Staying in Shape Below Freezing

Since temperatures have been hovering in the 20's since before the new year, attending my free outdoor "gyms" under the bridges along the river has become completely out of the question so we've joined a real indoor one called Hee Plus that's conveniently located 10 minutes from home. Besides appearing to need a nice dousing of Purell and some tidying, Hee Plus is like the gyms we belonged to at home, complete with treadmills, stationary bikes and a full weight room but of course it is still very much Korean; They have t-shirts and shorts to borrow if you don't feel like wearing your own gym clothes, the place is empty pretty much all the time, there's one employee (besides the wonderfully pleasant guy at the front desk) who I think they pay to clean and tidy but who can often be found asleep on the floor in the women's locker room, and it's located above a Korean restaurant and by 10:00 a.m. my run is often accompanied by the wafting scents of simmering soups and whatever kind of food produces that unmistakable "Korean food" smell. There are quite a few things I like about Hee Plus though. I love that I have the gym to myself most days. I love that I can actually pretend to run a 5K because the treadmills are in kilometers. I love that I don't really know how much weight I'm lifting because those are in kilograms and I never remember the conversion so I just pick up something that feels heavy but liftable. The single complaint I have is that you technically have to take your shoes off to go into the locker room, just like you would take them off when entering someone's home. I just stopped doing this because I can't stand taking them off just to go put my coat in the locker......shhhh, don't tell Korean tradition.

Korean's, of all ages, like to sleep anywhere at their place of employment.