The Story in Your Eyes

Sometimes we cannot see what our eyes are saying, but our minds manipulate our feelings so strongly so adeptly that the power play releases the strength to change the shape and hue of our eyes which in turn governs what the rest of our face looks like.  And that face illustrates for us as to how our body contorts.

We can tell the story that we are struggling to breathe, to accelerate and give ourselves enough reason why we shouldn’t add more ‘road’ when Kristen asks us to. These vignettes are perfectly legitimate because the excuses are justified we tell ourselves. However, they are just that, stories and they are just pure fiction, even though we swear they are gospel.

The story in our eyes is there for anyone to see but only we can change the script. So we might as well tell the story the way we want it to turn out. 

The Arctic Zone

It’s Saturday and it must be time for KSC. And I hate to give such secrets away but bike #25 is perfectly tuned in terms of the pedal stroke and the red resistance wheel was smooth as silk.  Which brings me to the thought that I don’t pay enough homage to those that service these Schwinn’s and I do so right now. What we do to those bikes based on how we ride presents no small task to the technicians that keep them up to our speed for each session. Too often we only hear the complaints and I am just as guilty as anyone. Nonetheless I thank you one and all. We do have the most conscientious “Maintain” staff here at EQ and I try to acknowledge them everyday because without them we don’t have the immaculate conditions we all enjoy and rely on.  

My young friends Ari (sans Lizzie) and Deepak were here today and it is good to see the young Lions taking on the Queen of Spin in the most grueling of exercise sessions on Long Island.  Often I see those scrunched up expressions as the effort is ramped up in this class and I can hear Kristen’s words echoing urging us to relax our face muscles because we don’t ride with our face. Sometimes nonetheless we must be consciously aware what our body tries to tell us even though it serves no purpose. Better we ease up on the resistance wheel than engage in torture in areas that do not serve us.  

We do feed off each other’s energy as KJ exclaimed today and people are watching us and that is why we give the kind of effort we do and engage in the integrity she often speaks about.  

KJ Airlines

As I failed reveille’s call at 6:30 Sunday morning I was relegated to the final 13 that opened at 8:00 this morning. Surprised was I that at 4 minutes after I was able to find an open bike and spied that invisible Schwinn #41 in the back left corner and scooped it up quick.  Kristen as I have told you in an earlier post has to physically get off the bike or crane her neck to see the inhabitant and Ms. Curiosity pegged me before her flight lifted off the tarmac.

However, 41 is a great vantage point to see across the back row and the two miscreants Don Berman and Harold skylarking it up throughout the hour.   Laurie Doyle sandwiched between the two kept the conflagration under control. And Don Berman was getting way too much attention this morning from Ms. James. “Don Berman you look so good”. Don Berman this Don Berman that. Good God you would think they were lovers or something. 

I can see why some like that back row. There’s no one behind you, the windowsill is there to put all your ‘stuff’ on and it was a nice break from the front row where I usually find myself. Mary McCann was one row in front and I told her after we had some spirited confabs this week that I was revoking her halo for at least a month. Maybe Mary is no angel as Kristen has tried to tell me on numerous occasions but Mary is one person I would love to have in a foxhole next to me if the need ever arose.  

Salti Road

What never ceases to amaze me is the fitness levels that EQ and more specifically the group fitness manager demands of her staff. Lori Salti is yet another example of group trainers that talk the walk and walk the talk.  A phrase I borrowed from my days in A.A. but it serves to encapsulate the protocol that we invariably find here.  

Lori is a student as well as a trainer and that serves to make her the best she can be. I have found her in her limited down time in Tripp’s class for example wherein I am sure she can model some the success that he enjoys with those that are devoted to him. She certainly has the acumen for spin and I love the way she models other successful trainers and puts her own “spin” on her call. The choreography is eclectic which always takes courage and as she has evolved in the months this year her style is unmistakable Salti.  

She implores us to be the best we can be and you can feel the spiritual side of her as well. I got to know her father for fifteen years and this man is a gentle soul who always had a good word for everyone he worked with. Lori has that same palatability but never lets us forget what we are here for and that’s to get fit and that is never an easy task. There is no pussyfooting in her class but you can still feel the gentle soul of her Dad who I think gave her the appeal and innate charm she possesses. 

Lori Salti give her road a try and find you took it just a bit further than you ever thought you could.  

The diminutive dynamo, the White Angel a.k.a. Lori Salti took center stage today come back later for her featured story.  

P.S.

I am in the process of adding "JackTalk" to all my blogs. Some have told me that they don't necessarily possess the time to read during their busy lifestyle. I with the help of my friend Peter Charles will add a feature that will enable you with one click to  let you hear me read each post with the inflection in which I write it. Hopefully it will make you listen as well as read. 

