NO THING

Tomorrow is booked. Gee what a surprise.  It almost feels like I have to get a ticket from a sick friend.  Nonetheless I have to try and be one of the 8 if I can get there early enough.  Even the 6 AM class is full. I will look on the schedule to see what other class Kristen teaches because I know she didn’t get those guns by spinning alone. 

I want to make spinning part of my health regimen and I just think that it makes so much sense in terms of what you can accomplish in the space of 45 minutes or if our intestinal fortitude is up for it, the 60-minute version. For me it’s the undiscovered country. I love the idea that you can take it to the limit and then be able to face the day with this kind of a workout under your belt.  Those marathon days are gone but I can live on the edge once again in KG’s class. 

The hard part for me is not craning my neck to the clock behind me to see what the elapsed time is at least for the first 15 minutes.  Dontcha love it when Kristen says: "Just 20 more minutes, that’s NOTHING!”. Well it might be No Thing to you Ms. Olympia but 20 minutes takes on monumental proportions especially with the amount of  ‘road’ I have on the bike.  Kidding aside I just love this class and in some bizarre way I used to dread my trips to the gym at times when I worked maybe half as hard. Now I am excited again. It’s a cool thing especially for this old man.

Texas Will Just Have to Wait for Her

The new bikes are GREAT!  Yes they need getting used to but change is usually difficult even though we claim to be desirous of it.  Anyway in this economy we have a club that is on the leading edge for providing us equipment that is let’s face it top of the line. (I do not work for Equinox)

If you were in the 945 AM class yesterday we got an unexpected treat: Kristen off the bike and doing a stand up routine that had me feeling self-conscious at first but as the class went on I started to appreciate and enjoy her gesticulations as only she can perform them.  Her passion reminds me of me as she is deeply embedded in her craft.  She loves what she does and God does it show!  The authenticity she exudes is unparalleled.  It would be so easy for her as the physical specimen she is to just go through the motions but not our KG.

Let us not forget that we need to acknowledge her if not for her as a person (I almost said woman) but for the excellence she hands out to us on a silver platter.  There is no one I know of that is more excited about what they do than she. 

I loved it when she said to one of the female riders to get dirty and sweat.  After all it is the very nature of the class that what we are trying to do is look good outside the studio and that is one of the reasons why we are here. But we can allow ourselves to look wet and disheveled as much as we want because no one will do a double take on us inside. For those of you that have hair, you have to let your hair down and for those of us like yours truly I have to feel comfortable with my mouth agape trying to suck in as much air into my lungs so I can keep up with all of you pros.

My Dog on the Leash

A deep sigh and I was wide-awake. I turned in my bed and spied the digital clock above the TV and it spoke to me: Kristen’s Spin Class you need to go.  I glanced over at the partially open window and heard the steady rain and hunkered back down under the covers.  I said to myself I need to sleep and catch up on the shuteye I deserve. Well needless to say I felt this very strong invisible hand that pulled me right out from under the covers and I began to dress and dress quite quickly.  And with each passing moment I felt my excitement grow but my worry was  would I get a seat?  First on the waiting list and my worry was over as Kristen said: “you have a great chance”. 

I need to say something about this class and tell you that we are witnessing a phenomenon in the making. Kristen has been at Equinox for what 4 or 5 years now and I never gave her the props she needs to see and hear well I am giving it now. Take a look at how hard it is to get a bike.  I feel like this class is the hottest show on Broadway and tickets are like hen’s teeth.  My selfish worry is that she will be answering a call that takes us from our midst and so I will cherish yes cherish each and every ride how ever many that remain. 

What about my story? It’s in here and I will just say To Be Continued.

For the Love of God!

Venturing into KG’s one-hour class this past Thursday was a leap of faith. I had been in the 45-minute versions almost exclusively but in this winter break I was able to secure a bike in prime time. I hadn’t thought much about the extra 15 minutes until Kristen said “you will feel like giving up today.” Now I’ve completed 17 marathons and 3 ultra marathons and was a DNF (did not finish) in just one. My mind turned to that one time and I started to doubt my own resolve but I couldn’t stand the embarrassment of unclipping and getting off my bike and waltzing unceremoniously out of the studio.

When I heard Kristen talk about her 6-year-old son as he said to her “For the love of God, you’re teaching again?” That was all I needed to dismiss this qualm and I settled back into my gel seat and gone was any notion that I was in any way quitting. I took on the face of the 17 races I had completed and the 1 I didn’t vanished with my next breath.

In this class we have heard a lot about the Hard Zone and going anaerobic, And my awareness of being out of breath and being accustomed to it has expanded and I am determined to visit this middle ground of the hard zone rather than just being out of breath the whole session. This will take discipline I thought but maybe it just comes with my rising fitness. The hard zone, breathing in through my nose and out my mouth takes concentration because the easier softer way is just to breath through my mouth.

