until mid-August without paying for it. With the Queens Half-Marathon in less than a month and more high-intensity (and therefore high internal temperature-inducing) intervals on my schedule than usual, it seemed my only option.
The gym has three levels arranged around a central atrium containing a basketball court. There are several weight rooms, a pool, squash and racketball courts and an indoor track 1/10th of a mile long. The top floor is the only one that isn't underground, so there are no windows and it's a bit on the gloomy side.
I headed over rather gloomily, and as I was about to open my mouth to ask the guy behind the desk where to go for membership payments, I decided to try swiping my student I.D. card, just in case. A small light on the card reader turned a friendly green, and the turnstile unlocked with an inviting click.
I feel like an idiot for not trying this earlier. I'm still slogging through my long runs outside, as early in the morning as I can stomach (10 miles on a treadmill? Not happening.), but all of my interval work has been on indoor treadmills. I'm anything but a treadmill advocate, but it's nice to have my pace and distance regulated and easily visible. My sore arms are a testament to the weights I've started lifting again, and on my off days I cross train by swimming laps. The gym is half-empty these days, a stark contrast with the school year when it is positively humming. I've never attended a gym that had such high demand for the treadmills and ellipticals that one had to sign up in advance to use them and expect to get kicked off the instant one's 30 minutes are up. Columbia's gym still uses this system in summer, but today I stayed on mine for an hour and no one said a word, perhaps because at any given time there were at least four empty ones on either side of me.
Sometimes slipping through the cracks is awesome.
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