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Endings? Beginnings? Same Thing Really
There are all sorts of overused cliches about endings and new beginnings out there that we have all heard before. I mean think about it, there’s “Whenever a door closes, a new one opens” or the variation that says a window opens, which I just don’t get. Who needs a window? Are we looking for a good cross-breeze? How about the one about “Every ending is a new beginning.” Or what about “Though no one can go back and make a brand-new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand-new ending” ? I get it really. Most of these, while overused, are true (which is probably WHY they are overused), but are also designed to soften the blow. I mean how much would it suck to hear, “It’s over. Move on.” when you are trying to process the ending of something. Ends mean change and as everyone can attest, change is hard. It’s uncomfortable, difficult, and typically, pretty damn emotionally charged. Ask my mom. We have been in the process of selling our old house and she has been tearing up like it’s her job. Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with that and it’s not like it happens ALL the time, but whereas I am ready and excited to move, she is torn. It’s hard to give up something that has so many memories and know that you can’t really ever go back to it. Plus, for her, that is where she raised all her children. Like I said, it’s a difficult and perfectly natural reaction to such a huge transition.
My most recent transition is bringing up mixed feelings as well. Not about moving, but about finishing my internship at the FHCC (otherwise known as the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center. What a mouthful, right?!) and moving on. I have had an incredible year here, even when it was driving me crazy and I was pretty sure that I wanted to hang myself with all the bureaucratic red tape that I was dealing with. However, over the past 7 months, I have met some amazing social workers, and some not so amazing ones, found areas of interest that I never knew resonated with me, and learned more about what kind of social worker and person I do and don’t want to be. So while inside I am doing a dang happy dance to be DONE with all my hours and super relieved that I can check this requirement off my academic to do list, I am also a bit sad at the idea of leaving this community that I have gotten so comfortable with and the friends and acquaintances that I have made. I think a part of that also has to do with the fact that I really, really, REALLY want to work for either the VA or the DoD when I graduate and so part of me just goes, “I’m already here. Can’t I just stay and you can put me on staff?”
Now, some people might not make this connection and truthfully, I can’t blame them because it’s kind of a one off, but earlier this year, I was offered the opportunity to write for Fort2Base in exchange for an entry to their race in August. You have the option of running either 3 nautical miles, which is about 3.45 miles, or 10 nautical miles, or 11.5 miles, and depending on the route you choose, you are either running from Fort Sheridan to Great Lakes Naval Base or just within Great Lakes. For anyone who isn’t familiar with the area, Great Lakes Naval Base is right next to the FHCC, so while I’m not “back” there, I’d be close enough to count. Plus, I worked with several of the Navy guys and gals throughout the course of the year, so it will be nice to run in a race that a) is right in their area, b) celebrates them, and c) that some of them might be running in themselves. Not that I expect to run into anyone that I know, but I love the idea of being back. Plus, I had looked into running Fort2Base last year, but it was on the same day as one of my other races. So this year it’s officially on the list. Needless to say, I’ll be going with the 3NM course due to my complete aversion to distance running.
So, any one who is in the northern Chicago suburbs on August 25, 2013, or who wants to make the trek in for the day, come sign up for Fort2Base by clicking their icon below. And if you see me running, come say hi!
Chicks Who Simply Blow Me Away
WomenRaces.com is starting an Inspirational Fit Female Blogging Campaign just in time for Mother’s Day and as a Mile Motivator, I was asked to write a post about a woman in my life who inspires me. Truthfully, in thinking about this post, I struggled to come up with who to write about. Not because I don’t know any inspirational women, but because I know so many that I wasn’t sure who to select to write about. Really, I’m still not. So instead, I decided I’d just blurb on a few of the inspirational women in my life. So strap on your seat belts and let’s get started.
Big surprise, the first three are my mama and sibs. Numero Uno! My mama. She is an incredible woman who raised 4 children who were all a handful at one point or another and has managed to infuse love, happiness, and faith into all of our lives. I could not have asked for a better support system or a more motivating person if I tried. She has always encouraged me to chase my dreams, no matter what anyone else shalf rays.
