friend-ly fitness

operation workin' on my fitness continues!

so far this year, i've done two half marathons and an 8K.  not too bad, right?  plus i've been doing various workouts via my streaming netflix and my small stash of DVDs.  i think i'm doing something active at least 4-5 times a week these days.  the teen and i tried spinning class, and then a few weeks ago took a free introductory class at wundabar, a local pilates studio.  it was really cool - they have their own patented machine that you do all sorts of muscle-shaking exercises on that was super effective even after just one class.

too bad it's too stinking expensive for my taste - we're talking $200 a pop for a series of ten classes.  ouch.  between me and the teen, we'd blow through those on a monthly basis.  um, i don't think so.

however, we've found a great alternative that's much more budget-friendly and even more fun, if that's even possible when we're talking about workouts.  my friend kelley re-launched her free weekly fit club classes on monday evenings at her mini-me's preschool in pasadena.  and she made it even more parent-friendly by making a babysitter available for a whopping $5.  i've been going for the last month-ish, dragging the teen with me whenever she's home, and lilcee started coming too, with mr. lilcee and mini cee.  the bean loves to see her friends for a weekly playdate, and it all works out perfectly.

the programs we've been doing are all beachbody products - p90x, 10-minute trainer, insanity (which more than lives up to its name. i thought i was gonna die).  it's always a challenging workout, and a rough ass 45ish minutes.  here we are after last week's turbofire session:

you can't really tell, but i looked like i'd just taken a shower in my clothes.  total wet rat city over here.  it was gross, and it was a good thing we weren't having dinner together afterwards.  no restaurant in its right mind would've let me in.

so in other running news, i've entered the lottery with a group of awesome friends for the nike women's half in san francisco this october.  we've already decided that if we don't get selected (like about 4 years ago when we were shit outta luck), we're going to plan a girls' trip anyway.  the deadline for entering is tonight, and i hear that they do the drawing shortly thereafter.  if you're wondering why it's so popular, i've got two words for you:  tiffany's necklace.  as in, that's what we're given as our finisher's medal.  plus i hear there's all sorts of fun swag in the goody bags and a beautiful course to boot.  i really hope we get in.  all good luck vibes are welcome.

i'm also signed up for the pasadena marathon's 10K, a silly-sounding 5K pajama run, a 5K benefiting the liz logelin foundation that we'll do at the rose bowl, plus the disneyland half.  remember, my goal was to run some sort of race at least once a month (although i blew it in march, boo) - so i'm currently on the lookout for something to cover july and august.  of course, the two hottest freaking months of the year.

if someone had told me a year ago what i'd be up to these days, i'd probably have farted from laughing so hard.  like, seriously - who AM i?  sheesh.

partyin', partyin', YEAH

did you ever go to sadie hawkins dances in high school?

hell, my school wasn't cool enough to have any of those.  although it's pretty fun to think back and mull over the choices i would've had to pick from to ask as my date.  heh.

anyway, the teen just had hers last weekend.  because of a miscommunication of the actual day of the dance, she ended up dateless for the actual event.  boo.  but my girl is resilient - she didn't let that stop her from going anyway and having a great time.  i actually wonder if she had more fun because she went stag.

the giant group she was going with met up at one of the girls' homes in the schwanky part o'town.  when we walked in, i muttered to her out of the corner of my mouth "dude.  there's a horse in their house."  and then i pretended to check my camera as i snapped this.

i know.  i know - i'm totally an asshole for taking photos of the inside of this house.  but i couldn't stop myself, and i didn't even get any shots of the really...um, interesting pieces of decor.  check this out, though - it was like the freaking sistine chapel up in there.

the girl's parents must be very patriotic, though.

and i thought it was nice of them to set out refreshments for the parents who came to take pictures of their precious darlings.  yes, me included, but i didn't partake.

when the party bus arrived, the driver required each passenger to sign a "no alcohol" policy.  sweet.

i heard he was also making each parent sign a waiver basically taking all responsibility for any damages possibly incurred to the bus.  too bad he never got around to me.  muahahahahahaha.

the kids were all dressed really casually - logo tees (each couple wore matching ones, how cute), jeans, and converse tennies.  here's the teen with her girls.

rock-ell wanted a shot with yours truly, which i thought was sweet.

quite the bus they rode in - i always laugh at this, since dances are always at school.  which is literally down the street.  but they do it up for dances, this time heading to downtown disney for pre-party dinner and then getting dropped off at school in style.

ugh, yes.  that is indeed a pole in there.  UGH.

the teen loves to ham it up.  wonder where she got that from?  i just don't know.

it was hilarious listening to her stories about the evening.  and i was so happy when she mentioned being a bit sore after all that dancing.  because if you know my kid, you'll know that shakin' her booty in public ain't her thang.  i guess she decided it was better to just let it loose and go with the flow.

so yay, she got in a workout too!  go operation bathing suit 2012!

spinning is stupid

the teen and i are knee-deep in what i'm now calling "operation bathing suit 2012."  along with my runs and DVD workouts, i've been trying to add some variations to my exercise routine.  discovering all sorts of great exercise videos via netflix has helped, and i've been busy trying out different ones over the last few weeks.  except that this resulted in MAJOR soreness after revisiting level 1 of jillian michaels' "ripped in 30," which i'd been doing fairly well before.  that's a good thing, though, i guess.

anyway, after seeing a friend post on facebook about a local spin studio, i got a bug up my butt to try my first spinning class.  pedaling on a stationary bike with occasional spurts of standing up and stuff?  it couldn't be that bad, could it?

um, hell yes it can.

i managed to rope the teen into signing up with me to take a free introductory class at pedal spin studio in claremont.  after dropping the bean off at the grandparents' for some quality time, we fought rush hour traffic and got there right as the class was about to start.  bummer - we'd really hoped to get there a little early to have the instructor help us get the bikes adjusted properly, but we barely had time to figure it out ourselves before the fun began.

the teen's stepmom apparently loves doing this shit, so she was somewhat familiar with the whole process.  we had to split up, with lucky me getting stuck with a bike right in front of the class - and the instructor.  damn.  so much for sluffing my way through the tough parts.  but she was upbeat and perky and stuff, and with the clubbin' lights on and the music nice and loud, i tried to get into it and follow along as best as i could.

it was really effing rough, man.  she had us cranking up the resistance as high as it would go, standing up, pumping the pedals as hard and fast as possible, and holy mother of good god.  that seat (saddle?) was not the most comfy thing on earth, and i prayed that i wasn't breaking my lady bits all to pieces with this experiment.

i was drenched in sweat and out of water by the end of the hour.  and i was already sore.  damn.  ain't doing that shit again.  i'd rather do a long run - and i HATE those.

next door, we spotted our next adventure:  pilates on a fantastical-looking machine.

i've already got us signed up for our free trial class next week.  heh.

as we hobbled our way back through the parking lot to the car, i spotted something familiar on the ground.  and as i pointed it out to the teen, who snatched it up like it was a cookie during PMS time, she flipped out as she spied a second one out of the corner of her eye.

there wasn't a single soul around.  so, finders keepers, right?  i mean, what would YOU have done?  i'll show you what WE did:

let's just say that dinner that night was particularly tasty.