People at the gym

It's quite nice really... I've got to a stage where there are certain people who are always in the gym, who I can nod to and smile and and say hi to. We know what each other does, can tell when we're having an off day, and have a kind of camaraderie. So let's see.... there's:

Running guy - Running guy is probably in his 50s but he's slim built. Every day he comes into the gym and runs at about 13km for at least half an hour. Sometimes faster. He'll run until the sweat is literally flying off him, and he can hardly breathe and then he sits down on the treadmill. He'll then do some cycling or something. I hope I'm that fit when I'm in my 50s.

Asian girl - Asian girl only comes to the gym for 2 or 3 days in a row, and then disappears for about 10 days. I guess maybe she went home for easter and then got busy or something, cos it's certainly not that she can't cope with it. She lifts some pretty darn heavy weights for a girl, and then jogs, but apparently nothing else.

Bearded guy - Bearded guy is one of the few really quite old people who still seems to be able to work. He jogs and rows, admittedly not very hard, but enough that he's clearly out of breath. He obviously doesn't mind working at his limits (many older people seem to just come and walk a lot... personally I'd rather go around the parks if I were just walking!) He has a really weird rowing technique though: he curls his wrists around at least 90 degrees at back stops... v weird!

Admin lady - Admin lady may not actually be an admin lady... but she's just got that look about her. She always comes out of the gym wearing a suit and black tights in a generally officious sort of way, so she's clearly not a mature student, but equally I've never seen a lecturer or tutor dress in a suit - only ever the staff that work in the office. She walks on the treadmill, and walks on the cross trainer. She's there almost every day, but never seems to break a sweat

Hardcore Rower - Harcore Rower has disappeared at the moment - maybe he's gone home. For the last few weeks though he's turned up every day at 7:25, and still been erging when I leave at 8:15. He's great if you want to lock into somebody... never moves from 20 spm. EVER.

Skiing Girls - These two are by no means regulars, but I mention them anyway. They are the ones that started the judgemental rant. They turn up in their "Snowsport" hoodies (hence: skiier) and generally faff for 40 minutes before leaving. One of them is ok: she'll just go on a cross trainer doing resistance work for 30 minutes, and then maybe have a jog to warm down. The other does literally less than 10 minutes on every machine before getting bored and moving on. She spends the whole time looking at everyone else, and it bugs the hell out of me.

Speedy guy - Speedy Guy is bald, and always wears a baseball cap (which I admit to finding slightly odd). He does everything really fast. Like when he does weights, I assumed for ages he was just doing a warm up set as the machine goes BANG BANG BANG with about half a second's interval in between. Like he's doing it with no weight on at all. But the other day I used a machine after him and he had a good 40kg on there... crazy stuff. He mainly cross trains: at about 225 steps per minute!! It's insane... He's always there doing situps on the mats when I arrive, then he comes and does weights, and then he goes on his crazy cross training binge...

That's most of the regulars... there are some other people who are there sufficient for me to know who they are: The indian guy with the worst rowing technique I've ever seen, the slightly chunky rower who comes about once a week... Oh and one of the girls from the library (remember Bootylicious?) has started to come too... which is a bit odd (I notice people more when I know them) but alright to have someone to chat to.