Come on Irene

Just a quicky post with some fun pics. I stayed in all weekend except for one little field trip:



Before


Halfway


During


After


Better pic

I'm now a redhead, w00t! I think when I go get it touched up in october I'll probably go a little lighter/redder, but as a first step I love this. The cut is wonderful too...I can't pull it back even a little so I'm forced to actually do something with it, which is good.

Do you use hairproducts? Wanna teach me how?

The last time I dyed my hair was in college, and it was purple. On purpose.

Oh Hey

Looks like it's been a week since I blogged here.  My bad.

Not a lot going on in my world that's interesting to the fitness folk. Last night's spin class was meh. I left my profile page at home and was running late anyway, and the vibe was just off. Mic kept squealing and I couldn't think of a single funny thing to say, so I just stuck to instructions. Boring.

It's raining here and it looks like we're getting a hurricane on Sunday, so I'm in one of those "I just want to stay inside in my jammies" moods. Nyeh.

Nail Biter

Google Images continues its magic streak. This came from "tell me shake".  I was looking for something more like this:

Anyway. 


So the grade became visible at midnight. I got an 87.5 at first, then saw that one of the questions hadn't given me the credit I should have gotten, so I ended up with an 89.1. I needed an 89.667 to guarantee an A. 

I'm 0.567 points shy of an A at this point. 

But then the professor announced something about getting ONE extra credit point for turning in assignments on time? So...I might be 0.443 above an A? I emailed the prof about it, and she said I'd know by the end of the day what my unofficial grade is. 

I'm dying here. I know it's only an A- if I don't get that extra point, but dammit...I took 6 classes in the last 12 weeks, worked full time, put in over 80 hours of PT observation, and got A's in 5 classes. An A- isn't the end of the world, but it just looks so much more impressive if I get straight A's. 


UPDATE: Long story short, after some minor drama about being 0.01 points shy of an A, I politely pointed out a couple of rounding errors and she gave me the A. :-)

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In other news, I have to teach spin again tonight at 6:45 and I'm thinking  about just going early and taking the strength class before it at 5:45. I realized last night how much I miss going right from work and just working my butt off until I'm too tired to move. 


I also realized last night that I'm doing ok. Bear with me on here, we're going down the rabbit hole a little. 


I know everyone has a fear of public speaking to some degree, and that's not something from which I am exempt. However, my fear of public stupidity FAR outweighs the general fear of talking to a group of people. The major source of anxiety for me when getting up in front of a group and doing something I haven't done before is fear of fraud - that everyone in the audience will suddenly realize I don't know what the heck I'm doing and either laugh or (worse) drop and shake their heads and leave, never to trust me or my judgement again. 


Yes, seriously. 

The funny thing is, I screw up in class all the time. I flub wording and mix up exercises and forget stuff completely, and in the end...no one walks out. No one laughs unless I make it funny, and there's yet to be a class that I didn't get some kind of thanks at the end. It turns out, I'm actually pretty good at this. I still don't know 100% what I'm doing, but I'm having fun and I'm becoming comfortable in my own skin a little more each day, and that rocks. 


And on that note, Rose, this one's for you: 

Between workouts, in the bathroom, sweaty and happy. Enjoy. :-D 

That was Awesome

And I am tired.

There were only 3 people in my FIT class tonight, which helped ease the nerves a bit. No pressure. Except that they really wanted kickboxing, which I didn't give them. Sorry guys. We got through 4 of the 5 circuits, and did not end up doing the alligator move. I think I'll save that gem for my first "real" class. One of the women asked if I'd be teaching regularly, and if this was going to be the style I'd be teaching. Not sure if that means she liked it or not, but there ya go. I also made the Eastern European gentleman, who seems to have no end of strength, grunt a few times. I count that as a win. I think he may have come over because there was no pilates tonight.

Anyway, more introspection on life, love, and the pursuit of group exercise tomorrow.

For now, I'm beat. I won't know the results of that last exam until tomorrow...all I need is an 89.7 to get an A, and I'm just not sure...her exams are brutal, to the last drop. But it's over now, and next semester promises to be easier...I hope.

