Scared spinless!



Source

 As promised, I put together a Halloween ride.  I know I'm a bit late with my timing, but without further ado, here is what I came up with.

Scared Spinless

Highway to Hell, AC/DC - 3:28
Let's warm up.

Phantom of the Opera Remix (unknown source) - 6:29
Let's hit that hill hard!  First hill, high energy.  Starting moderate/heavy, only getting heavy.  I haven't done it yet, but I might mix some jumps in there if the music dictates it.  Play around, but keep it hard!

Tales from the Crypt, Theme - 1:27
Recover

Superstitious, Stevie Wonder - 4:29
Let's find a moderate hill and then jump.  Six counts to start, maybe mixing it up at the end.

Beautiful Moster, Neyo - 4:11 and Screams (sound effects) - 0:34
Add some more resistance and stay in the saddle the whole time.  Let's really start to feel that hill as we progress.

Ghostbusters, Ray Parker Jr. - 4:00
Take it out of the saddle and let's mix up our movements.  Starting at 2 (jog), then 3, then back to the saddle, and keep repeating.

Adams Family, Theme - 1:24
Recover

Sympathy for the Devil, Rolling Stones - 6:19
Out of the saddle, let's climb.  Starting at a 6 or 7 out of 10 and then getting a bit heavier as the hill progresses.  Try to keep those legs at a nice pace.

Devil Went Down to Georgia, the Charlie Daniels Band - 3:36
Take some of that resistance off, but not all of it, and let's sprint.

Munsters, Theme - 2:54
Add some resistance and let's start that final hill.  Moderate and quick to start.

Thriller, Michael Jackson - 5:57
How could a Halloween ride not have this song?  Let's finish up our hill, playing around with resistance (always getting heavier) as well as positions.  Ending heavy and hard!

Monster, Lady Gaga - 4:10
Cool down.

Great work!  Have a happy and safe halloween!

raspberry squares

Lazy day here.  Super sore from boot camp last night and hating and loving it at the same time.  It's my lower back that's sore, which is an odd spot for soreness.  One on hand it feels good to use those muscles, on the other hand you realize just how much you use those lower back muscles for stability in every day activities.

In an attempt to be super productive, I made my contribution to the Halloween party tomorrow night tonight.  Since this was my go-to recipe for quite a while I figured I'd share.  It originally came from some fitness-related magazine, although I can't remember which.

Enjoy!

Raspberry Squares

5 tbs butter, cut in to small pieces
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup flaked sweetened coconut
1/2 cup raspberry fruit preserves

Preheat oven to 350.
Coat an 8 inch square baking pan with foil, making sure it overhangs on two sides.  (You will use this overhang later to remove the squares from the pan.)  Spray the foil with cooking spray.
In a food processor, combine butter, flour, oats, sugar, and vanilla.  Process until crumbly.
In a medium bowl, combine 1/2 cup crumb mixture with the coconut; set aside.
Press the remaining crumb mixture into bottom of pan.  In another bowl, which preserves until smooth.  Spread preserves over the crumb mixture in the pan (crust), stopping just short of the edges.
Sprinkle with coconut/crumb mixture.
Bake 25 minutes, or until golden brown.
Cool on wire rack.  Remove from pan with foil and cut into squares.

In case you were wondering, here are the nutritional facts.
Makes 16 servings, 128 calories, 1g protein, 20g carbs, 5g fat, 1g fiber

All Hallows eve eve eve

Halloween is coming!

Traditionally, I love Halloween!  I love pumpkins and costumes and all the candy and decorations in the stores.  Yet for some reason, this year I'm just not feeling it.  I will however, fake it.

I have a party to go to on Saturday night and the theme is prohibition (aka the 20s).  I'm going as a Gangster.  Just might post photos if you're lucky.

Sunday I plan on either not being home or pretending I'm not home. How horrible is that?  I just don't feel like dealing with trick-or-treat'ers this year.  It's cute to see the kiddies in their costumes but handing out candy to teenagers isn't so fun.  So I'm skipping it.  Bad Jessica, I know.

Just so you know I'm not a total grinch, I did buy a little devil costume and dum dum pops for my Saturday spin class.  Redeemed?

What are your plans?  Any good costumes?

