The 2 hour ride that wasn't and Spin Race Day....

Sunday~ Ready to ride!! Oops, the little valve on my tire/tube thing( picture) has broken off so I need to change the whole tube. Awesome. It only takes us about an hour becuase we have no idea what we are doing! We planned on riding a long distance today. 13.5 miles does not equal long mileage today. Oh well, I am just glad that my buddy Andi had a spare- Lord knows I didn't! It ended up being a nice ride despite the hour beforehand! We did the miles in about 55 minutes.

Monday~ Race Day Spin Day! I tried something new today in class. About half way into the race I had the class "do their own thing" for 5 minutes. By that I mean I told them what to do(ha) only at their own intensity. It was basically explained as 5 minutes of attacks or breakaways...I had them envision their age group rival hot on their butts....every time they got too close they were to sprint away from them. It was a tough 5 minutes if I do say so myself. My heart rate topped off at 178! Crap, that is HIGH!!!!!

The rest of the class consisted of (2) 8 minute progressive climbs and some killer flat roads. I received a few kudos at the end of class today. I am glad I tried something new!

Totally Toned was at noon. I participated in 95% of class...I think I did not do lower back and a few planks. My back hurt! I think I need to stretch...story of my life!

Recaps.........

Thursday~ No running! I am ok with it. I think. Maybe not now that I thought of it a bit harder!
I took a Spin class. I decided to go a little bit earlier to warm up. This did the trick-- I was ready when class started and it did not take me the usual 10+ minutes to feel warmed up. I was able to keep my heart rate up higher too. It was a great class.

Friday - Spin instruction. It was a weird morning. I teach spin at 5:30 am on Friday and I average 8 or so people. Today there were 21! I am not sure if it was due to the crappy weather ( super windy although it was 81* at 5 am). For some reason it made me nervous too! I had only 3-4 of my "regulars" and the rest were strangers!! I think the class went well though. I had a good mix of music and the workout was a toughie. It was a 3:1 work rest ratio--that 60 second rest went by fast too!
After class I met my friend to workout a bit more. This is what we did:
20 reps for 2 rounds and 15 reps for the last round...

*jumping jacks with a body bar
*chest press with body bar
*bicep curls
* front raise
* up and downs on the step bench for speed ( 40 reps total)
* squats off the side of bench ( 40 total)
*push ups
*hip circles
*crunches
*bicycle
*plank variations

It was a good one!
I hope to do something like this every Friday for a while until I get back into running and lifting again!
I am sore today of course!

Saturday- Power Spin. 1 hour class. Good stuff!

Recaps.........

My carpal tunnel seems to be dormant for the time being.......good. It sucks!

Friday- Spin instruction
Sat- OFF
Sunday-Off ( 1 mile walk run with Amara)

Monday- Spin class...it was a good one. 12 minute hill, 10 minutes of fast intervals and another 12 minute hill climb.
Totally Toned

Tuesday- Spin class. This was nuts! I was a participant today and the class was really hard. 5 sets of sprints followed by a 5 minutes hill climb--repeated 3 times.

Wednesday- I am home writing this blog and NOT teaching ( Boo sniff). Miles woke up sounding like a seal barking...so it's best not to take him around more kids. He of course barked once this morning and now seems just fine! Better safe than sorry!

I sure hope to do SOMETHING active today. Maybe yoga when he naps?? I need to move!


As you can see, I have not been doing any running. It's been over a week. The half marathon is in less than a month. As it seems, I won't be running with my group this coming Saturday either. Awesome.

Recaps galore!

I will try and recap my days of last week and this week:

Last week:

Thursday- I taught a class and then rode the road bike for 22 ish miles. It was fun!

Friday- taught Spin and did a little extra cardio after that.....

Saturday- I ran 14. 7 miles with the group. I love just jumping right into my long runs...ha. After that I met my crazy friend and we rode about 12 miles in the pouring rain. It was cold and not so smart.

Sunday- 2 mile walk/run with Amara. She rocks!

THIS WEEK:

Monday- Spin and Totally Toned.

Tuesday-40 minutes of cardio at the gym in the early AM and later that afternoon a 25+ mile bike ride in the awesome weather! This was my furthest ride to date! I would like to do one 40- 50 mile ride before I have to give up the wheels.

Wednesday- Spin class and 15 minutes of extra cardio. That's it. My legs were not as bad as I thought they would be from the evening bike ride on Tuesday. Good!