But let’s get serious now; can I really escape being out of breath for virtually the whole session? “For the love of God” the answer is that I don’t know and my sense is that I’m okay with it. I am okay with it because my quality of life in the other 23 hours has already seen a marked improvement. My weight is dropping and my lungs are starting to take the size of a yellow physio ball. And I am starting to feel sorry for all my other Equinoxites that work out exclusively in the main room. Poor things they’re just going through their workouts in the infield while we are getting comfortable on the warning track and not afraid of hitting up against the outfield wall.

It's a Gift

The thing of it is you can’t give too much thought to how challenging our spin class is going to be on a particular day. Oh we will be challenged, we will be out of breath and we will sweat if we are here but outside of those givens, make no mistake about it, it is always a unique ‘ride’ And it would have to be because we are not just here for a workout are we? How could it be when her class is always filled?

However, staying out of mind rehearsal before we mount our bikes is a challenge and it keeps it a mystery. I try to accept that each class is singular unto itself because the music is different, what visual pictures KG describes for us to inspire our performance are never the same and how we are feeling that day all influence our ‘ride’. This is no cookie cutter class. Oh it would be still very challenging if Kristen used tried and true scripts to motivate us but what we have here is a gifted innovator/motivator who not only takes her vocation seriously but exhibits an authenticity most uncommon in any exercise physiologist I have ever known. In other words she cares and cares deeply about our progress and she does not revel in her popularity she uses it to challenge herself to make each succeeding class better than the one before. As someone once told me: “It’s a gift”.

Napoleon Solo

I went solo again today as my schedule just didn’t get me to class and I can tell you that spinning alone is a daunting task. I tried to imagine KG was up there today but it was not easy pretending that woman with the killer physiology was exhorting me on. Nonetheless I told you that somehow the elliptical machines are a thing of the past for me. Even the Stairmaster can’t compare because I can always hold onto the railings to fudge my workout. The bike however is the one true thing outside of running that will extract honesty from me. Honesty with myself is what I am talking about, the kind that says I am here and I need to give myself my level best even though there is no one to send me praise and witness my effort except for yours truly.

Napoleon Solo was one of the men from U.N.C.L.E. and these solo attempts have me crying uncle too.

One Step Beyond

Today I tried to simulate a class by myself in our CS and found that I had taken it one step beyond. I have been pushing the envelope lately seeing just how far I can take this out of breath thing and today I added one more cloud in my anaerobic sky.

I didn’t have our favorite instructor but I pretended she was up there in cycle 41 anyway. I relied on the clock for my intervals and that seemed to work for me. I used this session as a bolster for the two regular classes I take during the week. I want to commit to twice a week and leaving one to myself gives me the impetus to add one more down the line. However, I want to take human bites and still be able to come up for air if I need to.

Spinning allows me to revisit my running past without the wear and tear on my knees. In fact my knees are probably in the best shape of my life since I started this regimen. And KG’s quick stretch at the end of each session is not something I miss, as it seems to make all the difference when I bound downstairs to the waiting hot shower.

So its not as much fun without all my cycle mates and our leader but it feels like these extra sessions will make my other two even more powerful. And the new bikes are coming I almost can’t wait for that as well.

Out of Breath

One thing I am learning in my bi-weekly forays into this world of spinning is that being out of breath is starting to be comfortable in a sadistic way. Never did I think even during my running days that in the anaerobic state that I could be comfortable being out of breath. I guess I have rationalized that each time I spin it brings me closer to the fitness I felt as a long distance runner, where virtually every workout honed me for a faster time in my next race. I am not racing anymore but the feeling I am getting as I edge into my 60’s is that this is for my own personal satisfaction and that I have recaptured a portion of those days when I could run as much as 62 miles in 8 hours or run up the Empire State Buildings staircase.

Silent Movie

Each spinning class is a new adventure. It’s never the same even though we don’t go anywhere. The plot between our ears is always in Technicolor and today it was in Cinerama. (Maybe you’re too young to know what that is.)

I could see my own character development starting to unfold as well. I wasn’t holding back because my gas gauge was broke. I knew that I had enough in the tank, and if I ran out of fuel I could still call upon impulse power to finish in a flourish.

KG can see how much ‘road’ we have on our bikes which I had not even considered and it surprised me to hear her say “John back off on your resistance”. A silent affirmation that I was kicking my own ass. Why did I doubt it so? I have enough sports hernias to attest to that.

A loquacious man am I but for these 45 minutes I utter nary a word except for a few smiles and a plethora of pained expressions. But through it all I think I have left the main hall of aerobic machines for the sauna of the cycling studio.