Miss Fire Island

And now for something completely different…This past Saturday had me revisiting an event that I have been absent from for some 15 years. It was the Miss Fire Island contest. For the uninitiated this is a beauty pageant with a twist. All the contestants are men vying for this coveted title dressed in drag. 

The festivities, held at the Ice Palace just up from the ferry is no palace and the Grove Hotel which it is apart of except for a recent facelift was termed even by the locals as the classic ‘dive’ in fact the Fire Marshall’s made the owners redo the wood flooring that was showing signs of age albeit one day before the contest.  Nonetheless the Ice Palace is high camp and this weekend had the breeders (heterosexuals) overrunning this small hamlet reserved for alternative lifestyles. Cherry Grove, a delightful respite from the high tension we all experience back on the main land is a place where virtually anything goes and most probably does. The people are so laid back that you just feel comfortable as soon as you step off the boat and as my friend Bobby says there is no judgment here life goes on in an idyllic setting where you are free to express yourself from the deepest part of your imagination.  

The contest featured 33 different performers in different categories and some of them were more than reasonable facsimiles of the intended gender they were trying to emulate.  Some of the hairdos in fact were taller than me and the dresses looked like Gianni Versace originals. Now some may not be fans of Drag Queen contests for a host of reasons but judging by the reaction of this crowd they loved it.  The runway walks alone were not to be believed and when the entertainers did their shtick lip synching their act into their acrobatic fandango the crowd with a little help from the demon rum were collectively oohing and ahhing.  

The 2nd runner up and runner up were Elvis Presley like in that they were “pretty” and this years winner, Logan Hardcore had the countenance that rivaled some Prom Queens.  I missed two days of spin and after the Corso Zone today I made up for it in no uncertain terms.  

And as the raucous behavior escalated as the contest drew to a close and more alcohol was consumed it had some of the local inhabitants collectively sighing that this happens but once a year.  We breeders as my friend affectionately calls us can be quite the pain in the ass if you catch my drift.  

Barbara Bean Adieu

When we lose loved ones we become fully associated with the life that just passed. I remember when my paternal Grandfather passed it was like I lost part of my youth and all of my boyhood memories came flooding back to me as my eyes instantly filled with tears.  We of course are crying as much for ourselves as we are for our loving departed member.

 My grandfather joked until the very end suggesting on his deathbed in an oxygen tent that my father light him a cigarette. When my dad told him that an explosion would ensue my beloved Poppy told him: Take a chance.  His humor never left him even as he faced death. 

Kristen shared with us the passing of her Paternal Grandmother who lived until she was 88. When she vocalized it today in class it felt like she gave herself room to grieve with us all and still put on a her usual stellar performance for the 830 Thursday. Some might have opted out and taken a grievance day but not Ms. James. I think it was her way of celebrating her Grandmothers life rather than her passing. I may be wrong but as she played the David Guetta song: Without You she shared with us her sweat and her tears.  

Barbara Bean  Adieu 

David Guetta: Without You 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOTD_y-4Zyo

The Red Mailbox

Kristen uses visualizations a lot during spin and it’s always a great tool for our imagination as she has us overtaking riders who have colorful personalities that we can identify with in our own lives. Today she was using a point-to-point reference that again took me back to the boardwalk in Long Beach where I would train for my marathons in the 70’s. Her soliloquy this Labor Day had us spinning to that little red mailbox. It was our target and the pedal stroke as the utensil to get us there. In Long Beach each block on the boardwalk was .15 mile and that little red mailbox was the perfect visual as my effort today defied even my imagination.  

After 7 spin classes in 7 days with a double on Tuesday for the unplugged version of Tripp’s class and coming off a tough road with the Blue Sapphire on Sunday I wondered if I had anything left in the tank for Kristen’s opening salvo for the week on Monday. Once in the saddle though there was no turning back and having taken over 300 classes with her never did I give up even once and today I was not going to break that string no matter what. The Evil Woman brings out the best in me and I am indefatigable when she is at the helm.

The last day of summer did have some melancholy because I just didn’t want it to end.  For me this was the best summer since I was a teenager. Kristen talked about the two things she will most remember and that was changing her last name to James and changing her hairdresser. The latter might seem a bit fanciful to a bald man but with her coiffure it probably was a big step. For me there were big changes in my life this past summer and if you read any of my other dozen blogs you may have caught some of the details, which I will not recount here. However, it was one that included the best tan I have ever had maybe since 1968 and for me to take off my shirt in mixed company hasn’t happened since I had a ripped torso some fifteen years ago. 

The summer of 2011 was a most memorable one and one that essentially changed my life for the better (I hope) and spinning in KSC was the link to it all. 

