The Remainder Season

At long last this abomination of a winter is drawing to a close. Along with an inordinate amount of snow and ice and freezing temperatures this season in particular  had many of us fitness aficionados strung out and laid up with extended colds, asthmatic attacks, bronchitis and even pneumonia like our friends Keith and David have had to endure. 

However this dark cold season has had great illumination too. Small events like Mary McCann producing that big brown box for Island Harvest and it swiftly being filled to the brim and then some. Tripp’s climb up Mount Washington, which had some of us holding our collective breaths until he safely returned once again to the CS, our new Lavender Palace. Then there was the highlight of our winter and that was Cycle for Survival, which raised huge amounts of money along with the hearts, and minds of those beset by cancer and those that were touched by it whether it be a loved one or friend. This memory will linger as we emerge into the sound of those cooing doves we hear each morning as we rise and head to our 3rd space, Equinox.  

If It Ain't Broke Don't Fix It

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. An American idiom said to have originated by a man named Lance in 1977.  Well I am quite broken and I need a fixing real bad.  Third cold since December 21, and 2nd of which is bronchial asthma and I am becoming quite frustrated at the prospect of having enough tissues at bedside and the growing pharmacy that is accumulating on my kitchen counter. Of course that has put a temporary shut down on my spinning routine. I thought that I could ‘spin’ through it but the pulmonologist said nyet.

 My class with Kristen on Thursday seemed to have gone okay but as I was walking out in the parking lot I could feel my body drooping on down. Mack the Knife had picked me off. My friends tell me it’s stress but I haven’t felt this good in a month of Sundays. My upcoming trip to Florida is one I cannot afford to miss and so I will stay huddled in my King sized bed for at least the weekend. Wave to me all of you will you?  

Our Friend Arthur

I presume everyone knows Arthur. He is retired and spends some of his time in Florida but mostly he’s here and this man exemplifies someone that is distinctively fit. He runs and takes Kristen’s class how remarkable is that? He always has a kind word for me and some insight I hadn't thought of.  Someone is actually older than I and he is in better shape than yours truly much better shape.  Today in the boys locker room we were talking about Kristen and we shared the mutuality of how she motivates us far beyond what we think we are capable of.  Today I was firm in my commitment that I had to take it easy because of my latest respiratory ailment but as uncomfortable as I felt at the start of the session, I was totally comfortable with the effort I always put forth.  Another man (I forgot his name) asked me quizzically: Was that a tough class? I said: YEAH!  He was delighted that he wasn’t alone.  We all know one thing: The Evil Woman cares, truly cares about and us and I do trust Mommy.  

Saturday Just Isn't Saturday

On my way to Equinox this morning I was informed that Kristen was sick and wouldn’t be leading her 9:15.  Well it took the air out of my balloon. Pffft!  And let me tell you  and I can’t say it’s outrage but when she is not in her usual time slot her devotees get pissed off and it’s just not Saturday without her. And this is in no way is to denigrate her very able substitutes but if it ain’t Kristen it just ain’t.  And this is after I had my trigger finger guaranteeing my spot 26 hours before. I want a refund! Kidding aside we know how much she is loved here and when days like today happen we know it just a little bit more.  Feel better Evil Woman. Grrrrrr. 

Forget You!

Cee Lo Green and Gwyneth Paltrow knocked me out this past Sunday night.  Although the song in its raw form uses the expletive so many of us use in everyday language as if it were a conjunction here it is  relegated to the G rated semantic of “Forget”.  I have heard this song many times in Kristen’s class but never paid much attention to it until it was performed on the Grammy’s (which I never watch).  I am not sure if it was because of the visuals: Cee Lo in Elton John like attire of feathers and breast and head plating reminiscent of Sir Lancelot or the silhouette form of Paltrow in one piece black spandex writhing atop Cee’s piano or maybe it was the muppet like puppets which provided the accompanying chorus, or maybe it was all three. Whatever it was I haven’t stopped playing it all this week and of course it’s on youtube.com. I will put the link at the bottom of this post. 

Speaking about performances, I caught Thursday’s KSC this morning and as per usual it was not usual. You know how Evil Woman says “Trust Mommy”? Well she promised us this flat road after one of our mountain climbs but she must have been playing that game of obfuscation because I couldn’t find it anywhere. But it’s okay I guess because the results are arriving in the form of less and less weight. But I will not Trust Mommy anytime soon. But that might be hard too because she is pretty F***ing persuasive just like Cee Lo and Gwyneth.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dBNb0aIGOU

Flying With Superwoman

What can I say about Michelle Corso that’s different than my last ride with her?  This class is my ultimate challenge because Michelle’s fitness is beyond comprehension. I looked askance at her leg speed and what I saw was the ‘strobe effect’. She was moving so fast it looked like her pedal stroke was moving backwards. I decided to just concentrate on keeping cadence with the rhythm of the road which was a lesson in concentration because after acceleration I have a tendency to lose focus but here in the Corso Zone I know better.