Outside Your Comfort Zone

Body Surfing

I took my spin class today; with someone else at the helm his name was Tripp. Absent were the well choreographed scientific dance incantations that Kristen animates for me each week, but it was clear from the first few moments Tripp was and dare I say it going to be a trip.

Right out of the time tunnel of my past this angular man with a disheveled hairdo soon had me pounding my chest bringing me quickly to the anaerobic world KG had re-introduced me to. His chant “infinity on all sides” was one I had not heard before, but it resonated with me like a bell chime perfectly pitched and I was off yet again. As Tripp bounded on and off his bike dancing rhythmically nothing like Gene Kelly but nonetheless just as energetically, I knew I had found an alternative drumbeat I could cling to.

Body surfing was what came to my mind as I listened to Tripp barely audible above the music from my own adolescence. You might be familiar with this gearless beach sport in which you wade out waist deep and try to launch yourself on one of natures own thrill rides. What usually happens is you catch the wave, swallow a mouthful of salt water or get flipped over from the sheer force of the wave and end up on your back scraping the sand dazed and confused.

At the end of this ride I experienced all three. And by the time this ride was done, I was drenched in my own salt water, gasping for air and not wanting any more, at least not until next time.

Surrender to the Pain

When I heard these words I said: Oh yeah! God does that make sense I thought. The alternative, avoiding the pain or trying to fight the pain was not courage it was in fact cowardice. Yes that’s right you heard me correctly. Resisting pain unless we are Zen masters is futile. In fact surrendering to the pain carries with it priceless experience and motivation. Because when we surrender to the pain, it loses its power over us. Let’s examine that. When we struggle against it pain becomes a more formidable foe.

Think about it. We create a resistant energy that becomes fuel for pain. We think it lessens or alleviates some of its force. Oh but quite the contrary, pain sucks up resistance like oxygen added to a fire. It becomes a bigger inferno! The protection mechanism, the defensive posture that we adopt to avoid the pain gives it a wonderfully robust added excruciation.

Little do we know that if we slip into the pain we start to lessen its vice like grip and we can start to use its energy for our own purposes? Imagine having power over the pain. Think of the things we could do as we start to function in extraordinary ways that the pain kept us from even imagining.

What do I mean though? Let’s take my spinning class as an example into our little expose. When I get in that seat I know that not only will I not move from that spot I am in physically atop that stationary bike nor will I be able to get out of the seat to take a breather. After all I am locked in via my shoe clips and there is an inner voice that I must obey when Kristen says reach down for “more road” I am compelled to turn that resistance knob to the right. Now I hope I have set the stage for you because in her class pain is inevitable.

I try not to look at the clock via the mirrors in the cycling studio for at least what I perceive to be 15 minutes because that gives me time to adjust to the discomfort that I start to feel in the sides of my feet and how quickly my breathing starts to get out of control. Or as Kristen says “touching anaerobic” Touching it? I am caught in its web. She says breathe in through your nose and I see this as an exercise to deepen my characteristic shallow breathing.

As my discomfort sets in, I become accustomed to the feeling. And my brain starts to function inside the pain. This is not to say that it doesn’t exist but because I have accepted the pain I no longer have to think about avoiding it. Its just there and I can start actually thinking I can take on more pain. Because what lies beyond pain? Whoa have I ever given thought to that? I can eliminate death for sure so what does lie beyond pain? I think it’s a new set of rules that I can write. Because once I have surrendered to the pain, I might not only be able to tolerate it but also become stronger living with the pain instead of something I dread. Yes that’s it I befriend the pain because it starts to tell me where I am and I can start to see even greater God given talents I have never explored.

Thanks KG for the inspiration.

Reaching Under My Solar Plexus

I continue to be amazed about what a certain spinning class has taught me about internal resolve. In the mid 1970’s when I was neck deep in the running craze that had swept the nation, I learned to develop a deeper understanding about being uncomfortable in the anaerobic state. What I learned was that once I was unable to breathe through my nose I knew that I was running in an oxygen deficit activity that could only be relieved when the race was over.

Wait a minute now it’s 2010 and I am long past my competitive running days, why do I want to even talk about being out of breath and why am I challenging myself so hard at 59? First off my age is just a number that means nothing while I still breathe. Secondly part of me still wants to know just how far I can push myself. This class which is part Zen part 12 step gives me a sense that I am still very much alive and that my life challenges that still lie before me I can face and leave the doubts I have behind. Doubt can be a debilitating specter that hangs over me and leaves me breathless for inspiration to defeat it. Instead my spinning class has provided the metaphor that I don’t have to beat doubt it simply exists and it’s only the time spent dwelling on it that gives it its energy. I acknowledge it just like I would do any adversary and use its shadow energy to fuel my internal resolve.

