06/12/2007: Bally's finally makes it to Jacksonville

A friend mentioned that a new Bally's opened up about 2 miles from my house. GREAT NEWS!!

I have a lifetime membership at Ballys, and hated paying for a gym membership, but had little choice since there weren't any Ballys here, until now :) The gym just opened a couple of months ago, and is relatively small, for now. They're in their pre-opening phase, and put in plenty of free weights, machines, treadmills, etc. Just enough to get things going while they finish the rest of the facility. When they're done at the end of July, it should be a really nice gym. Check them out - they're at Baymeadows and Phillips, right by Scan Design.

I went last night to get in a good weight lifting workout - as usual tri specific. Lifting like this is new to me. I'm used to heavier weights, 6-12 per set to exhaustion. This is 3-5 sets, 20-30 reps per set, and very tiring. I did squats and let presses which are great for pedalling power, bent arm lat pushdowns, rows and dumbell bench presses which are all great for swimming, leg curls for running, and some ab crunches/twist for core stregth. Three sets of each, 20-30 reps per set. The goal is to strengthen the muscles along with tendons and ligaments.

I definitely felt it on this mornings run. This morning was a 30 minute zone 2 run on the treadmill. Gotta love modern technology - plug in my desired heart rate (157), press start, and let the treadmill do the rest. It picks up heart rate from the polar chest strap and speeds up or slows down to keep my heart rate right at 157. I planned on running outside, but mother nature had other plans for me in the form of lightening, so an indoor workout it was.

Hopefully these storms will blow through so I can get my swim in tonight, which should be in the neighborhood of 2500.