Anyway, goodnight!

Spin Playlist 8/16/2011

Tonight's spin playlist: 


Daylight - Matt & Kim
Zak and Sara - Ben Folds
Open Road Song - Eve 6
This Is How A Heart Breaks - Rob Thomas
Shake Senora - Pitbull Ft. T-Pain
Its A Long Way To The Top - ACDC
Maneater - Nelly Furtado
Don't Stop Believin' - Journey
Mercy - Duffy
Hallelujah - Paramore
You're Gonna Gonna Go Far Kid - The Offspring
Starry Eyed (Minnesota Remix) -  Ellie Goulding
Spare songs: 
Bullet With Butterfly Wings - The Smashing Pumpkins
Be My Lover - La Bouche
Sail - Awolnation
Bye Bye Bye - 'N Sync
That's What You Get - Paramore

UPDATE: Be My Lover definitely got some air time tonight. It was a fun class. 

Bear With Me

I'm going to draft this throughout the day, in hopes of having a reasonably doable workout by the end of the day. The formula I decided on for tonight's FIT class is this:

Warmup


Upper body (isolate upper body)
Lower body (isolate lower body)
Combo (upper and lower moves together)
Cardio (spike heart rate)
Balance (bring heart rate back down - hold positions for 30-60 seconds)


Repeat each circuit twice (once per side, most likely)
Do 3-5 circuits, depending on how quickly we go through them. I'm hoping for about 10 minutes total per circuit (run through twice) so this should be about right.
Abs for the last 5-10 minutes.


Cool down

Bam, class dismissed.

Oh wait, I need actual exercises, huh? Crap.

Note: whoo doggy, Google is on fire today. There were some gems in the results of seemingly innocent searches. Yikes. 

---

Circuit 1: 


Upper body: Forearm curls

Ummm...Google? That's not a forearm curl. Nice try. Sorry Mom. 

Lower body: Single leg squat dynamic
Combo: Flex when up, extend when down
Cardio: High knees
Balance: Single leg squat static - come down into a single-leg squat about half way and hold.

I hadn't even thought of this one...maybe I'll see if we have enough unbalance things to make this happen.

---

Circuit 2: 

Upper body: Pushups
Lower body: Single leg lifts (in plank position, lift one leg and hold for 5 count. Lower but not all the way to the floor. Repeat.)
Combo: Single leg pushups (keeping one leg lifted, keep hips extended and perform 5 pushups. Rest and repeat. Don't hurt me.)
Cardio: Spiderman obliques (in plank position, bring one leg up, swinging out to the side, to bring knee to elbow. alternate legs, doing as many as possible in 60 seconds.)

Balance: Awkward Airplane (Get on all 4s and lift opposing arm and leg to parallel with the floor, then move arm and leg as far out to sides as possible - I can't quite make 90* without cramping my butt muscle, but that's the goal.)

Umm not quite.

---

Circuit 3: 


Upper body: bicep curls
Lower body: forward lunges (one side per circuit - stable foot is the one that stays static)

Combo: curl while going into lunge
Cardio: keeping stable foot in the same place, lunge forward, side, back, then squat. repeat.
Balance: Warrior III on stable foot

Switch to other foot for second time through circuit.

---

Circuit 4: 

Upper body: Shoulder shapers (alternate one arm forward, one arm side, raising to parallel to floor)

Leg down lady, you're making this harder than it has to be. 

Lower body: Walking lunges
Combo: Alternate arms to maintain balance while walking lunging
Cardio: Alligator crawl (on hands and feet, get as low to the ground as possible and crawl as quickly as possible across the room - accent on staying low to the ground, this is not a bear crawl!)

Yeah, like that. 

Balance: Tree pose (stand on one leg and put the other foot as high up on that leg as you can...like a tree?)

