I Must Be the Fittest

Because heck yes, I survived. I taught 8 classes since my last post, and I flew through them all. No fainting, no nerves, nothing. It was magical.

Unfortunately, this whole "Cyber Monday" crap doesn't apply to me,and today needs to be uber productive so I'm actually working today. Blech.

More later.

Duck Duck Turkey and Stuff

Saturday was fun. The first class had 22 participants, so I cut the time down to 20 seconds a piece for the Duck Duck Turkey portion. I think people had fun...it was interesting walking around the room so much anyway. The second class had only 8 people in it, so I just ran the profile and skipped the game.

It's funny the difference half an hour makes...the 8:30 AM group they call the "weekend warriors" and they just want to be punished. It felt a little Animal Houseish after a while:



It was almost like I couldn't make them work hard enough - especially this one character in the back that kept yelling "thank you" every time I told them to turn the resistance up. I couldn't tell if he was joking or not, so I kept telling them to add it on. Bizarre.

The 10 AM group was there for a workout, not a beating. We did the same profile, minus the game, and it was much less sadistic. They worked hard, but they also seemed to appreciate it when I encouraged them. The 8:30 group seemed to want a drill sergeant.

Weird.

Anyway, tonight I'm teaching FIT then strength, if anyone shows up. I won't lie, I have nothing planned yet. Not even a little. I should get on that I guess. The FIT group is usually fun and may be open to doing stuff that involves leaving their little workout bubble. Not sure if I have the time to get very creative at this point though...we'll see. Since the FIT class is supposed to be mostly cardio, I may adopt Queen Jillian's format and do 6 minute sets: 3 minutes cardio, 2 minutes strength, 1 minute abs. Actually, that sounds totally reasonable. Let's go with that.

I have a new fitness goal. I want to be so little I can do this to a client and not break their kneecaps. I wonder if she's wearing a harness. 

In other news, I got some really great news last week that I want to tell everyone, but I'm not really going public (read: I can tell the internet, but not most folks in my real life world) with it yet. I'm not pregnant. But it could have that level of financial ramification. We'll see.

Oh, and I painted the house this weekend. Again. Seriously, the novelty has worn off.

Before all the work:

With the new siding: 

And finally, a fresh coat of paint. Still need one more coat at least, but it's progress anyway.

Down Days

Wednesday night was fun...only one person showed up for spin, so we spent most of the time just talking while we worked out. It was relaxed and fun. I can handle one-on-one spin classes a lot better than one-on-one strength, that's for sure.

I haven't done a damn fitness-related thing (except volunteer to sub another class next week) since then. Go me.

In lieu of interesting things, here's the description of how we're playing Duck Duck Turkey (because it's almost Thanksgiving) this weekend:

Basically, the whole class gets on a moderate hill. One person volunteers to be the first "turkey" (the first person being "chased"), which only means that their time gets split up over the very first and the very last slot. I walk around and pick another "turkey" (the chaser) and as soon as I yell turkey the two of them take off and sprint it out while I go pick someone else. At the end of 30 seconds, I'll have picked a new turkey, and when I yell turkey again, the first turkey stops and the newly appointed one starts sprinting, to chase the previously picked one. So total, each person is basically sprinting for 60 straight seconds, except the first person who gets it split up over 2 sessions. Sort of like this, if you had 8 people in class:


Chased Chaser
1           2
2           3
3           4
4           5
5           6
6           7
7           8
8           1


In the middle I could yell "gobble" and everyone would have to sprint for 30 seconds (then recover for 30 before starting up where we left off), and for the already chased folks, I'd have them add resistance every 30-60 seconds to keep interest up.


It sounds more complicated than it seems in my head.

Social Networking

In order to stop harassing my family and friends on facebook with my posts, I created a facebook page just for Pedal Faster. Yay! So go feed my ego like the page for updates that are too silly to put on the blog and too long for twitter (which I'm also on...I'm so with it).

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pedalfastergo (also, there's a Like button off to the right side there)
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/pedalfastergo

OK back to work

In Which a Series of Unfortunate Decisions Leads to Near Disaster

For the first time ever, last night I very nearly couldn't finish teaching a class. Not in an "oh I haven't worked out and by butt hurts too much" kind of way but in an "all blood just drained from my face and I'm about to eat my Reebok step involuntarily" kind of way.

