Saturday, August 14, 2010

Fitness Room Fail

This morning I tried to follow my travel challenge and get a little fitness in before we started our sightseeing. I've been doing well as far as it comes to eating, but I wanted to get a little treadmill time in.

The hotel where we've been staying the past few nights and tonight has a 'fitness room.' I knew it only had a few pieces but thought as long as there was a treadmill I'd be okay. Well, here's what I found.

The 'fitness room' was in the basement.


Then I found a small room with a bike, a primitive elliptical, a weight machine and a treadmill.


The treadmill was still set at the end of someone else's workout, but it didn't seem like anyone had just been there. Once I was able to reset the machine, I got it going at a slow pace to start with a walk. Going alright until I tried to speed up to run and then the machine started shifting back and forth from the right to the left with each step. Not good. It was completely unbalanced and not safe. The belt was loose and didn't sit flat either.


I knew that wasn't going to work immediately, turned it off, got off and went to the bike. Well, the light on the bike was blinking, but I could not get it to turn on. After a few tries, I gave up and decided since there was a tiny bit of natural resistance I'd just peddle for 10 minutes or so just to loosen up my legs at the very least.


To finish this sorry attempt at a workout, I spent a few minutes stretching. At least there was a nice flat screen TV so I could watch The Today Show while all this was going on.


Oh, and did I mention one of the four lights was burned out? Yeah, this was a major FAIL. I would have run outside but the hotel is located on a very busy street and we hadn't driven around the immediate area much and I didn't have much time to waste exploring. Unfortunately tomorrow we're headed to downtown Boston first thing so I won't have time to go for a run. At least we'll be walking a good bit and maybe I can run a little Monday if I wake up early enough.

Sometimes the best plans don't work out. I did tell the manager on duty about the broken equipment and burned out light. I love hotels when they have great, or at least adequate, fitness rooms. But I don't appreciate the ones that advertise fitness rooms but don't keep them up and make sure the equipment is working.

Do you have a fitness room fail story or have you had a great experience with a hotel fitness facility?
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workout stats -
none of any consequence

10 comments:

AM! said...

love your super fitness workout attempt! boo to the hotel!!

They frankly should applaud you for your post, and promptly comp your next night's stay. really. Tell em' you blog about your travel/fitness adventures.

enjoy your vaca!!

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Silly Girl Running said...

You're kidding! That's a pathetic attempt of a fitness room! You can't get a decent work out in there! That treadmill just looks dangerous!

Yay for trying to get that work out in, though! :)

Raquelita said...

That's pretty loser-y of the hotel, especially if they claim to have fitness facilities. I agree with AM. Tell 'em you've blogged about their facility failure.

Christy Ashley said...

Pending on where your're staying, you should go for a run along the Charles River. It's absolutely gorgeous. If you take the T to Charles/MGH (on the Red Line), there's super easy access to it. It was my favorite thing about living in Boston - most beautiful route I've ever run!

Lindsay said...

hotel fitness rooms are SOO hit or miss. i lived in hotels all last year and they were 50/50. usually they just have a treadmill, bike, and elliptical, which is good enough for me. however... when the equipment is ghetto and hardly works - uggh! luckily i found a few places outside to run so i didn't have to use the treadmills all the time.

Golden Daily Scoop said...

That's too bad about the fitness room, your intentions were good, though!! I can't say I've ever had a bad experience, but the one's I have been to definitely weren't kept up the way they should have been, pretty disappointing! Better luck next time!

Robyn @ Wannabe Writer Runner said...

A lot of hotels definitely stretch the definition of a fitness room when they advertise. At least you got a lot of walking in today!

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Personal Trainer Singapore said...

The room look abit dirty and dusty. The equipment is also very old. I personally gym in a hotel is very important as well, i will always enquire about their gym before even book the hotel. At least good for you, u still manage to get some work done.