---

Circuit 5: 

Upper body: Tricep extensions

Lower body: Squats. Just squats
Combo: Raise arms as you come out of squat

Cardio: Jumping jacks
Balance: The things I saw at PT that one (several) time. Put a dumbbell on its end on the floor to the outside of the stable foot, stand on one foot, and twist while you squat to touch the top of the dumbbell. Add challenge by holding a dumbbell as well. Make sure you keep your back straight, toes behind your knees, and core engaged. If you can't reach all the way down/to the side, do the best you can but do NOT go to the point of pain.

If it looks like we're only going to get through 4 circuits, I'll move this balance move to circuit 4 instead of the tree one.

---

Abs: 

Pilates 100

Russian twists: in a seated position, grab a weight of some sort and lean back and twist from side to side. Pick your feet up off the ground for added challenge. We'll go through this at 2 different lean angles: low and hernia.

Alternating triangles...do this:

using your obliques to pull you back up into standing. Repeat on each side 5 times, making sure movement is slow and controlled.

---

That should about do it. I'll print this out in very large type so my workout-stupid brain can see it from a distance, and modify as needed if it turns out I'm either a wimp or a slave driver. I want my classes to be tough but not stupid hard...there will be breaks between circuits, and I won't be going through them at a breakneck pace (I hope), so hopefully it'll be good. I figure I'll keep the favorite moves in rotation so people will see improvements week to week as well.

Any moves I missed that you love doing?
The playlist isn't special, just a Power Music one that's continuous 128 bpm.

Never Say No

You know what? I tried really hard to stomach looking for a Justin Bieber picture to photoshop and put up here, but I literally couldn't fight the rage long enough to post it.

My mentor, who usually teaches Tuesday nights, just asked if I could sub for her tomorrow. It's at 5:30, which is not 6:30 (when I'm teaching FIT), which means I had nothing better to do, which means I said yes. Duh.

So tomorrow at about 7:43 PM I'll be pulling one of these:

But you know what? That'll mean that Tuesday nights are back in action. I miss my Tuesday night "go hard or go home" workouts. In another month, they'll include Biggest Loser treadmill time and by Christmas I'll be a rockstar. Or something.

What's your favorite day of the week for workouts? What are your long workout days?

Any suggestions for new music? I'm probably going to be rocking the Grand Canyon profile again (sorry Fred) but I need new music. I'm also thinking about making the FIT class a simulation of the trip, just to milk this trip for all it's worth. Don't judge, I'm sucking creative fumes these days with all the essays and such I've written lately.

On that note, A&P II is done tomorrow! I'm thinking I'm going to take my exam first thing in the morning so I won't have to worry about it tomorrow night. Then I'll have 2 blessed weeks of academic freedom until fall semester starts. That's going to be MUCH easier though. I'm hoping my workout routine will find its place in my life again and I'll be able to keep it up much more during the next few months.

Tonight I need to finish the last 30 pages of reading, come up with a FIT routine, come up with a spin playlist, and avoid the temptation to sew the latest quilting project:

Laugh if you want, but quilting makes me money...therapy costs money. It's financially responsible. Really.

UPDATE: 
Also teaching FIT on the 29th. Hopefully I can work out some of the kinks before I start my own class in a month.

Quick Monday Giggle

Dunno what it's doing in the rest of the world, but on the east coast it's raining. And 65. Thanks a lot, August. This is special.

I was flipping through stations last night and stumbled across this gem.
God bless the latino community for reminding me that a ghetto booty isn't the end of the world. :-D

Vegas

Vegas was a whirlwind. The first night I felt like a toddler who hadn't napped in like 4 days.

This much stimulation literally brought me to tears at one point. I called my mom and told her I needed a hug. She gave me a verbal hug, helped me unwind a bit, and sent me on my way. I have the best mom.

We went to the Mandalay Bay shark aquarium thingy. Not as many sharks as advertised, but still one of the better aquariums I've been to.

Lizard for Alishia.

These tunnels make me so nervous that the glass is going to break. I think someone should put one of those awful broken glass stickers on there somewhere, just to scare the bajeebus out of folks like me.

