I really am here!

Wow, it's pretty much been a week since a post.  But I'm back.  I will apologize in advance for the fact that this post will probably be pretty random.

I'm back on the east coast and couldn't be happier.  Business travel (to this specific location) just doesn't do it for me.  Some highlights...

• Only in this town does a dinner at Ruby Tuesday's get me so excited!  In a town that normally puts french fries on their salads, a menu that offers mashed cauliflower and spaghetti squash is off the hook!
• One night I went for sushi with a coworker.  Fine.  They give you the full sushi menu where you mark off what you want.  Lots of offerings, nice.  They also give you a menu, OK.  I open the menu and the first two items I see are gnocchi and chicken parmesan.  WTF??  Yes, the menu was pretty much all Italian.  Thankfully the sushi was good, but I was a bit scared.
• On my last night I drove back towards the airport and stayed there.  Hello civilization!  There were tons of restaurants, granted most were chains, but it was still a vast improvement.  I went to Smokey Bones for my first time.  LOVED it.  Is it really good or had I just spent too much time in rural-ville?
• My flight yesterday was at 6a so I had to set my alarm for 4:30a.  Ugly, but do-able.  However, around 2:30a I started hearing weird noises at odd intervals.  Then my phone went off. I got up to check it and the noises started again, coupled with some moaning.  Yup, you guessed it.  Gross!  So on went the TV and out the door went my hope of a good nights sleep.

The early flight was because I had an appointment for a physical, which as you may know is booked way in advance.  I went for my blood work last week and when she took my blood, my right arm ran out of the blood towards the end and my hand started tingling.  I've had blood taken a billion times so this concerned me.

At my physical I mentioned this to the doc and was relieved to hear her say that it was due to the person taking the blood from me and her technique, not me.  Phew.  Overall the physical was good, I believe she said "perfect".  There's nothing like a great physical to let you know that everything is OK.  I wasn't expecting anything, but you just never know.

I do think it's important to go just to get everything checked out every year or so. I'm trying to impart this believe on Don Juan, especially since he has some risk factors in his family history.  Why do men not get it?

And now spinning...
I taught last night which was just what I needed after days away.  Decent turn out, still no energy but at least the bodies were there.  Mid-class someone starts pedalling backwards.  UGH.  I've pretty much had it with the fact that this happens so I called him out...on the mic.  I felt bad and said that I just didn't want him to get hurt.  I then followed up with that I know one instructor has you do this, but it is WRONG WRONG WRONG.  I really need to talk to management about this.  Hopefully the guy I called out doesn't hate me, but if he does, at least he won't hate me and be injured. :)

Halloween ride tomorrow, need to do some sprucing up tonight on it and will then post it.  I'm dressing up as another instructor, who no one likes.  He's one of those guys who dresses like he's about to ride the Tour de France and then doesn't even sit on the bike.  He's odd.  Hopefully I don't run in to him but if I do, I'm just a "cyclist".  Mean or no?  DJ thinks it's mean, I think it will be funny, and I will not name names.

OK, thanks for reading my ramblings.  Sorry I don't have any fun photos to show you.  I'll work on that.

Have a fabulous Friday and a fun weekend.  Be safe with all the Halloween festivities!!

I'm not missing

Sorry I've been bad with posting, somehow the days have gotten away from me.

I'm currently on the road for work but will try to get a post up in the next day or so.  Until then...

Smile for today

Each year I love to get the Halloween forwards with dogs in costumes.  I have yet to receive that this year so I found some fun pictures on the internet and figured I'd take a moment to share them.

Sometimes distractions are such a wonderful thing.

OK, that's enough.  I could seriously do this all day.  Have a good smile!!

Germ season

It's that time of year when everyone seems to be getting sick.  It's this time of year that often makes me want to walk around with a mask and rubber gloves on.

I'm not a germaphobe, not even close, but still...

In most spin classes, you're told to wipe down the bike after class.  That's all well and good for the next person, but if you're concerned for yourself, try wiping down the bike before class.  You don't know who touched those handlebars before you and while they should have wiped them down, they may not have.

I had to run to Staples today.  I walked up to the cashier who was hacking a lung up in to her right hand.  Gross.  No antibacterial, no tissue, nothing.  But I had no choice, she was the only cashier.  OK I thought, that's the hand she's holding the scanner gun with so it won't touch my stuff.  Half way through she started coughing again, this time using her left hand.  Really?  Did you not learn the "cough in to your arm" concept?

I meant to wash my hands the second I got back to my office but I forgot.  I'm just hoping that in that time I didn't do any damage.  It grosses me out just to think about though.

It's that time, so be careful!

Some food and some spin

Happy Tuesday!

My work computer has the "google" virus.  Does anyone else have this?  I guess there have been a few articles about it.  You do a google search and then when you click on the results you get taken to some spam-y website.  It's very frustrating.  Thankfully I can just avoid google and all is good.

I'm all over the place today but figured I'd share some random things today.

Around 5pm yesterday DJ decided to roast a parsnip that we had bought at the farmer's market last week.  Some woman there said they were DELICIOUS, so we gave it a go.

Not a fan

Yesterday I went to the cycling studio again.  This instructor is billed as former military and former DJ.  Interesting combo, right?  I was definitely excited to try his class.  The verdict?  It was OK.  Good.  Not amazing which is what I was expecting.  I thought his music would be remixed and fade from one song to another (which I love!), but it was just music.

