Cycling with the Spin Dr.

Thursday morning I returned to the Y with the intent of attending the Boot Camp class.  I was worried that I dallied too much and would be late.  (For these classes, I'm trying to show up ~5 minutes early to get a feel for it, make sure I'm all set and perhaps talk to the instructor a bit to get a lay of the land.  Since I'll likely only take most of these classes once, I want to get the full experience.)  Well, I wasn't late for Boot Camp...there wasn't a Boot Camp planned for Thursday.  When I'd gone to bed I was setting my alarm to make it to the CROSS TRAIN class, not Boot Camp.  By the time I realized this and ascertained the room in which the Cross Train class was taking place, I was, indeed, late.  I walked by the room and looked in.  It seemed they were just doing some light warm-up type activities, but I opted not to straggle in late and try to get assimilated into the Borg, er, class.

So, I went and checked the other schedules and discovered that in less than a half-hour there would be a Cycling class!  Not only that, but it was a Cycling class run by The Spin Dr; the exact class and instructor I'd missed out on Tuesday when I opted to get a decent night's sleep!

So, how was class?  It was pretty much what I'd expected. (Note: years ago I took a "spinning" class and didn't much care for it then.)  I understand why The Spin Dr. is very popular.  He has a lot of enthusiasm, obviously loves what he's doing, plus, his varied and eclectic playlist made for an interesting game of "what's next?" as to the music we'd be hearing.  Speaking of which, there was one amusing moments during Gin Blossoms' "Follow You Down" where there's a bit of a harmonica solo.  He whipped out a harmonica and played along.  He did it quite well too.  But, ultimately, it's sitting in a room pedaling, not going anywhere.  It's a great workout and the Dr. did an admirable job of mixing it up, but it still didn't do it for me.

(Side note: the Y has these "Expresso" bikes that have a CGI video of a bunch of different courses you can ride.  There are other "bikers" on the video, going various speeds, you can set a pacer who wears a yellow jersey, and you can even have a "ghost" of your own best ride if you've done the course before.  Moreover, these bikes give a visual sense of what the course is, the other riders help give extra motivation and you can see the hills coming...and coming to a merciful end as well.  Plus, it tracks your heart rate (if you keep your hands on the sensor portions of the handlebars) as well as a bunch of other stats on your performance.  If you don't want to try to remember every little bit from the ride but want to track how your doing when you're not there, you can create a profile to log in and check out all your rides through their website any time.  My general disdain for stationary equipment stops at these bikes, I'm a big fan of them.)

Oh, an amusing thing I got out of the class, well, not so much from the class, but from the playlist.  The good Dr. played Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca."  I don't much care for most pop and that song definitely isn't one I'd chose to listen to.  However, while it was on I realized that there's some great bass playing in there.  There's not nearly enough to make me like the song, but I certainly found that a pleasant surprise.

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Yesterday (Friday) I went back to the Swim Fit class.  I really enjoyed it on Monday and from talking to them, found out that Fridays are when they do a lot of dry land stuff and really mix it up.  Plus, I suspect I'll continue doing this class after this silly quest is over.

I got there a bit early and chatted a bit with Beth, the instructor, letting her know that I was planning to become more of a regular, but that I was in the process of taking all the classes so my attendance would be a bit hit and miss for a bit.  About this time, two regulars arrived, Jeff and Trev so we all talked a bunch about classes we've done and classes we want to take.  I may end up letting them know that I'm writing this blog so they can peruse it for my analysis.  [If I do and any of you guys are reading this, HI!]

We did a bunch of lunges, planking, pushups, stretching and squats (possibly more, it was early) on the pool deck to warm up, then hopped into the pool.  The workout probably had fewer than 1,000 yards.  That does NOT mean we didn't bust our butts.  There was a lot of fun, hard drills like diving to the bottom of the pool for a brick, then treading water with it until our heads disappear.  Also fun was sprinting (swimming) to the shallow end then doing different kinds of jumps (squat jumps and another one whose name I forget).  This post is already getting plenty long and trying to describe, in detail, all the drills we did would take a while so I'll simply say that I continue to really enjoy the class and am looking forward to continuing it.

With that in mind, I gave Beth my email address so she can add me to the class's mailing list.  Now I'll get the workouts in my inbox so while I'm on the quest and the other classes prevent me from going to Swim Fit, I can still do the workouts on my own.  Whee!!

Derailed

Okay, after deciding to get a good night's sleep Monday night and skipping class on Tuesday, I went to Natalie's last night and we went out for a wine tasting/dinner.  It wrapped up at a very reasonable time so I was going to get back to my quest, but then realized I hadn't brought my workout gear.  Oops.  Now I'm back home, going to get things organized and figure out what class to take tomorrow morning!