Jelly fish are my favorite. As long as they're in a tank.

There were these water massage things. I was tempted, but not enough to shell out $20 for 10 minutes of aqua groping.

Then there was the Statue of Liberty.

Made out of jelly beans.

At MGM they have lions that lay on glass above your head.

Lions.

What you can just barely see here, in addition to the bright lights and stripper pole, is on the front of the boat there's a mother and her 9 year old daughter just hitchin' a ride. Call me crazy, but I just don't think that's the kind of place I'd take my preteen. Just sayin.

We got all gussied up and went to dinner. That dress is one of those ridiculous "wear it 100 ways" dresses. I talked the girl down from $100 to $60 and I know damn well I still paid way too much for it, but whatever, it was Vegas. I can wrap it around me in exactly one flattering way, and I can't move at all or else it either becomes unflattering or VERY revealing. Or both. But the color is nice. 

Oops

you know when you offer to do someone a favor and you don't really mean it, you just want to make sure they're covered, but then they call your bluff? Well, that's what means I'm teaching FIT on Tuesday night at 6:30. First full-length class, and will likely be a circuit of some sort because I don't have time to come up with and rehearse a full routine before then. Come for the butt whooping, stay for the iced coffee they have downstairs. w00t.

Sweat Shopping

First of all, it's way too early for this: 

 But that hasn't stopped me from having one every night for the last week. Yum.

 Second, in answer to your question, Rose, I have no problem shopping while I'm sweaty. In fact, you may notice that I'm in the condiments aisle instead of the produce aisle...that's because half my spin class showed up to shop after class as well, and I didn't want them to think I was a crazy person for taking nasty pictures of myself in the grocery store. At least not yet.

Also, I forgot to add this picture to the vacation pics. This is the meal Nick and I had when we got out of the canyon. Heartburn has never been so wonderful.

Zion

Thursday morning we spent doinking around the South Rim, waiting for the shuttle to take us back to the North Rim. 

Pretty great scenery abounded.

Happy, freshly showered couple.

Then, the apocalypse. The southwest has some serious storms, y'all. You don't want to mess with them.

Waiting for the shuttle.

Got back to the car and found this. No one had ransacked it, we just really left it this messy. Classy.

The drive to Zion was pretty impressive.

We stopped for dinner at this barbecue place in Hurricane (pronounced "hurr-a-kin"), UT. They had...shirts.

And boots.

And fun stuff to take pictures of.

Including a giant chair. Devin and I were the only ones who liked fun in this place.

See how fun I am? Not at all tacky.

All class.

Pretty much sums the trip up. The black bra/white shirt was poor planning...those were the only clean clothes I had at that point.

I forced Nick into this one. Can't tell at all, right?

We had to drive through Zion at night to get to our campsite, so we couldn't see the road ahead, but this is what the GPS looked like. Yikes.

Heading into Subway canyon.

Again, pretty epic scenery.

Love this place.

Devin took this one...love it.

The hike down was no joke y'all. For being so popular, they did a really good job of keeping it intense and not dumbing it down like the GC.

This river was a lot more refreshing on the way back.

No one did this one gracefully.

Fortunately, I was both last to go and holding the camera. No proof. :-D

Happy couple on a rock!

There were some serious up climbs too.

Love love love this place.

Taking the easy way.

Lish the lizard.

The rock formations here were so cool. Nothing else like them on earth.

I'm not sure how this kind of thing happens...

...but it's amazing. Love it.

Finally, the "real" canyon!

It's called Subway because it looks like a subway tube...I guess. 

Regardless, it's wicked cool.

No big deal, just eating lunch in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

These pools are deep enough to require swimming, and are fed by a waterfall you'll see shortly.

About to take the plunge. It was cold.

*swoon*

It was safer to just start on your butt to get down this.

Starting the trek back.

He jumped off of this, but Alishia has the picture of it. It turned out well, but she's off the grid for a while. :-)

Looking back up.

Apparently while the boys waited for us, things got a little crazy.

Zion Gothic.

Next up: Vegas!