Monday, February 1, 2010

fitting it all in

I find it hard to really get into tri training mode this early in the season. Especially when there's actual snow on the ground. I missed all the excitement of the freezing rain and snow this weekend by heading south at 7am Friday morning before it all happened. This was on purpose. Unfortunately it was still not forecasted to be much above 40F in Jackson all weekend, so I didn't even bother to load up my bike and take it along. 

I arrived to find Jeremy already finished with a swim workout, something I'd skipped in favor of driving. So for punishment (his) we did a nice abs session before lunch. Since the rain was supposed to continue all day, we found a suitable spin class to try out at one of the Ys. This was J's first spin class EVER, while I taught for about 8 years. You never know what you're going to get in a class at a gym that you've never stepped foot in before, I warned him. So we got there half an hour early to sign up (we weren't even aware that was a necessity), reserve our bikes (yay for clipless pedals!), and hit the weights to waste a little time before class. 

About ten minutes before class start time we decided to hop on for a warm up, where a few were already gathered. Soon enough, it was just as we feared: the lovely pregnant woman with the incredibly high squeaky voice was our instructor. They say that cutting off one of the senses heightens perception from others; she cut off all of the lights except for a black light. This turned out to be of benefit to me on several occasions when I couldn't control the laughing. Yes, there was music to drown her microphone-less voice out a bit, but she squeaked talked constantly, even getting off the bike many times to do a few cheers for us, jumping up and down and clapping. I'm really not kidding. The best part of this was the white tank top she was wearing in the black light so her huge pregnant belly was pretty much all you could see bobbing up and down in the middle of the room.

The real fun began when one of the women in class started her... um, cheers. On the alternating beats that the teacher wasn't giving cues, she'd add her input. It went like this:

teacher: and hover...
student: yeeeah
t: hover
s: that's right
t: hover
s: c'mon

Quite entertaining. I'd have to say that it turned out to be a great workout and it went by super fast with all the action. And I think it convinced J to try a few more out. It's waaay better than sitting on the trainer in my opinion, and I kind of have the urge to teach again! Just not a for-credit class, those guys have zero motivation to be there, besides a grade, and that's just no fun. I digress.


Saturday was reserved for the long run, which is getting shorter now, leading into the Mercedes Half Marathon in 2 weeks. Did I mention I'm signed up for that? :) It was still in the low 30s at 11 when we started and I had a spell of frustration over clothing choices at about 2.5 miles in. I had on my thickest warmest shirt over another thin shirt, and during our run through the sheltered part of the trail I overheated. I decided to take off the top shirt and made it about 3 feet into the wind before changing my mind and putting it back on. It was windy enough the rest of the run to stay cool (ironically) and comfortable. Poor J always feels slow when he runs with me, and I think I discovered the reason today. Looking at our running logs side by side, I realized that he ran 38 miles this week while I ran 26, this run included. I'm totally fresh-legged while he's doing his 38th mile of the week. I'm still pretty confident in my half marathon ability over his at this point. I'm going for the win (over him) THIS time, but I'm afraid I'm the target that he'll be catching before long. 


After lunch Saturday and before gorging on movie popcorn, I stopped by to see how the wedding dress alterations were going. The first thing I noticed was how expensive it is! If I just had the attention to detail and ability to focus like that, I'd go into tailoring. Since J dropped me off by myself for the fitting, I was without a female to zip me in the dressing room. So I asked Al, the tailor, to finish it up. He clasped it, tugged a few times, yanked gently, and came to the conclusion, "I need to let it out a bit." In the meantime I'm sucking in, completely exhaled and holding my breath, turning blue and telling him to try again. Not happening. I explained to Al and his assistant that this is my fat time of year and I should be losing some weight by mid-April. They looked at first like "'Fat time of year'? What in the hell..." And then, "Yeah, they all say they'll lose weight."  But Al said we could wait to let it out. 

By myself again in the dressing room, it occurred to me that the tight area was actually around my lower rib cage, which I must say, is probably one of my skinnier areas. I don't know about most girls, but the fat does not tend to collect there first. Of course, I have been doing more pullups this year... or maybe my liver's swollen?... i guess it could be visceral fat that increases with age, and I AM 33 now... I decided Al just took it in a little too much, even though, yes, I am at my very heaviest EVER (but only by like .5 pound), so I went to the movie and enjoyed about 800 calories of popcorn and coke. And didn't regret it.


I never ever thought I'd be one of those girls who tries to lose weight to fit in her wedding dress! I have almost :) no problem with my size or shape (besides the gluteal area creeping down my backside), even though I occasionally complain just for good measure. But it also never occurred to me that I'd be getting my wedding dress altered during my fat time of year, which I also don't have a problem with. It's good to get a little out of shape before you get back in shape. And at least a few of these pounds should be coming off with the start of tri training, so I can't decide: should I try a little harder to stuff it all in the dress, or should I let him take it out? It's my February challenge. Maybe we'll just see what happens.

4 comments:

  1. You spin class experience made me laugh, and remember fondly our Wed night classes at Wellworx with one pregnant teacher and one who nearly danced during the standing portions...

    Hopefully the bridesmaid dress alterations will take place after I've lost my fat time of the year weight! That reminds me, shoes. :)

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  2. I might need you to remind me next time that I said I liked it. I think I only liked it because I had an easy week and weekend so my legs were feeling fresh and antsy.

    I think I would've died laughing in the spin class...and don't worry about the wedding dress. I don't think you'll have a problem seeing as training is starting to pick up! You guys should go to Nashville and do the CM 1/2...because I just might be in town :)

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  3. Great spin class story...that cracked me up!

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  4. Hoover..... oh yeah....

    Does this mean we need to run more? :)

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