Putting together a spin ride today (hopefully!) and will share asap.

Slacker!

Me silly, not you.

I can't even say I know where I've been.  My schedule has been a bit off, but it's on the mend.

You know that new phase, when you meet someone new, and since you want to see them, you're kind of willing to shake up your schedule a bit?  Well that's where I am now.  I did meet someone (through a mutual friend) and since it's new, it's exciting, which leaves me feeling nice (i.e. willing to uproot my routine).

For example, I normally take boxing at 7p on Tuesdays.  Last night I was told that was too late to have dinner together.  So what did I do?  I offered to go earlier and skip my class.  Seriously?

I actually explained this to the instructor and we had a nice chat about how it's funny how nice one can be at the beginning.  Nice and willing to make sacrifices.  Not to sound like a b*tch, but that's not my usual style.  I'm big on my routine.

So that aside, I said I'd share some good spin music, so here it is.  It all goes with a ride idea that came from pedal-on.  It's a tough, leg-busting hill, but the tunes I chose are good.  Check them out and feel free to use them for your workout.

Memories (clean album version) - David Guetta feat Kid Cudi (this song has been my fave for the past few weeks)
Funky Goes to Hollywood - DJ Earworm (great spin/cardio song)
Samba Trance - Hilight Tribe
Yeah Yeah Yeah - New Politics
Kashmir - Escala feat Slash (awesome instrumental cover!)
Krazy (promo only clean edit) - Pitbull feat Little John (love Pit!)
Clocks (dance remix) - Coldplay
Gone Daddy Gone - Gnarls Barkley
'Till I Collapse - D12/Eminem
Wavin' Flag (Coca-Cola Celebration Mix) - K'naan
Universal Mind Control (clean) - Common feat Pharrell

This playlist/ride uses a bunch of songs that people might not know, however the rhythms are good and it seems to be getting good reviews.

If you choose to use any of these songs (for yourself or for a class), let me know what you think.

Happy sweating!

the weekend in photos

Took full advantage of the beautiful (warm) fall weather that we had here on Saturday.

Then on Sunday I had homemade pizza that was seriously OFF THE HOOK!  (I did not make it.)  I was told it would be good, but I had no clue it would be this good.    Delish and a great way to end the weekend. :)



Sweet italian sausage, peppers, and onions



Cheese

The perfect fall weekend and I am so sad that it is over. :(

Top of the morning' to ya!

Where oh where did the weekend go?

I had a wonderfully pleasant weekend and am sad that it's over.  I have pictures to document but the memory card is at home and I am not.  I will post some later today.

This is my first week back to my full schedule of teaching.  While my cold is pretty much gone, it has left me with a few residual breathing issues, which is interesting since it was never actually a chest cold.  It's very frustrating to be leading a class and getting out of breath for no good reason.  Oh well, it will pass.

Hope you all had beautiful weekends.

Any halloween plans?  Costumes?

I put together a new spin ride on Friday night (thanks pedal-on.com!) and will share the music with you in the next day or so.  I used some songs I knew and others that were new to me, but overall though it was a great pairing.

Have a fab start to your Mondays and I'll catch ya later!

The weekend is in sight

Happy Thursday!

My first 8 Minute Dating event was last night and it was a SUCCESS!  Everyone had a great time and I got good follow up scores, so what more can I ask for?  I think I may have found my calling. ;)

Tuesday night I went to the Yankees playoff game.  I was with a big group of party-ers, which was awesomely fun.  The game started at 8 and ran long, so it was a long night with quite a few too many drinks. 

Late night + lots of drinks + not enough sleep = miserable spin class the next morning

Like that equation?  Kind of obvious though.

Thankfully my class was at 9:30, not 6a, but still, I was a mess.  I was dizzy and just overall slow moving.  I figured I'd sweat it all out on the bike.  Thing is, I guess I was so dehydrated that I barely even sweat.  It sucked, but I did power through and didn't let it affect the class (just the instructor).  Immediately after class I went home and took a nap.   Lesson learned.

Back to the grind today.  Haven't done boot-camp in weeks so hopefully won't die tonight.

I desperately need new spin rides and am looking for song recommendations.  Any suggestions?  Hit me up in the comments.