Let's Get Awkward

Tonight's another 90s night ride and man am I looking forward to busting out some good ol' middle school memory triggers.

The premusic is the dialogue mix of My Heart Will Go On, because I can. Seriously, if you can't recite the song in its entirety, dialogue included, you clearly did not grow up in the same '90s that I did. Man oh man. The rest of it is pretty self-explanatory.


My Heart Will Go On (Dialogue Mix) - James Horner
Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)  -  The Offspring
Be My Lover  -  La Bouche
C & C Music Factory - Gonna Make You Sweat
The Call  -  Backstreet Boys
Waiting For Tonight [1999]  -  Jennifer Lopez
Livin' La Vida Loca [1999]  -  Ricky Martin
Macarena [1996]  -  Los Del Rio
Baby One More Time  -  Britney Spears
Just A Girl  -  No Doubt
Genie In A Bottle  -  Christina Aguilera
Children  -  Robert Miles
Summer Girls  -  LFO
Save Tonight  -  Eagle-Eye Cherry

The profile is the same one I did on Sunday, but the 45 minute version. Basically it's just increasing intervals of the 5 core moves: seated flat, standing flat, jumps, seated climb, standing climb. Start out with 1 minute each, then 2, then 3. That's half an hour of working time right there, so I'll probably add another 5 minute hill on to the end just for kicks to finish it out strong. 

Is Abercrombie and Fitch still relevant? I feel like it was a bigger deal back in the day. 

In other news, I feel like I've hit a turning point with my back. It's not feeling any better, but it suddenly feels like it's going to get better soon...you know like that day of a cold that you're SUPER sick but you know the next day you'll be over it? Like that. Here's hoping.

We've also got a little interest in the house already (YAY!) so we're having a mini-showing on Sunday. If you wanna buy a house, lemme know. No fair coming just for the cookies. I subbed out my class on Saturday (the second to last Saturday class I'm teaching...sigh) to help take stuff to the dump. So fun. But hey, we've got to clean up the wrestling ring in the back yard so our potential buyers can have a proper bidding war, right? 

Dramatic spandex clothing required at closing. We'll provide spit buckets and ref. 

300

I wish I could say this were my 300th post - that would just be perfect. I wish I could even say it were my 200th post - that I could also make work. However, it's none of the above. This will be post number 183. Boring.

That's ok. Today's strength workout won't be.

Today we're channeling our inner Spartans and rockin' it 300 style.

Show me happy

Truth? I never watched the whole movie. I got the gist of it and then fell asleep. (Don't act so surprised...I fell asleep mid-HP7v2 as well. I can't lay down and watch movies, ever.)

But none of that changes today's workout. Today, we've got sets of 5 exercises, which we will do in reverse ladder style (10 to 1 instead of 1 to 10), repeating 5 reps, for a total of 300 reps per 5 workout set (or 60 reps per action). Make sense?

So for the first set, it'll look like this:
Dive Bombers x10
Pushups x10
Curls x10
Tricep Extensions x10
Shoulder raises x10
...

Dive Bombers x5
Pushups x5
Curls x5
Tricep Extensions x5
Shoulder raises x5

Dive Bombers x5
Pushups x5
Curls x5
Tricep Extensions x5
Shoulder raises x5
...

Dive Bombers x1
Pushups x1
Curls x1
Tricep Extensions x1
Shoulder raises x1


Each set of exercises has a theme: arm death, leg death, ab death, and power death. I have one each extra of leg death and power death in case we get through the first 4 super fast or something.

This is going to be fun. :-D

Google "cackle". I can't make this up. 

Mild Schitzophrenia

I'm putting together tomorrow morning's playlist, and frankly I'm just exhausted. It was a LONG day of yardwork and sorting through junk and whatnot. So this playlist is a frankenlist of Wednesday's class and a class from December. I'm not sure how to feel about it...that extra 15 minutes of class (Sunday AM is 60 minutes and Wednesday is 45) always throws me off. Combine that with the fact that Sunday AM is a favorite of some of the more hardcore "Weekend Warriors" (hi, Damian!), and I know I can't phone it in. Not like I do anyway, but I can't just use Wednesday's workout for a Sunday morning class is all.