Second up, middle sis. While I can’t say that she is the one who got me involved with fitness, she has definitely inspired me to get after it every day since then. They say that when you get involved in healthy living, inevitably other friends and family will follow suit, and that was definitely the case with us. She is a heavy hitter as far as endurance sports, tucking several half marathons and triathlons under her belt. Coming up this year, she is planning on tackling not one, but two half Iron Man races as well as the Chicago Marathon in October.
Next is baby sis. If nothing else, she is direct. Sometimes abrasively so, but if tough love is what you need, she is your girl. She is also incredibly hard working, brilliantly crafty (I mean it, if it’s on Pinterest, she’s probably made it) and a comically hilarious woman that makes me laugh as often as she drives me crazy. Life is never boring with her around.
All my awesome lady friends from Sweat Pink, Team Tough Chik, WomenRaces.com, Under Armour ‘What’ Beautiful,’ and Chicago Spartan follow closely behind. I have never met a more inspiring group of women and am always floored by the accomplishments of these women as well as their spirit and motivation. I feel so incredibly privileged to be a part of so many groups of women who are out there kicking ass and taking names every day. Not going to lie, most days I only hope that I can be such a positive influence for others as they are for me.
Truly, the list could go on and on as I know so many amazing women, but really, who has that much time? So tell me, who are some of the incredible women that you know? If you write a blog and want to join the WomenRaces.com’s Inspirational Fit Female Blogging Campaign WomenRaces.com’s, check out how here.
Soapbox Rant
Maybe this is uncalled for or maybe it’s just rude, but I am calling people out on what I think of as bad online etiquette and what kind of gets under my skin.
First off, spammers to my page’s inbox…. seriously? Go away. No, I don’t care about clicking your magic link to get 20-30 new fans. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE new fans. But I’d rather do it the old fashioned way that is unlikely to give me some sort of computer virus or catch me up in a never ending cycle of email spam.
Second, other fitness pages – holy moley do I totally love you and want to share the fitness love right back. But stopping instructing me to share you all over my page. I will definitely check you out and if I think that your messages are awesome and something all my followers should see, you better believe that I will be hyping your name up all over my page. Take a look, I do that for people all the time. But it gets me a little irked when you post on my page saying, hey, check me out and tell your fans to like me too. Um, how about let me make my own call about what to share? If you’re fan-freaking-tastic, you’ll make the list, don’t worry. Just say “Hi from XXXX” or some variation instead of “Like me and share me if you want to live!” Haha
Third, body haters who love to send anonymous messages. I’m not perfect. I don’t expect to be. I’m working towards being healthy and fit and to be truthful, I don’t really care what you think about where I’m at now. I love my body AT EVERY STAGE. And even if I weren’t sure about that, my boyfriend takes every opportunity he can to tell me how beautiful I am. So, I write about what works for me, what inspires me, and what I love. If you don’t like what I have to say, feel free to respectfully disagree. But seriously, sending anonymous messages saying that I’m fat so I clearly have no right to talk about fitness and no idea what is healthy is just ignorant. So quit with your body shaming because I’m just not interested.
Alright, I’ll get down off my soapbox now. I just needed to get that out of my system.
3,000 Fans, WHAT?! Guess it is time for a Giveaway!!
Okay, so I know that I am a bit late, but it is finals week, so you’ll have to forgive me. 
Anyway, you guys are such rockstars and I never imagined when I started my page on Facebook that I would at some point be reaching thousands of people. Truly, it blows my mind and is so incredibly humbling. So to celebrate hitting 3,000 fans last week, it’s time for a giveaway!! Go to the link below to enter and please, please, please share with your friends and family for a chance to win a $25 Target gift card and some other fun swag! Winner will be announced Saturday, May 11, so get to clickin’!
https://www.facebook.com/ProjectGirlGetFit?sk=app_228910107186452
Spartan Warriors!
