The 4:30 Club

Some of the 4:30 Club members, from left: Ron Wolter, Josie Alleva, Lori Dodge, Sue Wolter, Valerie LaPorte, Rob LaPorte. In back – Roger Jilk, Mai Nguyen, Scott Safe. Checking them in is Gary Lohmeyer, a.m. building supervisor. Other regulars include Lewis Taylor, Joseph Gallo, and Norm Westby.

Where was everyone? It was 4:25 and I was the only one at the door waiting for Gary to open up.

Suddenly, four or five cars turned down Broad St. and pulled into their regular parking spots. The 4:30 Club members had arrived at the Red Wing YMCA.

Members of this diehard group have been the first at the door for years. And, yes, that’s 4:30 a.m., folks. We are so consistent that if someone is missing we ask each other why they aren’t there. Some are there every weekday. Others follow a modified schedule such as my M-W-F schedule. I’m afraid I’d get burned out if I went every day. It must work – I’ve been doing this for 37 years. And I get up by 5 on days I don’t go to the Y.

We are not preparing for the Olympics. We just want to fight the laws of gravity enough to prevent rusting in place. And we are not to be confused with the 4:20 Club which meets at other locations for an entirely different reason. Google it. 

I started working out in 1981, just running a couple miles on the indoor track during the noon hour three days a week. When I started commuting to work in the Twin Cities, I quickly learned that working out when I returned to Red Wing late afternoon didn’t work for me. I was tired by then and the Y was often crowded. Working out when the Y opened was not an option since the it didn’t open until six but I got to know the morning cleaning crew who allowed me to park behind the Y and come in that door at 4:30. Eventually the Y started opening at 4:30 on weekdays.

During the summer I would run outside, down to Pottery Pond and back, adding in a loop through Bay Point Park. It’s amazing out there at that time of day. No one was around. It was my own world. More recently, I fell prey to the dreaded bad knee and had to give up running. I now do my entire workout with most of the others in the Wellness Center, a modern name for a room full of equipment designed to make you sweat.

4:30 Club members are pretty good about sharing the equipment. We are also so attuned to our routines that we get very confused when the equipment is moved around. Club members are not amused by this. We have a schedule to keep.

If there’s a snow emergency, the City of Red Wing plowing staff has been kind enough to clear the parking area in front of the Y first because we’re going to park there no matter what. We are on a health maintenance mission.

We aren’t the only ones up at that hour. Traffic is light but increasing. I’m sure there are lots of members of 24/7 fitness centers that work out early in the morning but, since they are open all the time, members probably don’t gather at the door like we do. Unless it’s below zero with gale force winds, we have a good time spreading gossip.

So, why do we do this? Many of us are retired so could work out at later times of the day. But probably all Club members started coming in early years ago and are now hooked on it. If I miss a day, I feel guilty – kind of like missing church. You could go in later, but the service is over and your absence was noted.

The key benefit to me getting up early is that by 6:30 I have finished my workout, showered and shaved, had breakfast, and am drinking my coffee while getting a double dose of news from TV and the morning paper. I’ve also changed clothes three times. When I was still working, I’d have to do all of this faster in order to get to work by seven. My poor kids were dropped off at daycare by six when I worked in Eagan.

The flip side of this is Club members have to get to bed earlier than most. For me, that’s OK. I can record the few shows I’m interested in and, as my mother often said, nothing good happens after 7 p.m.

Now, however, my wife Catherine has retired, and I’m considering going to the Y later in the morning so the two of us can go together. All these years, I’d get home from the Y and then get her up to go. It was her turn. That made sense when the kids were small. Now, it’s just us trying to compromise and do more things together. I won’t win trying to convince her to get up earlier.

If I do start going in later I’m sure I’ll be awake at 4:30 thinking I could be entering the Y with the Club and getting my day going, one step ahead of everyone else.