Hmph.

So anyway, this is what I've got. I hope it sounds as acceptable tomorrow morning as it does right now...it's bed time.


All Along The Watchtower (From 'Crossroads, Part 2') - Original Soundtrack
Blackout  -  Breathe Carolina
Panic Switch  -  Silversun Pickups
Take It Off  -  Ke$ha
Papi (www.DenFlow.Net)  -  Jennifer Lopez
Everybody Speaks No Americano  -  Mashup-Germany
Danza Kuduro Feat Lucenzo  -  Don Omar
Sandstorm  -  Darude
container park - The Chemical Brothers
The Longest Day of My Life  -  Armin Van Buuren
The Game Has Changed - Daft Punk
Guilty of Being Innocent of Being Jack Sparrow (Remixed by DJ Earworm)  -  Hans Zimmer
Extra - Requiem For A Dream - Remix2
Where Is My Mind?  -  Yoav
Samson  -  Regina Spektor

Not Dead Yet

Yesterday I got a slew of emails about sub requests and the fact that the spring schedule won't start until May 21st...so what that means is now I have 14 more spin classes to teach and 11 more Strength/FIT/Abs classes to teach before I leave. So that rocks.

Of course I just realized that one of the class sets I volunteered to sub equates to 70 minutes of straight ab/core work. On Monday. So. That'll be interesting.

Anyway, check out the schedule to the right over there and come to class when you can!

In other news, I rescheduled my July Tough Mudder run because I don't think I'm going to be able to come "home" until after school's done in August. SO I'm running the June one in CO. Anyone wanna come be part of team Poop Socks?

Don't Google (images) Poop Socks. Just don't.

There are a couple more races in October that might be fun if I can road trip with someone (maybe someone in my class, who knows)...but at this point I've spent somewhere in the range of $300+ on these things already. I think next year I'm just going to get a season pass. Geesh.

Worth it.

Remix This

So last Thursday night my mom and I went to Alicia's spin class, which was awesome. I rarely get motivated to take other instructors' spin classes anymore, which is bad...I forget how much great music there is outside the usual top 40s stuff.

So, playing off her great ride last week and keeping with my "all or nothing" mentality, here's this week's playlist:


Braveheart Theme - Techno Remix
Send Me An Angel (remix) - DJ-Paul Oakenfold
Adagio for Strings  -  DJ Tiësto
Utah Saints Take on the Theme from Mortal Kombat  -  Utah Saints
The Longest Day of My Life  -  Armin Van Buuren
The Game Has Changed  -  Daft Punk
Guilty of Being Innocent of Being Jack Sparrow  -  (Remixed by DJ Earworm) Hans Zimmer
Extra - Requiem For A Dream - Remix2
Afrika Shox  -  Leftfield Feat. Afrika Bambaataa
Where Is My Mind?  -  Yoav

The first half is pretty light, maybe even funny if you know the reference. (Maybe Mortal Kombat will go over better than Street Fighter, who knows.) Once the Armin Van Buuren song (courtesy of Alicia) hits though, things get heavy and we're in full-on boss mode. The first half is going to be quick, possibly with some jumps, and focused on moving our feet faster. The second half is going to be a solid, heavy climbing battle. 

And even as I'm writing this, I'm losing confidence in the idea of it...I hate that. I personally would love to work out to this mix. BUT. It's not just my workout, and I can't just mumble vague instructions that sound nothing like what's in my head (seriously you guys, I'm totally eloquent in my head...honest.) SO I dunno. Who knows, with the 70s+ weather we're having again today, maybe it's a moot point anyway. 

Who knows. 