 I just don’t want to disappoint myself when Michelle is putting in the effort she does. It’s a strange phenomenon. When I tell myself that I am going to take it easy because I have rode 7 days in a row and I deserve a break it never works out that way. No matter what it’s the same deal at rides end. My shirt is soaked to the skin, my shorts look like I just took a shower in them and I can see my face in the three pools of sweat on the floor.  This might be just my own fanaticism but it’s more than that these spin stars bring out the athlete in us every morning, noon and night. 

I have so many favorites in the CS and CSI (Corso Spin Inspiration) is just one that moves me beyond what I think I can do. She is indefatigable and moves like a perpetual motion machine. Hey do you notice she doesn’t even take a drink? 

Cycle For Survival

Organization like a well oiled machine with frills. There’s nothing spared here and in a way it seems enigmatic that a charitable organization would be as lavish as it feels right now.  However the generosity of all the participants motivates you beyond what you might think you could normally contribute to a cause that everyone is touched by in some way, and that’s a good thing, a real good thing.  

I saw The Evil Woman arrive in her silver down jacket and the three other master motivators are here, Tripp, (Svengali) Damian (Young Atlas) and Cathy Munster-Stone (The Heart of Stone).  Even the charismatic Pam Polestino (Double P) lends her grace and charm to the upcoming proceedings, which will build into many crescendos.  

Setting the stage now is the emcee. He is doing his housekeeping speech leaving no stones unturned. One of my teams is the Tumor Busters lead by Young Dana with her own visceral love for this event. Tripp happened by resplendent in his disheveled iconic hairdo. It never really matters what he says because with this man it’s all in the unspoken dialogue of the heart and soul. 

I just walked through an energy field I have not felt since maybe The Boston Marathon. It filled my senses from every pore in my body and it quite literally left me shaking and I had to write about it right this second. I thought for a moment that I could see the sparks flying.  It is so palpable. When Homo sapiens focus the 6th percentile of their brains. (We only use 5%) The earth shifts so discernibly.  

Kristen has center stage and why not she is the architect of Equinox spin and I suspect beyond the borders of the physical plane. Young Atlas to her left and Svengali on her starboard side.  It’s almost here Cycle For Survival and how could anyone calculate this response having never had this experience before.  Kristen just took in a breath and her sentient side gave her countenance the look of an expectant beautiful teen, the one we used to fawn over in HS.  She just said how excited she was and I never hear her voice crack but it did just now, how wondrous.  She speaks the name of a rider, as is her trademark. God when she does that it’s so powerful and I know I steal some B-12 whenever she does it.  I will, I can I want to. Carries the full glass of human emotion and Maslow would open his eyes right now.  She has them standing in #3 and it just got really cranked. The drug is spin and this “high” has no “crash”.  

I just reached into the air simulating an antennae and those damn lacrimal  glands just tried to fill my ocular cavity with tears but I resisted because  there’s time enough left in the hours ahead. Breathing centers the emotion and it’s an aphrodisiac. 

It started again, she’s ramping up the whole room with the motivational choreography: Release Me. The building is shaking what a feeling, my mom must hear us in heaven right here, right now. Together like one! Love your life another mantra that is cycling through us right now.  

Double P, Pam Polestino just asked me if I was riding. I thought she said was I writing? I guess the onomatopoeia just told me I don’t do one with out the other. Kristen near the end of her segment and Svengali, Tripper is next which promises to elevate the room with his own brand of kinetic spinography.

And he did not disappoint. The trance inducer did just that. Milton Erickson the father of hypnosis was smiling from 6 feet under. What is it that motivates us when the setting is just like this?  We begin to remember that we are all connected in ways that are not just psychobabble because when we focus power together nuclear missiles shrink like dead violets. 

As they announced what was raised I had the number 4 in mind as in 400,000 but I was a digit off. It was 4.1 Million Dollars! You could have knocked us all over with a feather when that number was spoken and to top it off visually the huge ceremonially check was raised just like they do at sporting events. 

Kristen Zen

I always said that KSC was Zen-like for me. Yesterday when The Evil Woman was in a narrative about running on the beach in sand I was instantly transported to Long Beach. I was back in the 70’s running along the shore at low tide logging 7 to 10 miles on the beach in bare feet. All this came to me as I looked down at my pedal stroke and a wave of serenity hit me all over again as I could see the setting sun in the west and my senses were filled with the salt air, the cool water on my feet and that summer breeze aiding the cooling process of my glistening sweat. 

Talk about meditation during spin class, Kristen set the stage and it was as if I was in the lotus position working on my karma from the inside out. KSC in the beginning was for me like being in a mocus state without any real plan except for busting my ass and doing a terrible job at that. The Evil Woman’s mantra is having her children in back of her pulling them on a sled, mine is about locking out the world outside and keeping the emphasis on my breathing and regulating the resistance wheel. I have “crowded out” any notion of any negative thoughts invading my thought process. I am always right there in the Lavender Palace, today however KG had more treats in mind. 