Sometimes races just don’t go like you planned – sometimes for the better, sometimes frustratingly much worse. Saturday morning was definitely one of those mornings. After working until 10 pm at night on Friday, I had packed myself into the car and hit the road to head down to Shelbyville, IN, where I was going to crash for the Spartan Sprint the next day in Laurel. To say it was a long drive is an understatement. I’m sure that when I signed up for the race that I looked it up and saw just how far it was to get there, but I probably assumed that I’d take the day off Friday and drive down, instead of heading out after a long shift. Either way, that’s how it ended up and I got into Shelbyville at about 3:30 in the morning Indiana time. Yes, they have a time change even though they are in the middle of the Midwest and no one else does. How goofy.
Anyway, Melanie and I got up the next morning ready to hit the road and get to the race. On the hour drive there, we both ‘fessed up that we had considered not coming to the race, but the thought that three of us had signed up and the other 2 were probably expecting us made each of us decide just to come anyway. Haha. When we finally arrived in Laurel, it was like the weird creepy town that time forgot. On the road we passed this house with a decently wooded backyard and all of the sudden you could see this old metal child’s bedframe and a halfway rotted out carousel pony tucked into the trees. Creepy……
We finally arrived at Haspin Acres and got checked in. However, when we went to put our stuff in bags to check, they all kept busting open! Apparently it wasn’t from our trying to shove too much stuff into it, but just because the bags were low quality. One of the race volunteers said that everyone’s bags kept breaking. Hmmm, poor planning there….
So we meet up with our third runner, Gwen, who is a buddy of mine from the gym and we get set to race. At least this time it wasn’t freezing out and when the sun was shining, it was decently warm. We started at 11:30 am with the rest of the Chicago Spartan team, though after probably the first 20 minutes, we didn’t see them again for the rest of the race. We were content to be fairly slow runners, walking whenever we needed it. And we needed it a lot because this course was ALL HILLS. I mean ALL. And not gradual hills, oh no, hugely steep hills, covered in slick mud or loose dirt, so that the chances of falling were pretty high. Add to that that I have not been A+ on my running lately and pretty soon, my calves were burning and I was hating the sight of more hills. Though we pretty much stayed together, it was more that Mel and Gwen would walk/jog ahead and then would wait for me to catch up. While this was great in theory since they got a break, it kind of sucked for me because we’d move on as soon as I got there. Granted, I definitely took a few breaks of my own and at times would just stop us all and say I needed a minute. That was actually super frustrating because I KNOW that I am a better athlete than that and I kind of felt like I was sucking the entire course.
The obstacles weren’t too bad. A lot were repeats from when Mel and I did the Super in October with our team, but it was the crazy hilly terrain that really made the race a huge challenge. Gwen was hilariously perky though, keeping us laughing the whole time, whether it was proclaiming that this was the best day EVER or remembering (a little too late) that she was scheduled to have a boudoir photo shoot the next day and hmmm, permanent marker, bumps, scrapes, and bruises would just photograph wonderfully. Haha. At some point, and trust me, I couldn’t even tell you how we got there, we decided our made up team name (in keeping with the last Spartan Race tradition of Team F*** Casey) was going to be Team Spartan Giraffe. I’m sure we were pretty entertaining for the other runners on the course with our random throwing up of our hands and making weird animal noises…. because who really knows what sound a giraffe makes, so you couldn’t tell us we were wrong! We hit everything from cat purring to doves cooing to random phases like “Ow!’ Apparently, I was the well-educated, verbal giraffe….
Unfortunately, at about mile 3.5, after completing the sandbag carry up and down a hill, I had to concede that my hip problems were flaring up (probably because of some major spills I took early on in the race) and that I needed to be smart enough to not finish the race rather than pushing through. I was extremely frustrated because I HATE quitting, but my hip was already grinding in its socket and I was having problems walking on flat ground, let alone traverse another mile or two of hills and obstacles. Thankfully, we were close enough to the finish that I could cut across the parking lot and wait for my team mates to finish there. So that’s what I did.