Hadouken

I didn't realize it, but that last post was actually made on my one year blogiversary for this blog. I feel like I should be doing a giveaway or something, but I have nothing to give away. Lemme think on that one. I think I'm nearing 200 posts too, so maybe I'll combine things and do something really special.

Or maybe I'll just forget again, who knows.

Anyway.

Last night I taught my sixth to last (is there a word for that?) strength class. I didn't realize until I got home that I have only 5 more strength classes to teach at Executive.

So that's sad. I was shocked that I had 10 people show up last night too...it was in the high 70s, which is seriously unusual for this time of year. Honestly, if I hadn't been teaching, I wouldn't have showed up. It meant a lot that everyone showed up for my class anyway though.

As I was planning the class, I had a little stroke of giggle and decided that we needed to Hadouken.

Because forward lunges are boring and if you put weights in your hands while you push your arms forward like that, it's harder.

Guess what?

Literally no one got the reference. Not one single person.

Seriously guys, am I the only one who lived through the 90s??

At least one of the women indulged me though and yelled "HADOUKEN" when we did the move anyway. I appreciated that. Sigh.

Other than that, it was the standard class with arms/legs/combo then abs. Blah blah blah.

Tonight is spin and this nice weather is making me want to drag the bikes out to the parking lot to spin out there. I could just turn up the stereo on my car and yell...that'd totally work, right?

Source

See, I'm not the only one.

I'll post the ride and playlist later.

Also, my back still hurts. Seriously. When did I turn 90??? I have discovered, though, that I hunch over a lot at work, which may be a source of aggravation to it. So today I'm focusing on sitting at my desk like this guy:

Who knew the gangsta lean could be good for healing your lower back? Go figure.

The bathroom is more or less done as well. Still no mirror, but that'll happen tomorrow night or Friday night I think. This weekend I get to learn the fine art of siding replacement. So excited, you guys. So excited.

Bathroom proof:

Like I said, no mirror. It's an exercise in marital trust - we have to validate that neither person is walking around with junk in their teeth or crazy eyebrows or anything. Thus far, I'm winning...hubs thinks it's a riot to let me walk around with my hair looking like a rooster.

Ok, if I really looked like this walking out the door, I wouldn't stop me either. Rawr.

Hiatus

I decided to sub out my two classes this week to give my back a little break. It hasn't been right since Mardi Gras, but it's getting there. I can almost put my socks on without wincing, so that's good.

Aside from that, not much is going on. I managed to make the bathroom look less creepy with one coat, then turned it into a classy truck stop restroom for infant boys in the second coat. (Translation: I added sand texture to the second coat and it looks...sketchy. The colors are "Bootie Blue" and something embarrassingly close to painter's tape blue. So. There's that.) I'll post pics when the whole mess is done. I'm hoping the fixtures, trim, and shelving will help it look less like the place cops get assigned when they piss off their superiors. Sigh.

Anyway, there's really not much else to say. Just wanted my adoring public to know I'm not dead or dying.

Running Ragged

So yesterday, as I was pulling one of these at work

Source

I was mentally bemoaning the fact that I've been dead tired all the time lately. I went through the checklist (enough caffeine? 3 bottles of Diet Coke on my desk say yes. Enough food? I won't spell it out, but suffice it to say my caloric intake is fine. Enough sleep? I've been hitting the sack around 11 and waking up at 8 (late) lately. Maybe too much sleep. Enough endorphins? Wait...) and realized that in the last 9 days, I've taught 9 classes. Oh. Oops. Could possibly be the reason I've been having low back issues too, huh? Shocker.

It's been cold and vacation season for all the mothers at our gym, so I've been raking in the over time and doing a little "there but for the grace of God go I" dance every time someone emails with another vomiting child-induced need for a sub. Unmotherhood has its advantages.

You'd think that'd mean that I'd be posting more, what with all the workouts and whatnot, but no...not that good. The last 2 weeks of strength I came up with a chart (Sharpie and pen FTW - I'll post pics later) that was basically an arm move, a leg move, then a combo move. It's a good, reliable format. Not terribly creative, but it works. It's easy to put together in an hour anyway.