Speaking of fading, do any of you have software that you use and would recommend for that purpose?  Please let me know if you do.

The class again went by soooo fast.  He did the strength part as the first song, so we got it out of the way early on.  I'm still mixed about lifting on the bike since I think that the angle of the body when sitting up straight in the saddle just isn't right for weights.  Anyone?

After class it was home to relax and have dinner.  DJ came up with this cabbage concoction.  It's pretty much just cabbage and some bacon with all the fat trimmed off.  It's pretty and tasty.

Pretty and tasty

This morning my breakfast was a masterpiece (if I don't say so myself).

You're probably thinking "but wait, I thought you were watching what you ate".  I am!  Those are healthy pancakes!  Big shout out to Julie at Peanut Butter fingers for her Banana Bread Protein Pancakes.

So good!  The recipe is on her page, but it's just old fashioned oats, cottage cheese, mashed banana, and an egg (I used egg beaters today).  Add some sliced bananas and sugar free syrup and that is a breakfast for a champion (or me!).

These are my newest obsession.  They keep me full longer than other breakfasts and are a good source of protein and whole grains.  I made them yesterday too which meant that I set my alarm extra early so that I'd have time to make pancakes before work.  Crazy, right?

I'm off to lunchtime TRX today, fun times!  Happy Tuesday!!

Got my head spinning

Good morning and happy Monday!

I'm definitely not ready for it to be Monday (yet again) but I'm going to fake it.  Come on caffeine, kick in!

How were your weekends?

Mine was nice.  It was low key but with enough going on that it didn't feel like a waste, or leave me feeling like a lazy bum.

It was a rather spin-centric weekend.

Saturday I taught my usual Saturday morning class.  I used the ride from Thursday night.  I had planned on cutting it down to 45 minutes but after much thought decided to keep it just under an hour.  My class is the last spin class, so there was no issue in running late.  It went well.

Sunday morning I went to the new spin studio in the next town over.  DJ and I had originally signed up for a 7:30a class on Saturday but then decided Friday night to cancel.  To make up for it, on Sunday we signed up for an 8:30 and a 9:30 class.

The studio was nice.  It's a small retail space with one spin room.  The spin room is tiered.  There are 3 levels and there were 30 bikes.  They were Schwinn's.  The room had adjustable lighting, two mounted rotating fans, and a nice sound system.

Apparently all classes there include an arms workout.  At the beginning of class you are instructed to grab a mini-body bar.  At some point during your spin ride, you take a break, sit up straight in the saddle and go through low weight, high rep exercises with the body bar.  The first class did this at the very end, the second class did this about 3/4 of the way through.

Both classes were good, but different.  The instructor of the first class was very much about proper form (which I liked). His music was varied (some good, some just OK).  The instructor for the second class was very high energy.  However her personal form was horrible and she did a few contraindicated moves.  But her music was good.

Each class runs 50 minutes and they flew!  There's no clock in the room and I didn't have a watch so I don't know how long we actually spun for.

I'm going back tonight for a class with an ex-military guy who is also a DJ.  So curious!

The last spin related thing this weekend happened at a bar.  I was out with two friends (a couple).  They told me that that morning they had taken a class at one of the clubs I teach at.  They then told me that the instructor had them PEDAL BACKWARDS FOR AN ENTIRE SONG, INCLUDING SPRINTS AND ISOLATIONS.  WHAT?!?!?!?!?! When she told me this it was like someone had stabbed me in the stomach.  I was furious.  However now I know why I've seen people pedalling backwards more at this gym than at any other.

What would you do?  I was thinking about talking to management.  But first I need to be sure that Keiser doesn't support this.  Anyone?

Now go have a great Monday!!

TGIF and a spin ride!

Happy Friday!

This has felt like the longest week ever!  Work wise I have a few things to take care of today but I need to get them done ASAP since I'm spent.  My motivation is gone for the week!

Here's a neat little spin related video
It's a commercial for something but it's in French so I have no clue what it's for.

After all my comments the other day about my Thursday night class, I was very pleased to have a great turn out and some decent energy.  The guy who teaches the class before me (happens to be a friend of mine) but he said "this place is dead, I only had 13 people, your class is going to be empty".  Is it bad that I got some satisfaction out of him being wrong?

I threw together a new spin ride, going in to class a bit unsure as to how it would fare.  It was very straightforward and I was worried that the riders would be bored.  Well, I can't speak exactly for the riders, but I loved it!  It was go-go-go for the entire hour.

I found this ride on pedal-on but like to think my execution made it a bit more "Jessica-style".

Without further ado....here it is...

Having just typed this up, I realize that it looks pretty confusing and complex.  It's not that bad, but it does require a timer or stopwatch of some sort.

It's essentially a pyramid or a ladder.  You do the same movements every time, but the length of each movement changes.  The first round is :30 seconds.  There are 6 "moves" so that comes out to 3 minutes.  The end of every segment has a :30 surge (pick up) which stays at :30 regardless of the segment time.

I tried to match the music to the duration as best as possible but sometimes it didn't work, therefore you have to adjust a bit.  If the song was longer than the segment I let them use the extra as a brief recovery before hitting the next hill.  In all cases I coached them that the first part of each segment (on the flat) could be used as a recovery if needed.

Resistance is added for each movement (except the surge).  I played around with the variations here and just how heavy the hill ended up being.

I'm teaching my 45 minute class on Saturday and am going to try to shorten it a bit. I will let you know the modifications that I make.

Enjoy and happy riding!