It’s been a couple of months since I shared with you the strangeness that runs through my head. And since it is the beginning of a new year, it seems like a good time to share the craziness that is happening now. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but as usual, I have thoughts about a lot of things. Such as . . . Continue reading
Tag Archive | spinning
Come With Me
He said in such a seductive voice. “Come with me.” And so we obediently went with him as he asked us to add a little more resistance to the wheel because we were ready to tackle the hill.
Come with me is what he said as he gestured with his hand for us to come out of the saddle and go to a standing climb from the seated climb we were previously in. Then he motioned with his hand to indicate where our hearts rate was and where he wanted us to take them. Those were the little things he did to make the ride so delicious. Continue reading
November 16, 2013
For most, 11/16/2013 is not a special date. However, for me, I’m going to remember it as the day that I made the first step in changing my life. That was the day that I got certified to be a SPIN instructor. How all of this came about was months in the making, but certification day seems the right time to say it all changed.
How did it all begin? Well, I work out a lot as you probably know if you’ve read any past posts on here. And as part of that, I am always trying to find new ways to challenge myself. One of the things I do to cross-train is take Spinning® classes as my primary thing other than running. They both rank pretty high on my list of things to do.
Anyway, 2013 was the year that I was going to finish the marathon and as preparation for that, I decided I needed to start training to run 26.2 early so I decided to train for a spring half marathon. That meant running in the terrible winter months of February and March. Continue reading
Exhilaration
Lately, I can honestly say that things are good for me. As I’ll explain in another post, I changed and that change has made me immensely happy. The past couple of weeks, I have had the opportunity to do some subbing of Spinning® classes at my gym. So far I have done two of them and each time I teach, it is just more and more awesome.
The first time I taught a Spinning® class, it was pretty frightening at first, but then it turned out quite well. To say I enjoy throwing myself to the wolves is probably an understatement. That first class was a very last-minute subbing thing and it was at the club that I’ve heard from many people has a “special” personality when it comes to the Spinning® classes.
My first hiccup in that class began when I couldn’t figure out how to get the fans on full speed. This annoyed one of the members quite dearly, but he managed to get them turned up. That was good since this particular studio tends to get hot really fast. Continue reading
A Good Break
This morning I ran four miles. I haven’t really run much since the marathon. In fact, before yesterday, I had probably run four times total and that was well over a month ago since the Chicago Marathon.
I thought the miles might have been awful, but they were really good. I was actually even faster than what I normally was running pre-break. This got me to thinking that perhaps I should take a break more often.
I do take rest days, but not actually a break and “walk away” from doing things I enjoy. I had also been on a bit of a lifting break since before the marathon. I wish my strength gains hadn’t disappeared, but I fear they did once I got back to regularly lifting. Or I should say while I still can mostly lift what I had been lifting, I actually get sore now. Continue reading
Master of Faking it
I know when I say this, people will not believe me. However you should know it is true. I am far from the most confident person in the world. In fact, I’d say I am rather (or extremely) insecure about a lot of (ok, most) things.
Every time I tell someone this, they always give me the side eye because they just cannot believe it to be true. I must be lying because in their opinion, when have I ever been insecure? Not to mention, sometimes they will ask me for advice on how to deal with something because give advice at times is what i do. I think there are maybe five people who actually believe me when I say this because they’ve seen it. But for the most part, no one believes me. And the reason no one believes me is because somehow I have made myself the master of faking it until I make it. Then again, I do go to great lengths to not burden others with my “issues” so I shouldn’t be surprised no one believes me about stuff like insecurities. Continue reading
Adjusting
I start training in earnest on Monday. I am planning on running about nine races this year and the first really big ones are in May – the Cellcom Green Bay Half Marathon and the Soldier Field 10-miler. I have a race before those and I’ve already done a couple this year so far. However, I’m really excited about those races. Both races will allow me to run at some amazing football fields. Additionally, I get to express my inner sports meatball and wear Packers attire for both races. At Lambeau it will be feel right. At Soldier Field, it will just annoy Bears fans and I’m all about poking them.
Anyway, last week I got my training schedule and it caused a mini panic for me. HOW was I going to fit in all the working out I do along with the added running that would need to happen so I can smash my previous best half marathon time. I knew I was going to need help, so I emailed my trainer with the schedule. She was thrilled to see there were planned rest days because right now, I’ve been working out for over 430 days without taking a true rest day. I just have easier days where I will just do yoga, but I always have to be doing something.
The group I am training with has two different programs for the half marathon training. One that involves taking one rest day a week and another that has a total of maybe five rest days through the entire process. Since the Green Bay Half will be my ninth half marathon, I figured I should probably do the advanced program. But then I had this fear of will that make sense if I choose to run / walk it? Why can’t I just run the entire time? Then I started to wonder if maybe, just maybe I could run this race in under 2:05 because that would mean I could do something else later in the year. Seriously, why not? Continue reading
Exercise is My Strength and Weakness
I work out a lot. Well, not so much a lot but it seems that way when you engage in the activity daily. If you have read any previous entries, you know I was and still am on a streak of consecutive days after my gym had a 30-day challenge last year. If you are wondering, they did it again this year and of course I completed it. I had to as the Chicago Marathon has gone up in price and the month of saved dues will go a long way toward paying for a spot in the 2013 edition of the marathon.
One “drawback” of my constant working out is that every once in a while, I fail to listen to what my body needs and instead focus on what my head wants. Last night, I had one of those experiences where I really should have done what I needed instead of just going with the flow and what my head was thinking. To back track a bit, my gym lately has been giving out guest passes to us members to get us to bring in friends to maybe join us. Even more interesting, my gym called me up one day earlier this month to give me two one-week passes to bring my friends to work out with me. All because the membership crew heard I had been at the gym nearly every day. Additional background: I have a cold. Nothing to really stop me from doing anything, but enough to make me need to s-l-o-w d-o-w-n. This cold is the result of sitting across from a woman at work who is disgusting in that she REFUSES to cover her mouth when sneezing / coughing. Continue reading
100 Days and Counting
The last day I didn’t work out? November 24, 2011. That happened to be Thanksgiving. The only reason I didn’t workout that day was because I had traveled to my hometown for the holiday. Thought, it is entirely possible I did something that day once I returned home from traveling. In an earlier post, I talked about how my gym had a 30-day challenge to combat the weight gain the Average American experiences between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I breezed through those 30 days no problem. And I haven’t stopped. Yet.
February 29, 2012 was day 100 for me of working out. Nike even had a running challenge that day, which I did as part of my workout that day. At this point, I just can’t seem to stop. Every time another milestone, such as 90 days approached, then I would add more days. I even thought, I should stop after 100, but I didn’t. I worked out the next couple of days. Continue reading
In My Head 