I am not a huge fan of working out in front of people, namely strangers. I don’t mind running on the treadmill next to my husband, but a random neighbor? Not so fun. It’s not because I am embarassed or anything like that, I just want to avoid the random person who loves to talk while they work out. I often run into that person. I do my best to look un-interested, I have my headphones on and am working out - that should be a sign I don’t want to get into a 25 minute conversation about your running shoes. But for some reason, those people find me. The ones who don’t really want to work out, but just want to stand there and talk to other people who are working out. I don’t understand the point of going to the gym to not work out, but I guess they figure they can meet people there? Who knows.

And of course I feel bad ignoring someone, even when I have my headphones on and can barely hear them. My gym etiquette tells me that a Hi, Bye and maybe a Can you tell me how to use this such and such is sufficient gym chatter.

Another reason I like to work out alone, or in relative privacy, is because I like to use the treadmills that have a TVs in front of them. The other day I was on the treadmill happily watching “Whose Wedding is it anyway?”, when I realized the guy next to me was also watching the same show. He had gone from watching sports recaps to the wedding show…hmmm weird? No, my remote was changing his tv also! The poor guy didn’t want to make a stink so he ran on that treadmill for about 20 minutes watching a wedding show. There wasn’t really anything I could do since I did want to watch it and I wasn’t going to change my TV to sports for him, sorry I am nice but not that nice.

Lesson learned: Better to work out alone!

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