Today is 80s day and nobody told me

I'm wondering if there was some announcement about this, but is today some kind of 80's Music Extravaganza? First I thought it was just at Urban Active, but no. I'll explain...

Enter Urban Active, roughly 5:20. Proceed to women's locker room, where the usual smooth grooves instrumental jazz is playing. Fill up locker, proceed to gym for training session. Doug and I got started and the first thing i noticed - the Go-Gos on Urban Active Vision (or whatever they call their TV feed).

Moving upstairs, UA Vision was drowned out by the 5:45 Spinning class. As I did my sets of squats, abs, chest presses, yadda yadda, I heard the following:
Money for Nothing, Dire Straits
Sweet Dreams, Eurythmics
Jump, Van Halen

Typically, 80's music is not what I choose to listen to when I work out. Yeah, it's fun and all, it makes me laugh sometimes, but I feel like I OD-ed on it when I was a kid listening to Z93 on my Panasonic boom box all day everyday.

The 80's Spinning soundtrack continued with the worst selection yet: Every Rose Has it's Thorn. How can anyone even work out to that song? It's a total downer! Plus, Bret Michaels is so overexposed right now.

At that point, Doug had me doing 30-second intervals of abs (bicycles - alternating back and forth). Between sets, I explained that I might not be able to complete the training session if I had to listen to Poison.

The song ended, and so did today's training session. I hopped on a nearby elliptical for a few minutes of cardio. And so the 80's streak continued...
Push It, Salt n' Pepa
We Built this City, Starship

Even though I would never include these songs on a workout mix, they both took me back to junior high. As a 7th-grade cheerleader, I did a dance routine to "Push It" and I remember one of the 8th grade girls being worried because the song had "some language in it." Those were the words she used; I remember because she sounded like an adult when she said it. Which I always wondered about - "language." Was she talking about the "push it" part or the "gonna get pissed" part? I never found out.

And We Built this City took me straight to Timberwolf, 1986. That was my first concert, Starship, and Derek, Tauni, Mom and I went on a summer night. I say that because it was the quintessential summer night - I remember the sun setting and everything before the concert. The funny thing was, Mom would only pony up for one concert shirt, insisting that Derek and I would "share" it. It was gray and hot pink, and sized to fit Derek, who hogged it. I maybe wore it once. I wonder if they still have that shirt...

Anyway, my reveries aside, the next song almost knocked me off the fricking machine.
Cherry Pie, Warrant

As an adult listening to the lyrics, I wonder what I ever found redeeming about this song. And, it conjured another Timberwolf memory - Warrant, Trixter and Firehouse. AKA the "Blood, Sweat and Beers" tour. Good God - that probably was in 1990, maybe 91. So, not technically "80s." That was the concert when Kelly caught a Nike "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood" t-shirt from the lead singer of Trixter. Which she displayed with her concert ticket on her bedroom wall for weeks after. I was jealous.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, this little gem came on:
Take Me Home Tonight, Eddie Money

Ugh, I really hate this song. It always reminds me of junior high, when Paradise City was big. My friends and I would always sing, "Take me down to paradise city..." and one of my (sorta) friends always sang, "Take me home to-night..." in a really high voice, like it was a really pretty song. I always wondered if she just never knew what we were singing and tried to keep up.

That was it, I had to get away from the 80s soundtrack.

Walking back downstairs, I managed to get away from the spinning class, but "Private Eyes" by Hall and Oates was on Urban Active Vision. Which made me think that John Oates always reminded me of my Uncle Bill when he had a mustache.

Back to the smooth grooves of the locker room.

I get in the car - "Wild Wild West" was on the radio - i shit you not.

Driving home, I'm flipping the channels, and one station has "In Cars" and an0ther has "You Spin Me Right Round."

The other day when everyone was snowed in, Mark Mallory appeared on TV and declared it Family Day in Cincinnati. Reflecting on all the 80s music I heard, I wondered if there had been some huge declaration about Friday, January 30th being 80s day and I missed it. What if everyone was in on it - Urban Active, all the radio stations, my neighbors, etc. - and I had no idea? Like a Twilight Zone episode.