Let me explain.

Monday night, we got back from a (great) trip home to Texas to see my parents. We had a 20 minute layover and got in 5 minutes late, so dinner was cheese straws and airplane peanuts. On the way home, we went to Taco Bell, which is simply never a good idea. I got the nachos, which, again, is never a good idea.

When it tastes like vomit on the way in, you know you're making a poor decision.

Went to bed, no big.
Work yesterday was the usual onslaught of emails and catchup meetings, in addition to more of the upper-management-induced panic that's going to color the rest of my year. By the time I left, I was strung out and jittery from stress alone. Lunch was mediocre (a too-salty wrap that I only managed to get half of down before chucking the rest of it...kids in China wouldn't have eaten it either) and around 4 I decided I probably needed at least a *few* token calories in my system, so I went down and grabbed what was there at the cafe...naturally, that was a healthy apple whoopie pie.

Glorious

After another couple of meetings, I finally left for the gym, having downed only about 20 oz of water for the day. On the way into the gym, one of the regulars, who I'd called out (in a manner I thought was in good fun) 2 weeks ago for talking too much in class, caught up to me and gave me an earful about why it was that she and some others were hyper sensitive to being called out for talking in class. So that's a great way to start teaching a regular class.

So by the time I even walked into the room, I was completely fried. Add to that the facts that a) I still haven't really found my style with this kind of class, so I still feel like a total fraud, and b) I'm taking over for Leanne, who has somehow become her own variant of Greek goddess in my mind, and suddenly we're doing shoulder shapers and my heart rate just skyrocketed and I had to step to the sound closet to pretend I was futzing with the controls and not trying to keep the floor below me, the ceiling above me, and my heart from complete mutiny.

Not a good night.

But I survived, and I'm only mildly embarrassed about it.

Mildly.

In other news, I'm teaching spin tonight, then twice on Saturday morning. Next week I'm teaching strength Monday (if anyone shows up, HAH!) and Tuesday, FIT then spin Wednesday, spin Friday, then spin again on Sunday. I'm going to feel absolutely justified in gorging myself on Thursday.

And because my mom reads this blog (hi mom!) I won't post it, but go Google "thanksgiving overload" (without the quotes) and check out the bottom of the second page. Google, you're a winner.

Oy

That's really all there is to say right now. Just got in from a great weekend in TX with my parents and grandparents (grandmom even went to spin!) and now back to a completely slammed life. Work is a hot mess and I'm teaching on 8 of the next 12 days. 10 total classes, maybe 11. So there's that. I also need to put in work on Christmas gifts, write a term paper, take a midterm, write up another lab report, take a quiz, do 2 chapters' worth of homework and discussions, and sleep.

In other news, I think I figured out how to play Duck Duck Goose in spin class. Gonna be giving that a whirl this weekend to practice teaching off bike.

I'll be back in action sometime this week, I promise. Maybe.

Before/After

Just a quick post.

I just got a phone call from the gym, and I'm picking up the Tuesday night Strength Training class at 5:30. So that rocks. That's Leanne's class, as you may recall, so it's already got a decent following. Now I just have to maintain it.

So this is going to be me by like, February. Before/after.

Sadder, but hotter. Definitely hotter. I think the endorphins will take care of the sadder. Especially without some stupid chick to make me sad. I don't even know why this was what I thought of when I found out I'm picking up the class. Don't hate.

Also, it turns out the most common "during" picture is about pregnancy. Not cool, internets. Not cool.

Hello from Boston Balance!

And that exclamation point is as perky as I get right now. I'm waiting for the first class to start and I'm in zombie mode. Should've signed up for the spin class instead of body bar...spin is a way easier class to warm up in - no one can tell if you're phoning it in.

I'm just grumpy. I didn't get coffee on my way in and the coffee here is like $8 for a little thimble full. Lame. I tried to capture this moment, but I'm such a hot mess right now I won't even take the pic, let alone post it on the interwebs. So instead, here's a picture of my cat.



