Ten-ish Things: Spin

Back in the early spring I started walking again.  A few years ago, walking and Weight Watchers helped me loose 50 lbs.  Since then I had been a pretty sporadic exerciser.  This time around, walking was just a'ight for me.  I was bored out of my mind...prayer, music, hypnosis...none of it was helping.  (Just kidding I didn't try hypnosis.) And it was KILLING my calves.  I never did figure it out, but my calves were begging me to STOP WITH THE WALKING ALREADY! in all caps and exclamation marks.

So, for my birthday, Honey gave me a gift certificate to a local fitness center.  Risky choice?  Yes.  But he had been listening to me complain about walking for so long, he thought I might enjoy a change.  The gift certificate paid for me to take 10 classes, and Honey even went to tour the place and ask questions and find out everything I needed to know about when the classes were scheduled and who the best instructors were for beginners.

It took me about 3 weeks to work up the courage to actually go to a class.  In 37 years of life, I had never been to an exercise class at a gym with other people.

Unless you count Curves.

Anyway, I chose spin...partly because I'd never done it before and I knew the challenge would keep me motivated...partly because I don't have a spin bike at home, so if I was going to pay to exercise, it was going to be something that I couldn't do for free.  But mostly because the class was "intro to spinning" and I was the only one there.

That was the last week of May.  And I've been going to the gym, to spin and lift weights and sweat, 4 times a week ever since.  Crazy, huh?  I actually enjoy it.

I always snap a pic of the bike computer while we're cooling down.  That says that I rode 20.2 miles in 56 mins 58 seconds and I burned 425 calories.  If you're keeping Weight Watchers points at home, that's 12 activity points!

It had me at 12 activity points.  The most I'd ever earned at one time was 4.

We traveled a lot this summer and when we were gone, I missed working out.  

Now we know I'm crazy.

About 3 weeks in to the spin classes, the fitness center was hosting a cycling group to raise money for MS.  They moved all the spin bikes outside and you could pay $5 to ride with the Carney Men. I convinced Honey to go with me.  

When we got there we realized that the bikes were set up at the entrance of the building, on the busiest street in town, mid-morning on a Saturday.  And the local news cameras were there.  

Filming.

We put 30 minutes in on the bikes and walked with purpose to the car when the 2nd and 3rd news station arrived.

By the time we got home, Bubba had found the fitness center on Facebook and was showing us pictures of ourselves riding.

Three weeks of spin and I'm riding in front of our entire town and the surrounding area here for the weekly mall/Sam's Club run.  That's progress, y'all. 

We're home for a while and in control of our schedules and diets.  I've given myself a 90 day challenge...I want to ride 500 miles and loose some weight.  We'll see...

What craziness have you gotten in to this summer?