I am such a Spoiled Brat!

First of all: Happy birthday to the most awesomest and my favorite brother in the world!!!

Now, to matters at hand: we all knew it was just a question of time until I found something wrong with moving south (other than leaving my awesome friends, of course). Well, here it is.

On Wednesday, I decided to hit the gym for some weights. A) because that's meant to make me faster and B) because we have a friggin' membership and I hate to waste money. Now, while our Cambridge David Lloyd's gym was a haven of bourgeois moms and dads, never too busy, never too dirty, and only sometimes too noisy with kids (mainly in the pool area), and only a short drive away from home (yes [she hangs her head in shame] I used to drive to the gym), the same can't be said about the Brighton one.

As we're on a 1-year membership (Ha! Shows you how settled our lives are. Not. Can't even plan ahead for 12 months at a time....) and not wanting to lose a crapload of money, we transferred our memberships to down here. The drive alone took us halfway through Brighton, strike one. The only redeeming feature was this:

That's right, view from the car . That's the sea right there (like I said, can't get enough of it).

Now here's a list of things that had me rather disgruntled:

• No one to hollah a cheery 'Hello!' at you upon arrival,
• A quad-like layout that had me lost in 2.2 seconds (and I can't read maps either, not that there were any for reference),
• Lockers that are just barely large enough to fit my gym bag,
• No hooks on the inside of the showers for me to hang up my wash bag. What am I supposed to do with all my stuff? Leave the bag on the floor? Hello... 
• Having to walk through the café to get into the gym and getting lost, again (too many doors),
• Men (boys, rather), walking around in ridiculous cut-out muscle shirts strutting their stuff (no, whatever you may think, that was NOT sexy),
• TVs blasting in the changing room and the women's only workout area (really? I'd like to choose myself what I watch or listen to while working out, thank you very much). 

Ok, enough with the list. I'm really not that much of a grumpy old woman but it is a bit of a bummer that we're now stuck with a gym that is offering a whole lotta less convenience than before. The minute we can cancel that sucker, my only gym will be the one nature designed, hells yeah!

On a happier note, I got a killer leg and planks-workout in (ehm, and for some reason I was the only girl amongst a lot of grunting and sweaty dudes in the weights area?!) and was feeling severely sore yesterday. So, to remedy that situation I did what any clever gal would do: I went out for a run. 

By the time I had hit noon, I had gotten four solid hours of work under my belt and my quads were starting to seize up. So I threw on three layers of clothing and headed out into the crispy cold.

I promise I'm not preggers, it's the tops! Oh and check out that new hallway (N.B. soon to be ripped out and replaced by more tasteful things!)

I was aiming for a very easy, legs-loosening run while getting my daily fill of the sea. I was feeling rather inspired, too, check out my artsy pix (even G pretended to be impressed!).

We may not have gotten snow, but it was mighty cold here, too

You see what I was trying to do with the composition there and ... zzzz...

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside...

It was beautiful, invigorating and head-clearing. I could get used to that mid-day running malarkey.

And you know the best thing about yesterday's easy, leg-loosening run??? My pace was only 2 seconds slower than Tuesday's run with G (eat that!). Guess those squats were worth it?!

Do you add weights to your running training?

What's your favorite color? I can't really decide what mine is but judging by my recent clothes purchases, green seems to be up there at the moment!