I rowed in the little gym in my apartment complex this evening. And a funny story happened.

So this little gym which is really tiny has the elliptical on the left, the treadmill on the right, and the rowing machine in the middle. I got settled on the rowing machine, adjusting the straps and selecting an opera to listen to on YouTube. I had earbuds inside my ears. I chose the workout 5000 meters. Soon after I started rowing, a man walked into the gym and placed a ThinkPad PC on top of the screen of the elliptical to my left. I wondered what he would do. Would he watch a movie? I rowed, listened to my opera, and from time to time looked at his screen. He launched Skype. He started talking. It was annoying, even though I could still hear the words in the opera. Then I saw a white page on his screen covered with mathematical formulae. I wondered if he was tutoring someone in math over Skype. He walked on the elliptical quite slowly. I could not make out what language he was speaking. I thought that maybe it was Turkish. Of course it was hard to make out the language since I heard the opera sung in Russian in my ears much louder than he talked.

I finished my 5000 meters. 37 minutes 20 seconds minus water breaks every 500 meters. So, still over 30 minutes cardio total. And I gave it my best, using the technique that a coach at Orangetheory fitness had taught me: to extend the arms in front of me as much as I can during the forward movement; this way, I cover more meters.

I planned to then go onto the treadmill but wanted to pause the opera and speak to him, asking if he was tutoring over Skype. It turned out that he was not: it was just his work. I am unclear how it was just his work if that sheet with math formulae was in front of him on the screen for so long while he talked. He did not do anything to any of the math notation.

He told me that he assumed that his talking did not bother me since I had earbuds inside my ears. I did not tell him the truth that initially it was annoying–I said that I had opera on and that everything was OK. I asked him which language he was speaking. He told me it was Spanish. I was utterly astounded because it was the first time in my life that I did not recognize Spanish. He then said that it was Spanish from Spain. I said "ah, OK", meaning that it probably did not sound like Spanish from Mexico that I hear a lot around me, but in reality I still could not believe that I did not recognize the sounds and cadence of Spanish. I then went to the treadmill and listened to him speak without hearing the opera. I confirmed to myself that it was Spanish and that it sounded different from Mexican Spanish.

Then I put the opera back on and tried walking with a 5 percent incline, but I was very tired so I decided to call it a day. 30 minutes of rowing, getting sweaty, was not so bad.

Yesterday I slept almost all day so I did not do any exercise.

Tomorrow is my restorative yoga and if I have time, I will do recumbent bike prior to class at the gym.