I walked over to the festival area, got our gear, and after taking a look at the 30 minute wait for the garden hose showers, I elected to go jump in the lake to wash off. HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, was it cold! Myself and about 10 other men had decided to use the lake instead of the showers and all of us were hopping around, trying to wash off as quickly as we could. I ended up wading out to about waist level and just dunking. I rinsed out my hair and my clothes, before returning to shore and grabbing my towel. I may have forgotten that my change of clothes were in the car, so I ended up in my sports bra and capris, with a towel wrapped around me. Thank goodness the sun was fully out now, so that it was pretty warm.
Real Spartan women wash off in the lake! Wet and mostly clean after that icy water.
Melanie and Gwen finished with huge smiles and Mel finally succeeded in her goal to hug the gladiators at the end, so everyone was happy. Mel even went and grabbed a medal for me, even though I didn’t officially finish. The girls went to wash up in the lake and then we went to the changing tents so Gwen could get dressed and Mel could rinse out her race shoes. By that time, I was tired of wet clothes, so I stripped and like the Spartan chick I am, proceeded to walk around in just my towel til we got back to the car.
Walking around in my towel after the race. Clearly I have little to no modesty left.
Newest Spartan woman: Gwen!
Melanie, our repeat Spartan runner and cheerleader extraordinnaire!
Then it was time for warm clothes and food! Yum food! We ended up stopping at Cracker Barrel for lunch before beginning the long trek home. I ended the day sunburned, bruised and scraped up, cut from barbed wire, and with a throbbing hip, but in a great mood from fun with two of my good friends. Even though I was frustrated about not being able to finish, it was a great race and I’m so glad that we inducted Gwen into our little group of obstacle course race lovers!
My barbed wire battle wound from one of the obstacles. Thank goodness my tetanus shots were all up to date!
Training for a Tri
At the beginning of the year, one of the new goals that I set for myself was to complete my first triathlon this year. My middle sister has been racing them for a couple years and always RAVES about how much she loves them. To the point that she is racing not one, but TWO half Iron Mans this year. Crazy, crazy.
Initially, I had looked into doing a super sprint, which is basically about half the distance of a normal sprint triathlon. For anyone who isn’t tri crazy and wouldn’t know (just like I wouldn’t have a few short months ago), a sprint is typically about a 1/2 mile swim, followed by a 14 mile bike, and ending with a 5k run, or 3.1 miles. Plus, it was in August, which would give me plenty of time to train… Or to slack off on training until crunch time, which c’mon, is clearly more likely to happen. My procrastination doesn’t just hit on my schoolwork. Wah, wah. Oops!
Anyway, when Lifetime Fitness announced that they were starting a new race series called Esprit de She with Athleta, I was SUPER pumped! I immediately snagged a spot running in their 5k over the summer. I saw that they were running a tri as well, just down in Naperville instead of downtown Chicago, but was hesitant to commit for a couple reasons.
#1 – Full tri’s are WAY more expensive than running races! Makes sense since they have 3x the work to do, but still, the one sprint I did look at was like $125 for the race. Eek!
#2 – Full tri’s are WAY longer! I am a decent runner, but swimming? Please. I can slow stroke wherever I need to go and not drown, but people will probably finish the race in the time it would take me just to swim. And spending 14 miles on a bike?! My vagina is already protesting.
#3 – You have to get up at the crack of dawn just to set up. And then you may not start for several hours. Um, hi, I am NOT a morning person to begin with, but getting up to set up and then not starting right away? Sounds like a bad idea to me.
So you may ask yourself, why on Earth are you talking about this race if you came up with a list of reasons not to do it? Well, for one thing, it wasn’t this race specifically, it was all tri’s. And secondly, let’s face it, I’m a stubborn pain in the ass, so I come up with reasons why I shouldn’t do something or don’t want to and then do it anyway. What can I say? Sometimes, I am a stereotypical fickle woman that changes her mind. The cliche does say it’s my prerogative.