It was unreal. After re-reading this post, I realize how many crazy associations 80s music brings up for me. Not always bad, but I get lost in these weird memories, reliving things that are kinda funny, but pretty inconsequential.

And it's only 7:24, which means that I still have another 12-16 hours to go.

Newport in the Snow

Not that this was a safe thing to do, but I took a picture of the roads coming off of Taylor-Southgate bridge.

Typical January

No 5:30 workout this morning.
Only 45 days until we go to Florida.

Sunday, by the numbers

Temperature: 12

# of runners in the group: 20

# of shirts / jackets: 4

pairs of gloves: 2

Miles completed: 6

Tardy for the Party

I took this photo for posterity - my first official training session. The date, time and temp are all here - and, incidentally, the temperature dropped to 10 by the time I got to Urban Active. In June or July, I'll probably look back at this picture and laugh. 

Truth be told, waking up at 5:00 sucked. I had everything laid out and ready to go, but I still ended up making it to the gym by the skin of my teeth. What should have been a five-minute drive doubled to ten as I hit every red light between here and Bellevue. Even though I pulled some illegal maneuvers, I still didn't make it in early. I walked into UA at 5:30 on the dot. So, no time to warm up, only time to throw my stuff in a locker and get started. 

Squats, lateral raises, ab work, leg extensions, push-ups...30 minutes flew by, with very little down time between sets. At one point, I looked at the clock and commented that the time was flying by; I only had 10 minutes left. Doug retorted, "Yeah, we started kinda late, too." Youch. 

So, after wrapping up, Doug and I rescheduled Friday's session for Saturday and I hopped on the elliptical for about 15 minutes. By 6:30, I was completely finished working out for the day. 

Skip to Thursday morning - Mark and I ran outside in 20-something degrees. Him: ready to go 6 or 7. Me: stopping every five minutes to stretch my calves. 24 hours after my first real workout, I find that all that balancing on the bosu ball is shredding my calves. It was good to get back outside with my running pal, though. Mark was merciful enough to keep the pace manageable for me and I cut out after about 3 miles.

Friday morning=sleeping in until about 6:30, which was nice.

This morning=up at 7:00 to make sure I had time to get dressed, eat something and print my food journal for my 8:30 session. Even with Dan in tow, I managed to get to UA at about 8:15, enough time to throw stuff in a locker and warm up for about 10 minutes. I also gave Doug my food journal from the past week. He said he'd get back to me on that after taking a closer look at it. After glancing at it, he immediately noticed the buffalo wings and spinach dip from Wednesday night and mucho Mexican for lunch yesterday. With more time, he'll surely see my spinach salad lunches and healthy snacks. Bring me the feedback - bring it.

This morning's session was similar to Wednesday's session - more balancing, squats, arms, plank, etc. Followed by 20 minutes on the elliptical. It would have been nice to get in the sauna for a while, but Dan wanted to get back home to buy Opening Day tickets.

Tomorrow, we're running with the group in Blue Ash. 7:00 a.m. - another early morning. The lows are going to be in the teens, which means double the socks, double the shirts, double the gloves, hat, headband. Guess I should do some laundry tonight. More on that tomorrow.

Evaluation with Doug

What to say about my 9:00 evaluation with Doug? That I already kick ace and don't need a trainer? Not quite...

My evaluation went well. I'm in okay shape. But I want to be in better shape. There are definitely areas to work on. Like when I was balancing on the Bosu ball, lifting weights to shoulder level in front of me while squatting. That was pretty challenging. 

So I figure my workout routine will look something like this:

Sunday - run with the group

Monday - off

Tuesday - run 

Wednesday - trainer

Thursday - run 

Friday - trainer

Saturday - off (or easy run)

Dan and I are talking about running the Illinois half marathon in April in beautiful Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. We just need to commit to it, get a hotel, take Friday off of work, etc.

Yesterday, I got an email from the Heart Mini, which is about two weeks prior to the Illinois half. Needless to say, it's go time if I want to run well at either event. 

