Powerhouse Gym – my place to work out

We all have to endure the wonderful air in Beijing – these days we had another “Golden Week” for National Day but pollution levels were still high, even with an apparently blue sky. A bit strange because normally during holidays the Beijing Environmental Bureau is posting API on its website of around 150.
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See here how it looked like on 31 July (yep, just close to the “Olympic Week”?!), views inside Julong; the 2nd ring road from Chaoyangmen Bridge and from the American Club.
Could be worse of course – I once run a relay marathon with an API of over 500.
So, like it or not, I find refuge in the near 5,000 sqm gym in Capital Group Plaza, the building between Swissotel and Fuhua Building. The gym occupies the entire 5th floor.

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See the Gym floor (red curtains)

I call it a factory, so large, and with a constant flow of people in the most varied outfits and the most varied body types – from ultra thin to overweight plus the usual muscle mountains.
The girls love to be assisted by the muscular trainers. One needs the psychological motivation, right!
The gym has dozens and dozens of machines (from the USA and Italy), saunas, showers, lockers, hot yoga room and a large activity room where Valerie enthusiastically joins the belly dancing, kickboxing and taiqi (or taichi) including sword taiqi. There is also a small bar, shop and an Internet corner.
Positive points: good and varied choice of machines, good layout and decoration, many group activities (most are free except the hot yoga), open space (in some gyms you feel like in a submarine), trainers, etc.
Weak points: lack of English speaking staff; no swimming pool; steam sauna and dry sauna are too basic and often don’t work properly (reason for some members to switch to other gyms); very poor temperature control: in winter up to 29C in some areas (with the dry air, that makes serious running a pretty bad experience), in summer the aircon is too weak in the running treadmill area (humid and stuffy – I lose liters of sweat); the shop could probably sell more outfits if they would have better stock of sizes.
I stick to my routine of workout machines and especially my favorite treadmill (Technogym – Italy), a special model just right in the middle of the many others – and with a nice view on the gym. Training for a marathon takes time so I keep myself busy listening to my iPods (either the Nano or the old 1st generation iPod (there is only one such machine in the gym though they all look alike).
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view from my machine – the control panel (with heart rate)
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training… and then stretching…
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the entrance to the activity room – Valerie at her belly dancing lesson
belly2.JPG belly3.JPG she takes it very seriously
Be warned: her father keeps an eye on strangers and she has vicious kickboxing legs and has a quick punch.

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So, what’s next? Well… I am getting pretty anxious as the Beijing International Marathon is soon… on 15 October. See here the map of the over 42 Km loop, only for crazy people like me.

Pics Julong & Gongti Xilu – running shoes

Holiday blues… Working in the office, what’s new. Yesterday we quickly went shopping and I got new running shoes, suitable for marathon. For our shopping effort we received one (real) pearl, extracted in situ from the oyster. Nice marketing trick, we were urged to pay to set the pearl in a pendant but Sun walked out, putting the pearl in her purse.
This time it is Mizuno (320g), not the two pair of Asics I use, one for training (400g) and one for competiton & marathon (335g). I went running afterwards in the gym, did 11K in 68 min with the new pair. Yes, yes, I know you should not do that with a new pair but I am of the stubborn variety. They felt OK but wisely stopped before blisters could come.
My visit to the shop got lots of curious looks, from the sales people and from kids. I never found any shop in Beijing, including the Nike, Adidas and others, where you get precise information on the shoes: the correct use (which terrain, training or competition, short or long runs etc.), weight of the shoe, model depending on your weight and feet type and more. All very important if you run long distances. So I carry a rather impressive letter weight scale around to check the weight and consult the latest reviews of sports magazines. Kids are very curious to see what that toy is for.
Sport goods shops still have a long way to go. You better know what you exactly need, because nobody has a clue. Don’t even dream to find a shop with a special running machine (treadmill) to check your feet with the shoes. I did find that here – thanks to RS Scan, a Belgian company that opened their testing facilities next to the national athletic training facilities in Beijing. Now, that is technology – very impressive (the major Chinese sports people all start using it).
click to enlarge Fully equipped to shop for running shoes
On the way we took some pics of Sun with one of her “stick trees”, our donation to Julong Garden for Green Beijing. We need green coz the weather is again plain awful, dusty, somber, heavy. Holiday or not, the road works continue and we are still puzzled what they are up to. Also, a view from the north and the south side of the “Gongti Strip”.

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Gongti Xilu, the “Strip” and the raod works

Beijing never stops. Even on major holidays all big shops are open, 7 days a week. Shop till you drop. Yes, the economy dearly needs consumers.