1. Is that normal?
2. My plan is to go 3-4 times a week and increase difficulty and length each visit - so that in a couple weeks time I am doing 40km rides every day... or maybe even longer. Is this a good idea, if I want to increase my body's endurance and general fitness?
3. This gym also seems to have weird curved treadmills, rowing machines, and stair climbing machines. Would the stair climbing one be good if I want to get ready for hiking? What's my best option?
4. If I'm walking behind a girl in very tight clothing and I don't want to seem like a creep, but we're going in the exact same direction, and there's nobody else walking nearby, and there's no way to pass her, what the hell do I do? Do I need to turn around and forget going in that direction? If your answer is no, consider that a part of the route takes us up stairs. What now? Is this okay? If it's accepted, then great, I'll keep my distance and try not to stare.. but it seems awfully creepy - a lot of those girls don't really wear much of anything.
5. I told both bikes that I'm 22 years old (not even close). I figured it would make things more challenging - is this a bad idea? I don't want my standards to be of people who are my age. Those people are usually not really in shape. Young people seem to be where it's at and that's where I want to be.
1. Never heard of it. Make some doctor friends, there are probably some at the gym.
2. Eh, it's fine, but sounds boring. I'd probably try for more intensity and less distance to save on time. Or get some podcasts to listen to while you bike.
3. I dunno that it makes a whole lot of difference. I've never found hikes particularly taxing muscle-wise. If there's a lot of elevation gain it can be tiring, but breaks and/or slowing down make it fine. Chafing and sun exposure have been my biggest challenges.
4. I mostly ignore everyone at the gym and listen to my podcasts. If you want to stare at girls, you need to bounce reflections off at least a couple mirrors to appear non-obvious.
5. I'm fairly lazy when it comes to precise measurements, particularly when the bike probably isn't good at it and doesn't have particularly good programs put in anyway. Just go by what feels challenging, and remember what settings you used the previous time. Note them down on your phone/podcast device/notebook if you can't remember.
I have some problems with my knees, not big ones mind you.. they only flare up if I'm hiking large distances over a couple days and I'm not being careful and am overextering myself.. so I'd prefer not to run too much. Weights I will probably do some of, but I think I have plenty of strength in both my upper and lower body, so I don't really need to focus on that. My main focus is going to be conditioning, fitness, and cardio. I think. I am considering incorporating swimming into the routine too - maybe once a week? The pool at the gym looks amazing.
I wouldn't avoid running because of knees, studies show that running correlates with healthy knees. I'm much more familiar with ankle issues and related treatment than knees, but I'd look at related balance exercises and exercises that target stabilizer muscles to the knee.
Lifting shouldn't be thought of as being in opposition to cardio - crossfit-like (I'm not a big fan of crossfit, for various reasons, but it's popular enough to have lots of source) routines work cardio pretty much as well as any dedicated cardio workout. You can get a lazy version with pretty much any lifts by just replacing all your rest periods between sets with burpees.
Swimming's awesome. I can't do it, but highly recommended exercise.
Well... crap, I dunno then. You two should just move to Missouri where weirdness like that isn't done.