Enjoy. I'll check in later.

Walking Doesn't Do Anything for Your Butt

I was going somewhere with that title, but then I got distracted with my day job, and now I don't know what I wanted to say.

I'm still building the playlist for tonight, but the profile is an old one...power hills, you may remember it. Nothing exciting.

According to Google, Johnny Depp says kissing Angelina Jolie was "nothing exciting". So there's that. 

Last night was fun. I had a few newbies in class (Leanne's class), and they definitely weren't big fans of some of the moves. I won't lie, I wasn't either...I was TIRED last night, and at one point found myself contemplating having them run up and down the stairs so I could move the clock forward 20 minutes. But I powered through and I think overall it was a fun class. The new kids said so, so it must be true.

Shameful secret time:

I kind of love the new Nickelback song. The words are cute in that "yay humanity" way, but I really just like the rough edge of his voice combined with the guitar on the chorus. It makes me miss something, but I can't really figure out what it is.

I also now own the entire line of Jillian Michaels DVDs. Don't judge. I don't actually work out to them, I just use them for inspiration. My classes thank me with their grunts and expletives.

In other news, Boston Balance is this weekend and I'm super pumped. It's basically a fitness conference for Mad Dogg Athletics, and it's a chance to get the crap beaten out of me by people who know what they're doing. Here's what I'm doing:

BODYART STRENGTH
Saturday, November 05, 2011 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM (Eastern Time)

GROUP EX OR GROUP INJURY
Saturday, November 05, 2011 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM (Eastern Time)

SPINNING MIGHT AS WELL WIN
Saturday, November 05, 2011 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM (Eastern Time)

SPINNING THE LT FACTOR
Saturday, November 05, 2011 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM (Eastern Time)

SPINNING MASTER THE RIDE
Saturday, November 05, 2011 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM (Eastern Time)

That's basically 7.5 hours of working out, give or take a bit. Suffice it to say, I'm bringing a jar of peanut butter and an IV line. After tonight's class, I'm going to sit on my butt and eat bon bons in preparation. I'm also teaching Sunday morning, so I really don't feel bad about the bon bons.

And finally, this is why I'll be starting that marathon training just as soon as I'm done taking classes. According to that article, our bodies are evolutionarily built to run long distances...not to outrun prey but to to run them down. So it's basically in my DNA to run far and long, so I need to stop bitching about how much it sucks and just do it already.

Just as soon as I have 2+ hours a day extra to kill at the gym/outside. That's gonna happen.

Oh, and we got our power back last night. All's right with the world again.

Halloween, Not Christmas

I couldn't decide which costume to rock last night, so I just did both. For the first class (Deb's), I was a fitness fairy.

I took these after class in the only part of the locker room not likely to have nekkid people. Still not technically legal, but it was in the name of science. Really.

Fitness fairy squats are hardcore.

For my class, I whipped out this GIR costume I found at Hot Topic for $15. It itched, but I thought it was funny.

Doing the pigeon toed thing because it's cuter...right?

There's a tail on the back there.

Proof that I worked out in this mess - check out those sweat marks!

GIR squats are also hardcore.

This is what home looks like right now. Still no power (going on 60 hours as of noon today), but we're still having fun with it for the most part.

Our gourmet wood stove stew from Sunday night. Last night I heated up a can of soup. Not the same, but it got the job done just fine.

We also have a kerosene heater which we've been using to "preheat" the bedroom before bed. It's like the warmest little caged R2D2 ever, but it does smell funny. To combat that, I put a "salted caramel" flavor candle in there last night. I thought it smelled delicious. Nick woke up nauseous. Oops.

Between the wood stove and the kerosene heater, this is what our thermostat looks like. Yeah, not lacking for heating options here...just not efficient ones. Unfortunately, this is probably the warmest I'm going to be until July. Ugh.

Also, the problem with proactively trying to get laundry done before the storm hits is that once the lights start flickering, you forget about the stuff in the washer and then realize it 2 days later. So the guest bed is now our drying rack. It's convenient - this way we can see our options all laid out in the darkest part of the house.

What's the longest you've been without power? This is definitely the longest for me.