Sorry, getting off track. Anyway, the point is that I got this ROCKSTAR opportunity to not only get out there and try a tri, but also to write for the Esprit de She series and represent Lifetime Fitness, which we all know I’m madly in love with, as a race blogger for their Naperville triathlon. Plus, it gave me the incentive to dig around and see just what kind of awesomeness I could find at Lifetime to kick my butt into gear for this race since it is in dum, dum, DUM …. 7 1/2 weeks! Eep!
So first things first, I hit up my triathlon superstar sister to brainstorm a solid training plan to get me to where I need to be for the race. We’re talking 6 days a week of really pushing yourself workouts (for me, not for her. These are probably not even her warm-ups. Crazy girl.) Incredible woman that she is, she sat down and planned out what I needed to work on and set me up with a schedule and everything. Like I said, she’s pretty much a BAMF. It must be genetic. *wink*
Tri training planning with middle sis Meaghan and her puppy Griffin
Once I had a good idea of what kind of training I needed to be doing, I hit up Lifetime‘s website, www.mylt.com, to see what resources I could find there. And let me tell you how continually wowed I am by this place. Pretty much, if you need it, they have it and 80% of the time, it’s free. Makes me tres glad that I decided to become a member there. Seriously. The slightly higher membership cost? Totally worth it.
Specifically for this race, Lifetime offers a couple different things that I am totally taking advantage of. The first being Run Club. Lifetime’s Run Club meets a couple of times a week to go on group runs and is headed up by at least one run coach who is an employee and has several years of running experience. Basically, they are going to help you become a better runner and if you ask, they can help you design a training program to get you to where you want to be. The other cool thing? You don’t have to be training to clock some miles with them. Tuesday nights are their social run night. Not just in Chicago, but across the entire country. It’s a little different for each club, but they also get together a couple times during the week and on Saturdays too, so if you can’t make one time, there are always more.
Not going to lie, I was a little reluctant to join the Run Club in the past because I am a) vaguely shy, b) have never run in a group before, and c) SUPER SLOW, like if I were worried at all about other people’s thoughts, I’d be embarrassed. Lol, good thing that I don’t sweat it. Anyway, I sucked it up and decided to join the group for a run recently. And wow, was I wrong. It was a great group of people, all of whom were REALLY nice. Not that I didn’t think they’d be nice, but you know what I mean. Any tension or self-consciousness that I felt about being new was easily resolved by this welcoming group of people. Plus, the coach was pretty stellar and made me feel great about myself as a runner, even though I know I’m no great shakes. I left being totally won over and will probably be connecting with them whenever my crazy schedule allows in order to get some good training in.
Now, since I had locked down a good place and pace for running, which I’m already okay at, it was time to dig into the biking and swimming parts of my training. So I decided to try one of the club’s cycling classes. Lifetime doesn’t call it spin class, they call it cycling club, but unless I’m missing some fine detail, it comes out about the same to me. While it was a great experience and one that I will do again, I was definitely hurting the next day. My girly bits were NOT happy about my choice of workout and decided to let me know loud and clear. However, that one was probably my own fault because I pushed hard and tried my best to keep up with the class, despite being the new kid. After class, the instructor gave me some serious props for only taking two breaks in an hour-long class. Apparently most people are smart enough to ease into it…. who knew?! Since I haven’t been able to make it back yet, I’ve been hitting the bikes on my own and I can’t wait for this crazy rain to stop, so that I can get out and clock some real miles on a real bike on a real path. Is it spring yet?
