Afternoon Exercises

Saturday afternoon means exercise. All the equipment in the gym is connected to an on-line fitness app that tracks everything done. This is used by the girls to run the monthly exercise competition but also used for on-line challenges. You regularly take part in a rowing challenge on Saturday afternoons.

The gym is always popular when the girls know you’re going to be there. Anna is helping Belka on the treadmills. Sybil’s here to oversee your warm-up before you begin. Nekane’s on one of the stationary bikes, by the looks of it cycling through a rather dry and dusty part of Spain. Morgane’s using the lesser weights, supervised by Sarka.

You’re already warmed up when the guy running the challenge starts his own warm-up routines. You go through them anyway, with a few critical words of advice from Sybil. She’s there to make certain you do them properly. Every time she criticises the other girls giggle.

The challenge itself is straight forward. Half an hour of rowing, pace set by the guy running the challenge. There’s some thirty people logged on and the competition is who goes furthest. The initial pace is slow, but it ramps up the longer the challenge lasts. The last five minutes are ****. Meanwhile the challenger’s voice is encouraging, not critical when people start to flag, urging by name the competitors. He’s the only voice you hear, but the screen has a depiction of where everybody is. Not that you pay much attention to that. You’re too concentrated on keeping the pace and keeping your form. You can feel the sweat rolling off you. You can feel your muscles straining to keep pace. Even your audience are forgotten for those last five minutes.

And then he’s telling everyone to wind down. As you do so the challenger starts his overview. There’s never any criticism of those who fell behind, just congratulations on how well everybody did. When you hear your name come for special congratulations you’re surprised. You have to look at the screen to see that you came fourteenth out of the thirty-three, your best finish ever. When you started, a couple of months ago, you were always near the back. Now you’re in the top half. Though how much further you can rise is questionable. You’re pretty certain those at the front are Olympians. They’re consistently good every week and you recognise a couple of names.

One of the girls turns off the feed from your machine before the girls gather round to congratulate you. It’s only then you realise how sodden your t-shirt is. You really put a lot of effort in. Anna is there to pass you a bottle of water. It goes down well. But you have to pour some over your head to help you cool off.

“I need a shower,” you announce as you carefully stand up and stretch your aching muscles. You teeter for a moment and Nekane is there to support you. You look around at the all the girls. They are all expectant and you know why.

“Anna, Nekane and Belka, go get a change of clothing and your shower stuff and meet me in my dressing area.” Excitement from the three girls you mentioned. Disappointment from those you didn’t. Anna herds the two other girls to the stairs at the end of the extension.