867-5309

Spin long enough and you will always find someone that does it like you’ve never seen it done before.  In Florida there’s plenty of talent and this morning I found a great way to end the year. Jenny took me around the world in a high intensity ride that nearly blew me off my pace. She was frenetic with the grace of a dancer and the artistry of a symphony conductor.  

In the near dark you could make out her athletic silhouette on her Johnny Spinner one moment then in a blink she was literally dancing center stage across the stadium studio as if she was leading a charge of the Light Brigade urging us on with military like precision. Her spirited  exhortations felt  like the backbeat to the choreography that  felt so purposeful to keep us between 85% and 100 % effort for the whole ride. 

In a way here was KSC south as there was not a bike to be had and several were turned away with more than a chagrined look. We started late but finished with a full 60-minute interval and I was amazed that her talent doesn’t have her but part time economics notwithstanding of course.  Get the picture? Jenny Little brings it big.  

Mommy's Turn to Drive

A second day at 24 Hour Fitness and this time the older generation took the wheel and boy can she drive. She could have fooled me that she was a septuagenarian. Only being a sexagenarian I had to look that one up but Beverly Pepe pulled off what some cannot half her age. There were times as I looked up at her thinking as a kid growing up that any person of her stature were headed to a nursing home or the happy hunting grounds now here was one that was playing rock music and had 36 junior citizens by comparison dripping in sweat and sucking wind.  Beverly Pepe, substituting for her daughter Lisa today might be breaking new ground teaching spin at 72 but as Petula Clark once sang: It’s a Sign of the Times. Her choreography was great and again like her daughter Lisa she featured a 5-minute jump, which cranked my HR up to 149. Not bad for a man on beta-blockers. 

Whose Petula Clark you ask? See Downtown. *

This chain is huge and boasts of a swimming pool, full court basketball, and a plethora of equipment some of which I wish EQ had like The True Stretch Cage which had 30 illustrated stretch positions that I found took all the guesswork out of which stretch does what. I have been in large gyms before but this one had me thinking when I am here in Florida this will be the place I will frequent.  Nothing can replace Equinox Woodbury mainly because of the friends I have made there and it’s always going to be my 3rd space no matter how far from home I roam.  

It was Mommy’s turn to drive and she was flooring that gas pedal for the whole 60-minute ride.  

* Sign of the Times: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tusqkxkhrls

Love the One You're With

Whenever I have had the pleasure to spin in another club outside of the Lavender Palace at EQ Woodbury, I never expect anything lest I be disappointed. And truth be told no one has let me down yet whether it be in an EQ in Florida or New York. Today however I was just too far to spin in Ventura and closest was the franchise of 24 Hour Fitness Center. 

A little about the club and although it didn’t have all the amenities of Woodbury like those plastic bags for our wet gym attire or an endless supply of hand and bath towels it was clean, spacious and the energy was pulsing which to me was a surprise.  And since this blog is about spin let’s get to it. I loved the studio, loved it. It was tiered stadium like and each bike looked to be about 54” inches apart so there was plenty of room between each Johnny G. Spinner bike. The iron horse looked new and although there was no console the pedal stroke was smooth as silk. Once I got used to the letter codes as opposed to the Numbered ones on our Schwinn’s I was good to go.  

Lisa Pepe Fernandez was the chosen star this morning and I don’t know what it is about some of the diminutive power houses I have encountered like Carolyn Mellace and Hayley Greenberg but here was another more than a 1000 miles from home. Lisa’s lithe form moved effortlessly from seated to #2 and #3 and although she carried a soft voice her command of the class was unmistakable.   Her discography was eclectic and roamed up and down the time scale of music with no seeming order to it but it worked well at least from this sexagenarian’s ears. What she did that I really enjoyed was a 5-minute “jump” in 4 time and I found that to be the most challenging part of the whole choreography.  And all I had to do was look on the floor beneath and see that my 3 pools I leave behind was right where it always is.  

Lisa Pepe Fernandez a great ride thank you. I hear that her mom Beverly Pepe is a 72-year-old spin instructor at this club and if it can be arranged I intend to take on the previous generation and I hope I can hold my own.  

Love the one you’re with or without.  

No Spin, No Problem

Uh yeah no that’s a lie. I miss my mates of the Lavender Palace because it’s not just exercise to me anymore it’s a way of life for me. I did some Napoleon Solo episodes on the beach with a breathtaking view last week but it just can’t match the energy I feel inside the confines of my EQ home.   

Tomorrow I will try 24 Hour Fitness spin class and I hope it is a reasonable facsimile at least to keep me somewhat sated for the time being. Up until now I have been running as a substitute with extreme difficulty and I never thought I would say this but I don’t miss the pounding on the knees or the crippling lactic acid that kept me walking like I had a stick up my alimentary canal. 