For anyone like me who is a junk swimmer that can basically not drown and that’s about it, don’t worry, Lifetime‘s got the hook up for you too. They offer everything from personal swim lessons to group lessons to something called Masters classes, which are basically a more advanced swim technique kind of class. Sadly, none of them are free, but that makes sense since there are way fewer swim coaches as general employees that cycling or running instructors who teach other classes or are personal trainers. But still, the cost is pretty darn reasonable and they are a great group of people. I was able to chat with a few and can see why people are so successful working with them. Unfortunately, between school, work, internship, homework, and my regular training, I’m way unavailable to work with these folks, so I’ll just keep clocking my 10:30 pm Friday night swims. Yeah buddy, talk about a rockin’ social life. *wink* Just kidding. It’s right after my shift at work, so it’s a great way to unwind and get a good workout in after hours upon hours of folding towels.
So, there you have it, I’m busting my butt and getting ready to rock my first tri this summer with Lifetime’s Esprit de She race series in Naperville on June 9. I’d love to see some of you bad ass fitness ladies and gents there, but if you can’t make it, be sure to check out their other events around the country and get in on their inaugural year of what promises to be a pretty awesome race series, including triathlons, duathlons, and road races. Plus, check out the sweet swag you get for signing up for this race!
Love to Boston
Shock and grief rippled across the nation again yesterday as explosions went off at the Boston Marathon, killing three and wounding over 100. The closest explosion was less than 150 yards from the finish line, a place where thousands of runners and their families congregate to reunite and celebrate the accomplishment of finishing such a well-known race. For some, that finish was never to come.
The ensuing hours were full of confusion and chaos as first responders and police worked to care for the injured and investigate the situation. Though two IEDs went off, police were fortunately able to locate another 2 before they were detonated and save that many more people from peril.
I personally knew a handful of people that were running in the marathon yesterday, as well as having several contacts through my various fitness groups that had planned to run. One of these incredible ladies talked about how she was just down the street when the first of the explosions went off. She had previously had to slow down a bit and reflected on the fact that if she had kept up her pace, she would have been right there when it occurred. Scary thought, huh?
However, runners are a different breed. We band together, we rally, and most importantly, we persevere. So it is unsurprising that rather than breaking down into a panic induced riot, many runners either came to the aid of victims or finished the race and kept going right on to the hospital to donate blood for the injured parties. What a statement of strength.
I was at work when I heard about the tragedy in Boston, in the middle of an 8 hour shift at the health club, where it immediately became the main topic of conversation. I was talking to one of my co-workers about the evolution of terror that has occurred over the past several decades. Initially, if someone wanted to strike out, there was usually some sort of assassination attempt, whether it be at the President or some other well known figure. However, that is only one person and while we as a nation always mourn those losses, there is inevitably someone else who can step up and take the reins. Well, that isn’t the long lasting kind of effect that the people, the ones that like to inflict damage and hurt others, are looking for. So what have they done? They have realized that it is more painful, more effective, and more unlikely to be able to be prevented when they strike out at random events, hurting and killing innocent people. And so that is what has become the reality of underhanded scare tactics.
But I think that they forgot to take one thing into account, something that I have seen over and over in the past 24 hours. That instead of cowering in fear, we are banding together, standing strongly united against any comers who would think to try to bully or scare us. In the years since 9/11, America has refused to go quietly, but fights back. We take on a mentality of ‘Just try to stop us. We are stronger than you’ll ever know and we will never let you run us off. I’m right here. If you want me, come and get me.’ It would be easier to just lay down and take it. It would be more comfortable to bunker down in our houses and protect our children and say, “I want you safe, so stay right here.” It’s natural. I can’t tell you how many phone calls and messages I got last night from people thinking of me because I’m a runner. Because I participate in those big race events (not marathons, but still events with thousands of participants). Because that easily could have been in Chicago in a race I was in.
But I refuse to give in. I refuse to live in a culture of fear or to let this tragedy stop me from getting out there and living my life. Because that is when they really win. So today I, like thousands of runners across the US, will put on a race shirt and lace up my sneakers and hit the pavement in support of Boston. To show them we love them. To show them that we care and are thinking of them. And to show the cowardly bastards that attacked them that we are not ever going to go quietly. So please, just try to stop us.