So there ya have it.....the condensed version.
Carpal tunnel stinks. I usually only get it when pregnant. I am not pregnant. I have been on the computer more so that is my best guess for the annoying flare up.

Tuesday and Wednesday Recap--runnin' and spinnin'

Tuesday~
I met my girlfriend at the other YMCA to take a class together. My fave kickboxing class. I love this class!! It was great-the instructor did one of my most favorite routines to Lady Marmalade- the updated version with Lil' Kim and Christina Aguilera. Love it. Anyway.... I might be taking this class again every Tuesday again! Amara starts soccer next week so it just might work! YAY!
After class ( and before class, and at home) I lifted weights. Back and biceps. 3x8

Before class:
1 arm rows
preacher curl on the ball
After class:
Bent over flyes
hammer curls
At home:
Chin ups
3 sets of 5
I had to fit in my weight training when and where I could. I got it done!
Later on was running club. Although I still don't know how to breath...I attempted to run 4 miles at tempo speed. The warm up was about 18 minutes for 2 miles. I felt great at this pace. On to the tempo-- I think I did really well for the first 1.75 ish miles maybe more. I honestly do not know my pace-sometimes this is way better for ones ego! My vocal cords were kind of happy and then mad at me for the rest of the run. I did not walk though. I felt like it a few times, but I kept running. I was really glad to be done though. I am calling the doc today to see what the hold up is. my big race is approaching fast and I want to know the verdict!

Wednesday~ Spin day! Intervals again. It was a basic style with increasing resistance and length. After the warm up I had us do a standing jog, seated climb, flat road and finally a standing climb. The first set was 1 minute( ie: every move was 1 minute), second time around was 2 minutes and the 3rd time was 3 minutes. It went over well. I also busted out some very old spin cd's ( I have been teaching for about 8 years now) and was rockin' to John Cougar Mellencamp. Or whatever he is called nowadays! I love music so much-- I know my tastes are all over the place so my classes pretty much don't know what to expect from me. I saw a lot of lips singing though!
Totally Toned was at noon. Apparently, Monday's session was tough as a lot of the participants upper body was still sore.
That's all!

The VIRUS is gone and other STUFF!

My computer had a virus! Now it's gone. Whew! Life is hard without a computer. I am so happy I GET to use a computer!!!
I don't even know where to begin. I will make the recaps short.

Saturday~ 14 miler. I made a wrong turn-I was supposed to run 12! It was a hilly run. I walked up some of them with a fellow runner-she was getting over a cold. I was having trouble breathing too. All is good though. I was able to run!

Sunday~ OFF.
Monday~ Spin and Totally Toned. I also lifted weights -hamstrings and shoulders. 4x10. 3 super sets = pain. Love it.

Tuesday~ I took the day off. I had my allergy appointment. To make a long story short: I do not have severe asthma. I like to be unique....so I have a weird vocal cord(s) that does not want to relax and cause me trouble. Awesome. On to the speech pathologist I go. Awesome.

Wednesday~ Spin at 10am. Totally Toned at 12 noon. Spin at 4:30pm. It was just one of those days. In my head I was not "making up" for not working out on Tuesday. Really. I just needed to workout for my mind. It was a good class too!

I think I am all caught up now.

4 Days of recaps.

Thursday~ I actually forgot to update my Thursday when I was updating the previous days ( on Thursday) D'OH!
Thursday I went to the gym ( without puffing on my inhaler- it was a brain-fart) and did the elliptical for 30 minutes and that was it. My breathing was OK. It was a bit labored, but nothing to be afraid of. I then taught 3*2*1 a few hours later. I could totally feel my lungs during class. My lungs were not happy with me, but at least the cardio segments were only 3 minutes long at a time. Ugh.
Friday.~ I taught spinning in the early morning and could feel my lungs sucking in air HARD. Ugh. After class I did some core and plyometrics. I felt fine during this.
Saturday~ OFF! We were out of town and I had every intention of taking a walk before breakfast--nope. Oh well. A day off was needed.
Sunday~ 16 miles!! I did the first 6 with 2 friends from my running group. Thank goodness....16 miles would be pretty tough to do by myself. We hoofed those miles in about an 8:40 minute mile average. They both were coming off of running 10 miles the previous day at about an 8 minute mile pace so they were kind of tired! The next 10 I did by myself at about the same pace or a bit slower. I had a few bouts of tightness in my lungs but nothing major. I also had my rescue inhaler on me just in case. I was super excited that my old Polar GPS did not cut off and my iPod stayed on! Woohoo!
The weather was beautiful which is why my asthma was probably acting up! Lots of new growth and wonderful allergy/asthma inducing stuff! Love it though.
I pretty much feel like garbage now. It might be all the goodies I inhaled ate on Saturday at a family Easter gathering. So much yumminess! Time to get it back together.....(tomorrow)

Giveaway WInners, Thursday, Friday and Saturday recap

It's been a while!