The fact that Kristen is absent this week makes it just a bit more palatable and I can justify taking a break but since I have an obsessive personality I miss taking my comfort in the exquisite sport that I have made Jack’s addiction. 

No spin? Oh yeah it’s a problem. 

Order vs. Chaos

It’s no secret that my favorite spin instructors are the Evil Woman and Mr. Authenticity. Separate and together they’ve been promising sweeping changes come this January. How can it get any better than it already is I ask you? Well since they both deliver (at least from my vantage) we are all in for something extraordinary. I have made casual jocular reference to these two charismatic individuals as Order and Chaos. And quite frankly I love the polarity of the two protocols although it would seem that chaos is haphazard and undisciplined versus the fine art of structured choreography. I submit though that both cater to the imagination. Order is a guided meditation and chaos a silent one.

Although neither might admit it they both can take a page from each other and make us all a sweet and salty snack. And how many morsels can we gobble up that last an hour and give us the metabolic shift and the forensic change in our paradigm as we hit the street armed with alertness no amount of caffeine can muster.

The Open Road Inside

What can I say that hasn’t been said about Saturday KSC?  350 vignettes later I am still combing my afflatus to describe the best exercise regimen I have ever found especially for this time in my life. Nary an injury have I suffered except maybe a little ache in my feet from the shoes I need to replace.  My disintegrating disc and prior knee surgeries have never given me the least bit of discomfort.  Some of my spin mates have suggested I come out of marathon retirement and hit the road again. Romantic notion to be sure because some of the best times both literally and figuratively came in my New Balance shoes. But why tempt fate. I am so satisfied in my Schwinn and the pounding of the pavement is best left for those younger than I with aspirations I have long fulfilled for myself. 

Where is that guy that told me I could not lose weight in spin class? I think of him often now when I doff my soaking wet spin top and shorts.  He was a veteran of many a triathlon and he seemed to have a cogent argument two years ago which I can’t recall now but I am glad I turned a deaf ear to that non sense.  God I love spin class because it has become a way of life for me and well it works. 

A great idea EW had taking on double duty for Saturday. It gives rise to faces I have never seen before and why stop at 55 when 110 riders get to feel the road of Kristen James. 

Sour Note

It’s a rare occasion if ever where I am just a little pissed off about what transpires inside the Lavender Palace. Today was one of those days. I am the first to admit that 26 hours before I am refreshing my macbook to secure a bike for KSC.  And Wednesday morning at 6:30 I clicked and reserved #4 for today’s 8:30 class. And as per usual the room was filled in the proverbial 5 seconds for the Evil Woman’s daily show. 

As I checked back later yesterday I could see that the room was still booked full.  This morning however revealed quite a different scenario. Kristen absent today enrolled her substitute Lori Salti. Now I have taken Lori’s class before and there are not many trainers more passionate about fitness and spin than the White Angel is but it seems some of my spin mates just didn’t see it that way. Now I understand that everyone is entitled to spin with whom they wish but if you reserve a bike show up. I just think it was insulting that we can’t show one of our elite trainers support by being present especially if you reserved a bike in the first place. In fact I saw some of KSC regulars in the big room  chatting and some on the treadmill. It’s just not right.  

Having said that Lori was truly great and if you ask my front row mates you’d hear them echo the same sentiment. I was drenched and the indefatigable Ms. Salti was ready for her double duty in the 9:45.  Sorry no metaphors today I am just so disappointed.  

Here I am sporting my new specs from Optical Image where Cheryl and Heather are the proprietors. I got my eyes checked and they helped me pick out these glasses. What do you think? 

Ruby Red

Sauntering late into what I thought was the Corso Zone today I spy young Hayley Greenberg at the controls.  She’s a slip of a thing but don’t let that fool you. And this redhead may have a soft voice but possesses the will of an Iron Woman. I like my instructors that way. How about you? 

And Ruby Red has broken tradition with the AT 40 and her iPod contained an eclectic mix that was a great change of pace to my auditory canal. I have long been tone deaf to some of the music I have listened to these past two years but like all musical offerings there will always be artists that have melody filled  acoustics that resonate but that’s because I opened my closed mind. I am an ardent fan of the 60’s and 80’s and for me the music of today had a dearth of talent or so I thought  but if you stick around long enough many of the artists of today have taken music on a new course and some of the urban artists I formerly had disdain for are the innovators  and my musical clock has gotten upgraded I must confess.  

Ruby Red I shall call her and although it appears she is only in a minor role at present I hope that the Evil Woman sees fit to bring her into prominence as only she can.  Good luck Hayley my dear.  

What Goes Up......

