Make new friends, but keep the old . . .

... one is silver and the other's gold. (That one year of Girl Scouts was not a total waste.)

Since changing jobs 6 months ago, I've kind of lost my regular triathlon crew due to distance. With traffic, that 24 mile drive after work is not fun. So, I've had to find other ways to stay on a good swim/bike/run routine. The first is my new biking group from Meetup.com (pictured above). I've only been riding with them twice, but evening rides have been a great normal addition. They are usually ride just above 20 miles on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the routes have some good climbing. I'm also learning good routes around work, which is a fantastic area for biking. Score. YAY!

I'm still going to go on bike rides and doing open water swims with my former work-mates. A group of us ladies are training for Trans Tahoe, so I'm sure there will be some open water weekends in the near future. :)

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to lose an old friend too -  I'm going to have to change gyms. If any of you know me, you know that I LOVE MY GYM. But unfortunately it is now too far away (that traffic issue again). Gym location #1 used to be between work and home, but is now an extra 30 minute commute. Gym location #2 is about an extra hour. No bueno.

I've thought about not having a gym at all, but the pool is pretty important, and I do like to change things up now and again. I tried a really fancy-schmancy club about 3 miles from my house with 2 beautiful pools, TRX equipment, weights, cardio (ahem-aerobic equipment), spin classes, yoga classes, etc. $180 a month. That's right. $180. They ask you to pay an initiation fee too = $1,200. If you change your membership, it's extra, if you quit, you pay, if you take extra classes, you pay. I don't know, folks. I'm just not sure if I'm there yet. . . yet.

There are a couple JCCs that I'm going to check out. Guess who manages them - the same people that manage my beloved gym. So maybe that will be a better fit?

I'm kind of over 24-Hour, Golds, and the like. Too many people.

I hear that Larry Ellison has a personal trainer at the tiny work gym in our building at work. But that's not enough to get me over to use 3 dusty treadmills and have a bunch of executives stare at me while I sweat, and they are doing 3 push ups with their personal trainers. It would be cool to run next to Larry Ellison on a treadmill though - race him, like I don't know who he is.

Worth it to spend $180 a month? Anyone like the JCC in Palo Alto or Los Gatos?