Thankful Thursday, Throwback Thursday, I Mean They All Start with “Th”
So, there are a lot of blog/website people who have this great routine of posts that they do every week, whether it is the weekly chase on Monday to post goals, What I Ate Wednesday, or Thankful Thursday/Throwback Thursday (whichever you prefer). Clearly, I am usually not one of them. I eat a lot of the same food over and over, so I’m guessing you probably don’t want to see my steak and asparagus dinners every week. Lol. Plus, since I started this blog for me, I tend to write when I am inspired by something and worry less about how consistently I am posting for people. If you want consistent, go check me out on FB, I guarantee, you’ll get more posts daily than you thought possible. 
But as for here, well, I’m only concerned about writing when I really have something to say.
That being said, I decided that today, since it was such a nasty, gray, rainy day here, that I would practice an attitude of gratitude instead of bitching about the weather, so here are a few things that I am thankful for today.
Steak and asparagus… It is literally my favorite meal. Make it for me and I’m yours.
That I’ve lost enough weight to be able to only have to use one towel at the gym. Superficial sounding, I know, but it’s more about representing how far I’ve come than being small enough for that.
Good movies. I love them! But I’m a big nerd for Lord of the Rings….
Country music! Sigh. Nothing better.
I’m thankful for my goofy siblings!
And just to follow the crowd a bit, here’s a throwback for this rainy Thursday since it was on the radio this week.
Oh Bone Thugs N Harmony… I love you, but you make it really clear how super white I am. :-\
Oops! I Broke My Vagina
I broke my vagina…. aka I decided to try a cycling class and holy mother of god are those bikes uncomfortable. Especially if you are a big girl like yours truly.
I mean, overall, I liked the class. The instructor, Traci, was awesome – super nice and energetic, but not overly perky while the rest of us were dying, the music was great, the energy was high, and she put on Lord of the Rings for part of it, so hey, she’s already got my vote. We started off nice and slow with a warm-up over a couple of songs before getting down to business. And after about a half hour, I was ready for the class to be over. Not because I wasn’t enjoying it, I definitely was, but because my butt was starting to get really sore from sitting in the saddle so long. I mean, really?! Is it too much to ask for a little padding?? And someone tell me, what is with these goofy pedals with the clips on them?
But, since I am not a quitter, I just kept on pushing. Granted, I took multiple breaks throughout the class, whether that was just pausing for a couple seconds or sitting out an entire song because I simply couldn’t handle sitting anymore. That was actually the funny part. My legs were totally fine. I mean, burning from pushing hard, but not painful and not giving out. It was my butt that was preventing me from really taking advantage of the last 20 or so minutes of class. I participated, but not at the same level as before and definitely not as quickly. Which was insanely frustrating because in my head, if I was taking a break or slowing down or anything, it should have been because my legs were worn out, not because I couldn’t stand to sit on that darned bike seat anymore!
We wrapped up class with some stretching and I felt exhausted, but accomplished, despite my breaks and sore bottom and all. I stopped and talked with Traci after class to check in about what I thought. I told her that I loved it, didn’t expect to be quite so sore. She laughingly told me that was perfectly normal and to just wait until the next morning.
As I headed to bed that night, I could DEFINITELY feel the soreness really starting to set in and wondered how this would affect my training with Dan the next day. Maybe I should just call him and cancel? But what do I say? “Hey Dan, it’s Casey. I can’t come in tomorrow….. Why? Oh, because I broke my vagina. Sorry. See you Friday.” Haha, that would have been quite a call. Instead, I decided to just toughen up and push through it, but here I am, sitting at practicum two days later and I’ll let you in on a secret…. My butt is still sore.
Lesson learned? Find some padded shorts or buy a bike seat cover before hitting cycling class again.
QOTD: Have you ever had to learn a fitness lesson the hard way? What was it?