It used to be so tempting to just eat whatever my heart desired after an all out effort in   KSC but this summer all that changed along with a myriad of other things in my life. Those bits of my Peyton Place have been chronicled in any number of my other blogs but here in my most viewed blog it seemed that I had lost weight in a precipitous fashion and I can’t quite put my finger on just how it happened but one day I found myself not covering up my upper torso. It was a dream of mine to be able to feel this comfortable in my own physiology by February 2012. Well it seems it came just a bit sooner.  As I started to say in the first year and a half of spin I never paid much attention to the junk I ate now I have given up diet soda and late night snacking. The soda I think was the key to curbing my appetite and now when the healthy choices are limited I find myself leaving something on the plate rather than consuming the whole thing. (Anyone old enough to remember that Alka Seltzer commercial where the mustachioed heavy set beleaguered man says: I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.)  Leaving something on the plate is so satisfying too it just feels good. And although sometimes my appetite is very strong I try to eat slower so my stomach can catch up to my eyes. 

I love that instrumental Christmas song that Kristen has played this December, as it is a perfect road to end class in a most challenging way. It’s a fantastic bit of choreography EW.  And that David Guetta song with those two bursts of 23 seconds of frenzy is a great way to go all out like a banshee and then completely do nothing.  

Occasionally it is very difficult for the Queen of Spin to avoid innuendos even when she has no intention of being slightly provocative and it was hard not to think of the double entendre of getting “up” and then recovering this morning and as our eyes met Evil realized her blogger would grab any opportunity to emit a sardonic smile. Eliminating the “refractory period” is a pretty cool thing. I also wanted to let Kristen’s mom know that your daughter is teaching us how to “strip” and we just thought you should know how muti-talented she is. As if you didn’t know. 

....Must come down. 

The Cricket Stare

I never heard this idiom before but it didn’t take long for it to resonate with me and make it today’s title for KSC Saturday. I have only given cursory thoughts to what it’s like having 55 pairs of eyes staring at you because I have experienced it many times before when I engaged in   public speaking, but there is a major difference or two when it comes to spin class. When I spoke to an audience most often they never knew what to expect but with Kristen we know we are here for a powerful experience in body and mind. All I could hope for is that my audience had their grey cells stimulated. Here in KSC we have all senses engaged and no one is nodding off from a food hangover or excusing themselves for a biological break. So I think that the pressure EW must sense is only mitigated by the fact that everyone is in motion. Don once used the word: Entertrainment. And that is exactly what draws us here the combination of sweat and theater. Not many can pull this combination off but we all know Ms. James does.   

The cricket stare is of course an oxymoron but the anticipation of each and every one of us is like knowing but not knowing. We know the ride is going to be challenging but because of the many permutations of each ride we just don’t know when we will be breathless, in a strength-training mode or in the anaerobic state.  By the way I think I have figured out what breathless actually means and it was by a process of elimination. At first I just thought it was just an advertising marquee to attract us but I think that I have come to the conclusion that it is simply a suspension of regular breathing. Maybe Kristen can chime in here if she has a more technical explanation.

 KJ wants us to enjoy the ride every time. We know this ain’t no disco but we needn’t give her the cricket stare because a few smiles makes her job all the more gratifying.  

So what do you think about having two classes on Saturday? Kristen had to look at the signup sheet because some of the riders were not the usual familiar faces. Maybe they were members that had just given up getting in to Woodbury’s hot ticket. Now more of us get to share an hour with the charismatic one.  

Roll Film

As we enter the final stages of 2011 and I look back on my second year in KSC I think that I exceeded my wildest expectations. I have been wishing for this body to return and I knew it was there it just had be uncovered from the formidable amount of clay I slapped onto it over the last 10 years. It seemed like the ripped physiology of my 40s was just a dream but now maybe not so impossible. I have long admired most of you both men and women with shapes to die for and all of you have been my inspiration to not only lose nearly 30 pounds but you have helped me return to a social network beyond what was going on in my head.  

But it’s more than just the outer shell of the physical life because it’s what’s happened on my “inside job” as well.  I had been a hermit for about 5 years prior to spin class through no ones fault but my own but because of all of you some of my youthful personality has returned. Part of the reason is due to the fact that I am comfortable in my own skin again.   And again I have all of you to thank for it. 

KSC is all about us and although I don’t hear from you very much I know and thank you for your readership.  Maybe in 2012 if I can still find the afflatus in me to continue writing this blog you might drop me a line or two. I have found so many really nice people inside the walls of the Lavender Palace and I wish all of you a wonderful holiday season. 

I was watching Amy taking video of the EW today and although she might not be Cecil B. De Mille from what I could glean (because she was right in front of me) I think she captured the images rather well. That iPad is something else again. I think the late Steve Jobs was the second coming of Einstein. What do you think?  Taken from us way too soon. 

Cycle for Survival anyone?  I loved capturing that story last year and I do look forward to doing it again.  Have you signed up?