Fast Twitch

Today in the Blue Sapphire’s adventure we took our fast twitch muscle fibers center stage. Intense sets of intervals were featured in Carolyn’s choreography today and this writer got into the rarefied air again of 120 RPM’s. For so long I have been unable to be in position #3 and muster much more than 70 on my console but today it was a simple shift of my hands down to the middle of the handlebars that allowed me to shift my weight almost exclusively to my legs and my hands were there just for balance. This in turn gave me the elusive speed that I see so many of you have when you seem to fly standing up.  Admittedly though I was starting to fail when we went beyond 30 seconds and when CM asked us to go a full 60 seconds my speed saw a precipitous drop. Maybe I just need more practice. 

  Although there are different categories of fast twitch fibers they seem to fire anaerobically and can only last for a short period.  According to my neophyte research we seem to have 50% of both and the jury is still out (at least from the article I read) on whether we have more of one over the other as it might depend on the training we do. I used to be a sprinter in High School but in my twenties when I shifted to long distance running my fast twitch fibers weren’t called on too often except for a bravado sprint to catch a few runners at the finish.  I keep thinking about that comment someone made to me some months ago asking me isn’t spin just working out on a stationary bike. 

I saw my friend Bruce who works out exclusively on the main floor and told him that the reason he is not losing weight is because he needs more anaerobic work balanced with aerobic. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that he has to work out harder.  I just didn’t get it either and always wondered why after doing what I thought was a furious workout on the elliptical machine why I was gaining weight instead of losing or maintaining. None of those sessions can come close to what I do everyday.  

Carolyn Mellace, The Blue Sapphire is such a professional and although I have missed her of late never disappoints and kudos to Kristen for finding this precious gem. 

Jack Briant Reporter:  http://jackbriant.blogspot.com/

Rebel Without a Cause

 It took nearly 7 ½ years for me to realize that group exercise offers so much more than the solitary existence of working out alone. I never thought much of having company working out because when I was marathon and ultra-marathon training it was either in the dark or exclusively by my lonesome. In those years a half lifetime ago I relished running solo because I thought of myself as James Dean: “A Rebel Without a Cause” and fancied myself so unique that my crippled personality would never accept training in a group as many of the successful runners did. When I joined EQ in April of 2003 I thought I would try to recapture the fitness I had left behind because of alcohol and drug addiction. I had gained a lot of weight because I had stopped running.  I did a modest job but gone was the feeling I was  invulnerable as running used to make me feel. I plodded on however, signed on with several of the elite trainers here but that too failed because my ego and the imagined need for autonomy in my workout sessions. I just thought I could do it myself.

   I also used to think that working out with mostly women would be embarrassing to my male ego because of my new physiology had replaced my “ripped” body during my halcyon days of 100 miles a week.  My competitive nature would be hard pressed to accept that I was getting my ass kicked by anybody.  But spinning changed that because I didn’t have to watch metronomes performing in perfect rhythm with the instructor.  With spin I could do it at my own pace in terms of pedal stroke speed and how much resistance I would put on the red dial. I did have the beginning advantage of strong legs from my days as a runner and so I used that as my building block to start my road back to fitness. I begin my 20th month this September and it has changed my life during the time I am here at EQ and now during the other 23 odd hours I am out in the real world. I have lost the feeling of the uniqueness but maintained it through my energy instead of my letting my ego run riot. Spinning has altered my course in so many ways as I have told you ad nauseam but I don’t have to be alone anymore not with the friends I have made here. I better stop now before I get too sappy.   

The Thread of Time

The lights and A/C are on again and it almost felt incongruous to have these often taken for granted creature comforts back functioning. But this was just a passing thought because it was time for KSC again and Kristen after being on vacation (which could hardly be called one) was back looking really good for the emblematic 830 Thursday. 

Gone were the thoughts of frivolity in this man’s mind because it was back to #3 and for the most part I have to keep my mouth shut because I just know despite the fact that I have permission you don’t act up in KSC.  And as we got underway I was glad to see Stacy Sable next to me because I feel like a neophyte when I am alongside this athlete. Her piercing green eyes notwithstanding this young woman is always on a mission when she sits atop her Schwinn. She is silent, focused and has a textbook pedal stroke that I try to model because she seems to have just the right resistance on whether we are on a flat or are on a daunting hill climb. Stacy Tucker Sable a woman that I admire and am always glad to see in #4 next to me. 

After class I got a quick lesson in what the color periwinkle was which is in the blue-violet family from another Stacie who was just a newlywed to Peter.  Little do I keep track of time because next month I think that ideal couple will celebrate their 1st anniversary?  God how the year has rushed by.  

As the hour slipped away I felt a sense of nostalgia because for the first summer in eons I was just as active outside as I am in the Lavender Palace. Every moment of my life is precious and I do not intend to waste a minute of it. 

P.S.

As we were pushing up that elephant up the  hill I could almost feel the weight of that pachyderm

Jack Briant Reporter:  http://jackbriant.blogspot.com/2011/09/language-of-love.html