January, February and March are going to be all about the early mornings. We'll see how I do with a 5:00 wake up call...more on that Wednesday.

New for '09

Tonight was my first meeting with an Urban Active trainer, Kevin. My appointment last week got postponed because I abruptly came down with a case of the Seed Virus, complete with stuffy head, sneezing, aches, fatigue, the shakes, etc. After a few days rotating Nyquil / Dayquil, I'm back at 90%.

So I've been looking forward to working out seriously for the past month and now it's time. For really real. My ace is going to be worked over the next 12 months. I paid and everything. 

After chatting with Kevin about my fitness goals, assessing my body fat % and BMI (which I won't post here), I settled on a 60-session plan and swiped the Visa. This commitment actually intimidates me, which doesn't make sense, because I truly want to work out and get in shape. For some reason, assigning a credit card to the process makes it seem so much more matrimonial.

So, once the bizness was settled, Kevin gave me my first assignment. He handed me two 5-pound plates and told me to walk around the track like I was late for work, with "good arm motion." I complied without hesitation, but as a seasoned runner, I felt like a tool after the first lap. The gym was packed with post-holiday exercisers and I caught a glimpse of myself in the windows: pink shirt, black shorts, hair pulled back in clips (because I just got my hair done and it's not long enough to completely pull back)...I looked like a mallwalker busting around the track with these plates in hand, getting passed by joggers. 

"The journey of a million miles begins with a single step," i reminded myself, and completed about 4 more laps.

After that, I balanced on the Bosu ball, doing a series of bicep curls and overhead presses, first with weights, then with bands. While balancing on the Bosu ball, I focused on the monitor outside Cardio Cinema showing Baby Mama - good one. If not for the money i just dropped on training, I probably would have gone and watched it again. 

Next, down to the floor for plank on the Bosu ball. That was followed by lunges swinging a 15-lb. kettle ball between my legs and up to chin height. Various permutations of kettle ball, step, bands and lunging ensued.

Finally, it was core time - transverse abdominals. The ab work was challenging: straight-leg lifts, flutter kicks, etc. At one point, I remembered the trip to Florida we have coming up in March and used that as my motivation. I also made the mistake of telling Kevin about that.

"I like to finish up by giving you a choice," he said. "100 or 1 1/2 minutes. I won't tell you what." Silence... 

"Or you can challenge yourself by doing both."

By this point, I have something to prove. Okay, I'll take the challenge and do both. It turned out to be 100 flutter kicks and 1 1/2 minutes in plank. I made it through 70 flutter kicks and took a break, then finished with the remaining 30 (according to the rules established ahead of time, this was entirely permissible). Then I did the 1 1/2 minutes in plank on the Bosu ball, repeating part of a horoscope I read to myself a few weeks ago: You are a mountain of strength and have already overcome much.

And that was the end of my first training session of '09. It was awesome to have some structure and a coach again. I know I'm a sucker for positive reinforcement, and I really want to believe I'm doing something unique and significant by holding the plank for over a minute. But in my brain, I know it's really not a huge accomplishment. Hearing Kevin say, "Great!" or "Awesome" or high-fiving between sets truly convinces me, if only for a second, that I'm doing something special. Like maybe I'm the baddest-ass client he's trained all day. Because nothing screams badass like a 30-something mallwalker hustling around an indoor track. 

One thing that Kevin said tonight really stuck with me after I got home. That was, "food journal." Yikes. I got home and immediately went for the Club Crackers, and remembered that I will eventually have to answer to all of my pre-meal or between-meal transgressions. I like to think I eat healthily all the time, but then I decide I deserve another Dunkin' Donuts Munchkin. As I heated up some leftover chicken and mashed potatoes, I had a handful of pistachios and a small glass of orange juice. As I was snacking, i wondered if I should count out the pistachios to determine exactly how many i was eating. Hmmm no. Then, since we had two containers of blueberries, I decided to make impromptu blueberry crisp. It was a Cooking Light recipe, so that has to count for something, I figure. Proper Food Journaling begins tomorrow.

Next training session starts Saturday morning at 9:00, titled "Evaluation With Doug."