Thursday, March 3, 2011

Rainbow Plans, My First Spin Class: Pros & Cons

So fun!! MANY of you are eating rainbows- it seems I'm the one who needs to catch up! (imagine that!) I will though - i'm really working on finding 'rainbow recipes.' I find that my meals are 'one pot' meals and don't include a lot of veggies - but for us, the breakfast ones do well with a side of fruit, and the dinners do well with a side of our favorite veggies (chopped broccoli, sauteed mushrooms, zucchini, etc.) or a small salad. From here on out, i'm going to make sure I note what veggies go best with which dishes and take a picture with them, in addition to the one pot meals that have lots of veggies in them so you don't have to make a side! This made me laugh over at Natalie Dee... Rainbows make everything better. haha

Today i'm home with the baby pups - YAY! Here are some pics I snapped on Sunday - Reuben yawning and Remy dozing!
Love these babies - you can see Molly's hand (my treasured object from Monday's post) in this picture on the left! haha

K - on to yesterday. I worked, took my lunch break to walk 3.5 miles, worked more, and then after work I headed to the gym. The plan was to walk a few more miles then take a 7 p.m. Bodyworks class. However, in the locker room I saw women in bike shorts so I asked - is there a cycle class tonight? She said yeah, right now - come on! So I just sucked it up and stopped talking about going to a spin class and just took one. I felt like an idiot a lot - you know, not knowing how to get my wheels to pop out, how to get my feet in, how to set up my bike, etc. - but everyone was SO sweet and helpful! This made me laugh.... hehe

So far, here are my Pros & Cons to Spin Class (based on my first experience - i'm sure these will change):

Pros: I was sweating bullets within 5 minutes - great workout; my legs are super sore today - in a good way; the class went by FAST - all of the up and down and fast and slow - the hour was gone before I knew it; the music was good - loved how it was dark in there - very cozy; it didn't hurt my foot... very much. May need to get shoes if I decide to do this for reals.

Cons: Hard to get set up (if you're a beginner I'd advise going early unlike me!); still not sure about the resistance thing - again need to get help; I was wearing the wrong shorts - my inner legs HURT - going to get the right shorts!

So really - the cons, to me, are all around not being prepared which, admittedly, I wasn't! I had no intentions of attending the class. So i'm going to get some cycle shorts (which are going to look horrible on me - but it's better then chafing, right?). And, when I attend my next class, i'm going to arrive early so I can ask questions about the set up (and write down the settings that feel right) and the resistance. Next time i'll wear an HRM too!

So after spin class, I took the 1-hour body pump class. Another great class - this one focused on a lot of dead lifts, lunges and shoulders. They cover everything, but you know sometimes one thing sticks out more than another! After both classes I was ready to get home

Q: Have you ever taken a spin class? If so, what do you like best about them and what do you like least? And what do you WEAR? (i'm SUCH a girl)