First the winners of the Stuffitts giveaway were contacted already: comment 5 and 3! Thanks for entering!
I have still been feeling a little bit off since my Hyper Tuesday run. It might be all in my head, but I think tomorrow will tell me for sure. I have not run since that incident. I have done 3 Spinning classes though and I felt fine-for the most past. A little tightness in my chest for a little bit, but nothing major.
Thursday: I thought it was my day off, but I remember that I taught my newest class at 4:15.
I won't have any real days off this week either. Booo! It's my own doing. I could have taken today off....but Nooo!
Friday: Spin instruction. I repeated the class I taught on Wednesday. It was still hard! I stretched for 25 full minutes after class too--ahhhh!
Saturday: Spin class participant. The class is 60 minutes, but the crazy instructor was able to start early and class ended up being 80 minutes long. It was HARD. It was great. Really. I pushed myself after the first 15-20 minutes. I had a hard time getting going for some reason, but after I did..I really got going!

Sun: 50 minutes cardio (easy)

Mon: Spin instruction/Totally Toned instruction/ easy weight circuit @ home

Tue: Run 3.5 miles/Power Yoga

Wed: Spin instruction/Totally Toned instruction

Thur: 3*2*1 class instruction

Fri: Spin instruction/25 minutes of stretching

Sat: Power Spin- 80 minutes

I hope to get back into my weights next week. I might change my program after I do some research on running and weight training. I know it's good for running (even if it was not--I would NOT give it up), but I glanced at an article that stated lifting 1 set of 20 reps?!?! Eeek. Ha. I will try and research it this weekend with all the time I have ( yea right).

Thursday's( repost) and Friday Spin!

So yea...not sure what happened to my post yesterday. Strange.....

Anyhow......

I did the circuit from Tuesday only 3x8 this time and we threw in some bi's and tri's too.

I decided to take the day off from cardio--so for me that meant I only did 15 minutes of the elliptical while pushing pretty hard! Ha! I can't help myself. I had time to spare might as well get the heart beating--right?!?!?!

This morning ( FRIDAY) was the first time I taught the 5:30 AM Spin class. It's new to the schedule. There were a few empty bikes, but lots of new faces. I decided to teach my Wednesday class again because there was a spinner from my Monday class. Did not want to make her repeat the same class again.

It went over well. Lots of jumps. The last set was 6 minutes. Whew! I have to teach Totally Toned at noon as well.

I made an impulse purchase yesterday. My GPS is on the fritz and I REALLY want need one!! I went to the sporting goods store and found the Garmin FR 60. To make a long story short..it's not actually a real GPS. It does track time/pace/distance etc. but it does not need a signal to do so. I have to calibrate it. If you are a runner then you KNOW that we are anal beings. I want the exact pace/dist. etc. Soooooo....I will try it out on my long run on Saturday. I love everything else about it though. The heart Rate monitor capabilities as well as the millions of other bells and whistles--are awesome. The owners manual is 48 pages long for Pete's Sake!

I think I shared my Spin class activity too. Love that!

I hope to have a good report back on this handy gadget tomorrow or else I will have to take it back and be heart rate monitorless and GPSless again! Booo!

Tuesday and Wednesday Recap..

Tuesday- I went to my favorite kickboxing class again. I have not been in ages so it was nice to go again. I stopped going to give my full energy to running on Tuesday nights. I figured since we were only running 6 easy miles that I would go.
Running tonight went well. No pressure. No specific pace to meet. I like these relaxed runs. The biggest downfall about it was the heavy, thick humidity we had to run in. Besides that, the run was nice!
Wednesday- I taught Y Power X this morning at 6am. It was plyometric day. Oh joy. No, this is the type of stuff I love. It was pretty intense. My class of 5 really did a good job and pushed themselves even further than I thought they could!! I teach Totally Toned at noon and I have a client at 6pm. Should be a great day.