I now know why they call her Coach Pain

Wow... last night's workout was brutal. I'm not sure if it's because it was 4th day in a row to be working out, or if my legs were tired (they felt fine till the workout started), or it's just that Chrissie aka Coach Pain was giving us a big ole dose of WTF??

I got stuck at work a little later than normal which meant I was scrambling to get to T3. I got there, changed, had to scramble to find a T3 trainer. I just realized last night that most of the trainers there have names on them. I hope I wasn't using someone elses trainer by accident the last two times I've been, my bad!! Of course the only T3 trainer left was one that was on the front row. Blah. I set my bike up and I heard Chrissie start the core workout, doh! I was a couple minutes late, but only missed a couple sets. Good class. We worked with resistance bands on our upper body (I have none) and did the plank ten million times with varying positions, pushups (girl-style), and a bunch of crunches and leg work. I was sweaty when it was done. Good stuff.

Now the bike workout was tough. It was the first time that I felt my legs burning, which has always been my pet peeve as to why I hate cycling. Never in a million years have my legs ever burned while running. Towards the middle, I was wondering if I'd make it, but kept going. Then Chrissie tells us to get off the bike.. I look around for confirmation before I get off, and sure enough, everyone is OFF their bikes. She had us do squats!! So we would ride on our trainers then jump off and do squats, and every time we got off she added a set!! The last set, which there were 4 total, she had us go down and just sit there for 30 seconds, OMG! Finally, it was the first class where I wasn't the only one grunting and moaning ;) I thought we were done after the next spin set, but it was just for a break. We had one last 10 minute section left, and I just couldn't do it. My legs were on fire, and it was hard to just spin in my easy gear, I was toast. I stopped and started probably 4-5 times trying not to give up, but then I looked around and most of the girls were off. I tried again so I wouldn't be all girly, but quickly chalked it up as done. I had sweated through my little towel, sweat was pouring off my face, and my legs were gone. Whew... what a good workout. I hobbled out, went home, cooked my healthy dinner, did some laundry, watched Grey's, and was out.

This morning I feel it, but it's a good feel it. Shoulders, arms, and buttocks are sore, but it's a good sore. It's a "I think I'm getting stronger" sore. Adrian made fun of me last night cause I told him, I've done 3 core classes and it's working!!! He knows I'm a quick satisfaction type personality and he knows I expect everything now. I already think my arms are bulging :) I can't wait to see my improvement after a month of this.

I think I'm supposed to take today off, but I've only run once this week on Monday, so I think I'm going to get in 5-6 miles tonight just to make sure my legs remember how to run :)

Tomorrow will be my first group ride. I'm just praying that I'm not the slowest, please please please don't let me be the caboose. It's supposed to be cold and windy so it should make for an adventureous first ride for me...

171 days to go...

Is it too early to start counting down?? I went to my first spin class last night and was very pleased to see Erin and Dionn. It was nice seeing familiar faces. Clarence, who I've trained with in Rogue, Charles (I think) who I've seen running with Rogue, and a new friend Carrie.

In short, the class was, I hate to admit this, FUN. The 30 minute core class was tough, but I expected that. I have no core right now, so I knew doing any exercise would be tough. I had to do the pushups in female girly fashion, I couldn't make it through the 3 sets of 30 second planks or the second set of 30 second planks on the ball. I could only do one or two (total, not reps) of some of the exercises, but I pretended to move as everyone else did. This will take time to build up to be able to complete everything like everyone else. Erin and Dionn tried to talk me into coming in the morning for an hour core class before this one started, and two minutes into it, I told them I wouldn't be coming :) Baby steps...

The spin class started and Maurice was nice enough to help me put my bike on the trainer and tell me how it all worked. Chrissie was the coach, and she was very detailed in what we were doing which I loved. She explained exactly what gear to be in, when to switch, what cadence we should be in, and did countdowns for us so we could tell what our cadence actually was. I was doing great and my confidence was high. My cadence was either right on or slightly higher and I thought I was flying :) Until... the one legged stuff. I thought it would be easy, but the moment I unclipped one leg, the other leg seemed to fail. My circular motion was all rickety and it seemed to be using muscles that running doesn't use. My hip was burning and my thigh felt like it was going to fall off. I kept it in my easy gear as the rest of the class geared harder and I stopped ALOT. Very tough. Chrissie said this was a good exercise because it shows which motion you need to work on that way each leg is working to its full strength without having to rely on the other. I've got some work to do.

We went back to both legs and did hills and I did a good job. I kept my cadence where it was supposed to be on all of the sets except maybe 2, but I wasn't that far off. All in all, the time went by fast and I enjoyed my first spin class :)

Only gripes so far is that it seems that most of the T3 folk are pretty dog goned serious. Noone talks, noone is cracking jokes and I'm not used to that. I talked a few times during the core, or moaned actually to no avail. I tried again during the spin. Chrissie said, "Three more minutes and we're done." and I was the only one that yelled out, "Thank God!!" I only got a smile from Chrissie. I'm sure I'll be the loud mouth retard, but I've got to liven things up. I'm used to Rogue and I'm used to the useless fun banter, this is going to take some getting used to.

I did make a new friend, Carrie. And another guy named Robert. I need to make some more :)

Thanks to Erin and Dionn for making me feel welcome and making my first class not as awkward... Now, I'm going to play on their forum and make my first post.