Desideratum

Something desired or considered necessary. That’s what KSC has become at least for this neophyte. I am an athlete rediscovered here in the Lavender Palace and the discipline that pervaded my being in the 70’s has returned and after one full year I am back in control of designing my own fitness. Two people noted that I looked trim today and my wife said that I was indeed shrinking. These were compliments that made every drop of sweat on the CS floor worthwhile. Being fit once again is my desideratum.  

And something else I felt as I walked out of the environs of my 3rd space and that was a feeling that my world is once again at my command and as long as I have congruency in my heart I am unstoppable. 

Okay enough about me but I do hope that through my words you see the same feelings in your being as I do in mine. I look about me and we are alone but there is no doubt that we share so much that we don’t speak about. In other groups talk dominates the adhesion, here in KSC it is our sweat that does all the talking.  It is a language of the unspoken word that brings us closer than words could ever do.

It's Nuclear

  

BIKE CONFIRMATION

Thank you. You are confirmed.

Monday, February 7th

BIKE NUMBER 3

Please be considerate of your fellow cycling enthusiasts and cancel your reservation if your plans change.

Breathless: The Ride

with Kristen Gagne

8:30a (60m) Wdbry 

What does it feel like when you get this notification on your computer screen or your 4G phone? It feels good doesn’t it?  

I have sign up pretty much mastered now and if I am ‘Johnny’ on the spot I get into the coveted KSC. More than ever now I need Kristen’s guidance in achieving my goal, which is to burn fat. Today in The Blue Sapphire’s class I felt more in control of my pedal stroke and I am starting to master that red dial.  Carolyn said today that the red wheel between our legs is the key to burning more calories.  I have observed that my speed has picked up considerably on the flats and it’s as if my leg speed from my sprinting days is returning. My fast twitch muscles are getting fired up once again. 

Sunday’s with Carolyn or The Blue Sapphire, which I have nicknamed her, was another full house but the riders are fewer in number that I know from the weekday sessions.  Yes Cindy, Ivy and Gloria were there but for the most part they are strangers to me and I love spinning with people I don’t know because by rides end, they will know that that old bald headed guy was shouting at them to give “More”.  I love that position in the middle of the class because I feel like the nuclear reactor that gives a booster shot of electricity that the CS seems to inject me with every time I climb aboard my Schwinn. 

Carolyn was requested by Andy (Oh Andy) to play Sweet Caroline. You could see that The Blue Sapphire is a little hesitant to play a song that Neil Diamond wrote with her in mind because this woman’s energy has no boundaries. We love that song Carolyn it was a fitting end to an energetic ride as only you can deliver.  

Trust Mommy!

A Saturday KSC always finds me reflective especially when I can be quick on the trigger to get a bike the morning before.  As I watch the heavier traffic before me in between classes it makes me feel so comfortable so relaxed in this, my 3rd space.  

In Thursday’s class I deliberately kept silent to take in the energy around me rather than being my effusive self. It felt so good and it was as if I could draw on someone else’s ATM without having to drain my own cash flow. Having high energy was always a problem that plagued me. Whenever I was in a room I saw energy and I thought it was reflected in someone else but I was mistaken it was actually my energy in the mirror. 

Trust Mommy! Is what The Evil Woman is often heard to be saying and with the level of discernment that now floats in my consciousness trusting Mommy has the athlete in me poking it’s head out and it’s saying: I’m coming Jack.  There were times this morning when my breathing whether I was trying to catch it or regulate it was playing to my orchestration. So often it was just a wind instrument blowing an unrecognizable tune.  And even though I can dance (yes this white boy can dance) I didn’t seem to be able to get on the rhythm. Today my pedal stroke was just like it is on the dance floor: right on it.  

After class an extemporaneous conversation erupted outside the main studio with Mike and the very beautiful Rhonda (she is 50+) and we started to talk about how smooth and unwrinkled her skin is. She even let me touch it! She said that Mike and I should go out and buy Roc. Mike uses the very expensive La Mer (Johnny Depp’s personal youth cream). I have to tell you it looks better on Rhonda.  But guess where I am headed now?  

Get On It!

There may be other spin classes that I find just as challenging as The Evil Woman’s but none that carry the specificity that she brings each and every morning to the CS.  Her plan is never boilerplate and neither is the choreography. And except for my birthday I have become ambivalent to music I normally would have abhorred in the past. But one thing I am not turned off to and that is the results I am now seeing one year in. 

 And something more has changed in the last month that I have experienced in class. It seems that I am in more control of my breathing than ever before. I was always in the anaerobic zone and spinning without a plan and dying to catch my breath. Now I can actually breathe in through my nose for most of the ride. An amazing turn of events.  

  And I have become more automatic with that red dial. Adjusting the resistance wheel was always a mystery to me because there are no numbers on it. But that makes sense because where I might feel comfortable at 5 someone else might feel more at home in 7. So there is no way to calibrate one size fits all because we all are in different levels of fitness and strength varies from one person to another.

Get on it! Of course my mind went right to where it shouldn’t go and you can’t help but notice that the double entendres give some of us something to chuckle about under our breath.