Where does this resolve come from? For me I use the essence of all the marathons I did at half my age, which still resides underneath my solar plexus. I had forgotten that so many times I had to dig deep to finish those races and when I was out of breath it was pure determination that got me to that overhead digital clock and the end of the race. Now there is no finish line only the one that exists in the seconds Kristen counts down. I am finding that same determination that was just in a long slumber and it works just as well as it did 30 years ago. Its not about my age its just about my internal resolve which lies just underneath my solar plexus.

5 Seconds

Today we were graced with two of Equinox’s fine Trainers that came to spin and glancing at them I knew that Kristen could take even those two physical specimens to a higher level.

Why did 5 seconds seem to stand out for me today? I think it was because I kept hearing it and the fact that 5 seconds seemed a lot longer than I could ever imagine it being. Yeah but for 5 seconds anyone can break the pedals. I couldn’t collapse in 5 seconds. In fact for 5 seconds I could lay it all out there and hold nothing back. And that’s exactly what I did, left nothing only fumes to lumber down the stairs to a hot shower.

The thought occurred to me that this class is rejuvenating not only my physical energy levels but also my own passion to leap out of bed each day too. Let’s face it spin here with KG and how can anything during the day be any more challenging? No way! It’s like I could cut through grass a foot high and not stall.

Again today my inner voice was using some soft soap, making believe that I would take it just a little easier today because after all I have been busting it lately. But you see you just can’t lie to yourself that way. The collective consciousness in that room says in my mind that whispers: “just a little more road John”. And down goes my right hand to ramp up my effort.

Great stuff KG as always.

Bring it-Take it

This was a phrase my spinning class instructor used in a very crowded spinning studio this past Friday. She said, and I am paraphrasing that when she comes to work each day she will always “bring it” and it was up to us to “take it”. A little piece of Zen philosophy that gave me a shot of adrenaline as my pedaling seemed to pick up speed almost involuntarily as if my unconscious got the message before I could even roll those words around in my mind.

It made me think about my own potential that lies somewhat dormant during these times of economic turmoil. However, I thought it a great opening line to anyone that was within earshot that I came to meet in the course of my workweek. After all my vocation was people centered. A bit audacious but nonetheless a great nutcracker that might not open every suspect, but as long as it was authentic I needn’t care if some thought I was a nut they didn’t want to bite into.

So my spinning instructor became my didactic lady of the day. Because if we “bring it” no one will have any doubt about your intention. They might not agree with you but they will respect you for taking a stand. And with a stand we put forth our level best instead of a halfhearted attempt that sends us down the road of mediocrity. Now if we look at the other part of the phrase, the words “take it” we have to be prepared that just because we “bring it” doesn’t mean they will “take it”. And if they don’t “take it”, we cannot form a resentment if they don’t. If we serve it up however we will have our fair share of “takers”.

SPINOUT

My recent spinning class affection has come from a genuine desire to increase the quality of my fitness. I want to raise my metabolism and increase my endurance, which has been handicapped by heart medication.

Today I had made up my mind at least consciously that I was going to “hold back” and not kill myself because I just wasn’t sure if I was up for the Kristen challenge.

Well needless to say any idea that I could use a governing brake on how I would extend myself over the next 45 minutes were quickly put to rest as I became compelled once again to add more road each time KG petitioned us to do so.

As I reached the ¾ pole in our time allotment my breath had gone anaerobic in a way I had not felt since my marathon days of the 1970’s. In those running craze years I had pushed my limits to the point of reverse peristalsis and today I came awfully close to retching but this time there was no pavement and my spinning classmates just wouldn’t understand. When I take it to the limit there is no ceiling on my effort.

My ears are tuning in to the professional I am learning from. She brings everything to her work and half her life has been devoted to group exercise and at Equinox I think she has found her niche and is “touching anaerobic” in her talent war with herself.

41

Why would I want to publish this post again? Because it dawned on me that I needed to remind myself why I write this blog.  The first entry is  entitled  41 and here it is again.  Why did I call this 41? (I promise I will get to that.) After all Kristen has a physiology that’s Killer. Okay she’s beautiful too can we get past that?

Her professionalism is the top tier, and yes she works for probably the best fitness club, Equinox but anytime you have a group fitness manager in a local club that gets a line 45 minutes before her class even starts just to be put on a waiting list you have to know she must be extraordinary. And when NYC wants her then we know we have a celebrity instructor no inspirer in the making before our eyes.


During the hour class today, my concentrated gaze was on the number of KG’s bike and some might know that it’s the number 41. As I fixed my gaze on that metal decal I kept my ears open to KG’s unrehearsed soliloquy that told me I was in for it yet once more.

I would love for you to all weigh in.