Mayor Bill de Blasio is defending his day-to-day routine after facing criticism for being at a gym in Park Slope during a standoff where a firefighter was shot on Staten Island last week. NY1's Grace Rauh filed the following report.

Mayor Bill de Blasio was back at the gym Tuesday morning, a sign, perhaps, that he has no intention of changing his somewhat odd workout routine, in which he is regularly driven 11 miles to his old gym in Park Slope.

On Friday, the mayor took some heat after NY1 first reported that he was exercising at the Prospect Park YMCA for an hour and 40 minutes after a firefighter was shot and hospitalized on Staten Island.

"My job is to be on top of all the subject matter all the time. That requires seven days a week, but it also requires figuring out what's going to help me be as effective as I can be," de Blasio said. "And I think a lot of CEOs would say to you, if you don't get exercise, you're not going to be as effective as you can be."

The mayor's remarks come amid growing concern that City Hall is getting bogged down by its own missteps. Most recently, the adequecy of the administration's response to an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in the south Bronx has been called into question by some fellow Democrats.

But the mayor appeared to get backup from a high-profile supporter. A man who called into a WNYC radio show to defend de Blasio is believed to be the comedian Louis C.K.

"I don't want a mayor that spends all his time bragging and taking victory laps. You want a guy or a woman who just does good and then moves on to the next thing," the man said. "But the press today, they don't make any money on articles about, 'Hey, look, this job number's up.' They make money on articles about, 'Look at this little pointless gaffe that the mayor did.'"

The mayor has also become a frequent media critic, blaming some of his troubles on press coverage of his administration, but he was not willing to engage on that point on Tuesday.

"I really don't have anything to say on that right now," he said.

He said he wanted to focus on the substance of the day.