For FIT on Monday, we did 2 of the Bodyrock.tv fitness tests - basically, 8 exercises done for 50 seconds with 10 seconds rest. Really it was 20 seconds rest since I made up little cards for everyone to record their numbers on each time. Then between sets we got a minute or two of recovery time. We did each test twice, then did some abs stuff and called it a day.

Action	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
Squat Jumps	43	44
Push Ups	32	29
Burpees	18	20
High Knees (count both legs)	102	110
Switch Lunges	43	26
Tuck Jumps	28	38
Tricep Dips	40	36
Situps	28	26

Action	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
Mountain Climbers	130	115
Squat Lunge Back & Side Lunge	15	21
Jumpovers	48	42
Pushups	22	15
Straight Arm Plyo-metric Jump	21	30
Monkey Pushup & Jump	15	15
V Glider Corner Slide & Push Up	4	5
High Knee Skip	98	98

Just for kicks, there's my numbers too. Notice the pushups never got better. Gawd I hate pushups. The monkey pushups are le suck as well. However, if I want to get over the Berlin Walls obstacle at Tough Mudder this year, I'm gonna need the upper body work. 

Last night after class I went rock climbing as well (seriously, why am I surprised that I'm so tired??) and practiced pulling up to the last move when my grip was slipping. That's always the hardest move for me...I'm pumped out and my hand is slipping, but I need that one tiny move (usually less than a foot of distance) to get to the end. It's 90% mental until I fall off, so I'm working on getting over that mental block and making the move over and over until I actually do fall. Until then, it's just unfounded fear of failure - the floor is padded and I'm only like 6 feet up, so there's no real risk of injury - just embarrassment or something. 

Anyway, that's what I'm working on - finding the line between mental and physical limits and making sure I'm pushing them both. I feel like I'm stronger than I have been in a long time. In fact, all the climbs I did last night were surprisingly smooth and graceful, which is usually a sign that I'm improving. I'm a fan of that. :-) 

For spin tonight, here's the playlist: 

Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion

The Black Keys  -  Howlin' For You

Breathe Carolina  -  Blackout

Lady Gaga  -  Americano

Ke$ha  -  Blow (Cirkut Remix)

Nelly Furtado  -  Maneater

David Guetta - Nicki Minaj  -  Turn Me On (Feat. Nicki Minaj)

LMFAO  -  Sexy & I Know It - (SR)

Kevin Rudolf Featuring Lil Wayne  -  Let It Rock

Rihanna  -  S&M (Come On)

Duck SaucevBarbara Streisand (Original Mix)

Good Charlotte  -  Dance Floor Anthem

Kelly Clarkson  -  What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger)

The Veronicas  -  Untouched

Fall Out Boy  -  Thnks Fr Th Mmrs

Florence + The Machine - Shake It Out

That last one has been on repeat for days now. I love it. Love. 

For the profile, it's a pyramid of standing/seated climb that doesn't end til I say it does. Basically just 1:30/1:30, 2/2, 2:30/2:30, 3/3, 3:30/3:30 then back down. I'll probably throw a 30 second push on the end of the 3/3 and a 60 second push on the end of the 3:30/3:30. Normally there'd be a 4/4 in there too, but that ends up being a 60 minute class. There are no breaks, so the hill ends up being 44 minutes for the 60 minute class and 36 minutes for the 45 minute class. It's intense but SO good. 

So that's about it. Lotsa work, but it's paying off. I hope. 

This is not the post you're looking for...

I had a couple posts drafted about the playlist I used on Friday and Sunday, and then I wandered off and did other stuff instead.

Yeah, I fixed that. With power tools. After a 1-hour butt-kicker of a spin class in the morning. Seriously, it was a 44 minute hill. Beautiful.

At some point I'll post something relevant again, but right this second isn't that point.