Plan Aborted

Due to a combination of staying up a bit too late and my bed just feeling waaaay too good this morning, I decided that the optimal course of action was to sleep in for another 90 minutes and skip the class I'd planned to attend.  Stay tuned.

Class 1 Review

AquaFit was great!  As I think I mentioned, I struggle with motivation when swimming laps on my own.  I frequently max out around 2,000 and it feels like a drag.  I've made it up to around 2,500 yards a couple of times, but by the time I got there I was hating it.  Today's class was run by a woman named Beth.  I was the first person there (intentionally) so we chatted a bit about the class and my normal workouts.  She seemed confident that I'd fit in with the class well and she was right.

I enjoyed the people I was swimming with (today's workout was all in the water) but most of all, I really enjoyed the extra sense of both camaraderie and competition that comes from doing the same workout with some other folks.  A couple of them were close to the same level as me which really helped provide some extra push.  The workout had some great variety without feeling like any of the drills were novelties or trying too hard.  It was a good solid workout.

Possibly the best part came at the end, after finishing the main workout, when Beth said, "Ok, just do an easy 150 warm-down, however you want and you're done...2,350 yards for the day."  WHAT?!  That felt like nothing!  And it was 2,350 yards?  SWEET!!!!  (Truth be told, the workout was pretty tough and my quads and calves were both close to cramping up, but, compared to the mental effort it has taken to push myself to barely get to 2,000 yards, this was a piece of cake.

I'm really looking forward to taking this class again and anticipate that I might become a regular.  At one point today, I even thought about scrapping the whole "take all the classes" plan so I could just keep doing this one.  But, I want to follow-through on it, partly because I might find that I really like some of the other classes too...we shall see!

Tomorrow morn is my second class and it's "Cycling" and, according to the schedule, it's run by "The Spin Doctor."  Excellent.

Class 1: SwimFit

As I mentioned the other day, I'm going to take a whole lot of classes at my gym, the YMCA in Silverdale.  Tomorrow I'm starting with SwimFit, which the notes on the schedule describes thusly, "SwimFit is a registered proram that provides guided workouts and swimming instruction for all levels of lap swimmers, triathletes and open water swimmers.  These workouts include lap swimming, cross fitness and dry land components."

When I've been swimming laps, I've noticed this class from time to time and it struck me as something I might enjoy since it combines swimming with, well, other forms of exercise.  Though a swimmer, one dedicated to the all-around, low-impact benefits of lap swimming, I've always found it colossally boring.  So mixing in some dry land activities in there has a lot of appeal.

So, that's my plan for tomorrow morning.  We'll see how it goes.

I Embark On a Quest!

So, I recently joined the YMCA near my current job. The facility is less than a year old and has everything. I can't stop saying good things about it. However, I do have one beef. They offer a bunch of classes in the lap pool which constricts the number of lanes available for just swimming laps. As a former competitive swimmer/water polo player, hopping in the pool and playing tag with the wall is a natural way to start the day for me. Unfortunately all these classes have cut into my swimming time. What makes it even more frustrating is that I've never been a big fan of classes. I enjoy setting my own workouts and don't generally even like having workout partners.

But, I've come across an obscure phrase of striking wisdom. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." As such, I decided to try a class or two. On the other hand, I'm also a big fan of the phrase "Go big or go home," which is why I'm going to take ALL THE CLASSES!

Okay, there are a couple of limitations. There are a few classes that are only offered during the day and there are some with age restrictions. That still leaves me with a pretty good-sized list of classes:

• Zumba 101
• Shallow Water Fitness
• Deep Water Aerobics
• AquaZumba
• Boot Camp
• Cross Train
• Kickboxing
• Zumba
• River Fitness Bootcamp
• Kick Camp
• Iaido
• Cycling
• Core NRG
• SwimFit
• Sculpt
• Awaken Yoga
• Foam Rolling
• Hip Hop
• River Fitness
• Tai Chi
• Power Yoga
• Caribbean Rhythms

Yeah, seriously, I'm going to take a class called "AquaZumba." I'm not even sure what sort of class "Caribbean Rhythms is." Dancing? Do I need to bring my own steel drum? "Foam Rolling?" What? How bad can these be? Actually, I anticipate that I'll probably regret this decision a few times, probably really dislike some of the classes. On the other hand, I'm sure I'll enjoy a few of them. In fact, I'm even looking forward to a few.

I need to figure out the timing on the classes, but I figure I'll start next Monday morning with one of the aquatics classes. The offerings are SwimFit, River Fitness and Deep Water Fitness.

Wish me luck!