The 4% Solution

Sometimes spaces in time create movement in my afflatus and today was such a day.  KSC, which is always a Herculean effort but on a Saturday we might not necessarily have some place to go so soon afterwards and to me the class has a festive like atmosphere. 

Today the Queen of Spin suggested that our 60-minute sojourn was just 4% of our day. It hit me then we can hardly afford not to allot this small percentage into our daily lives. Hell we waste 2 and 3 times that much on breath in between the mundane parts of our existence. 

Today I had a guest rider who usually parks his fit self in Bike 50 under the clock but today in the 2nd row sat Don Berman. Earlier he had been one row back but maybe a malfunctioning Schwinn was his challenge and since there was a bike open on my right he nodded to me as he took to his handlebars.  Don is just a bit mischievous and I was wondering just how much we would engage in surreptitious confabs and knowing glances out of eyeshot of the Evil Woman. But yeah-no she misses not a thing and maybe we got away with just a little more than normal because it is her favorite day, Saturday. 

Kristen is a natural talent and I don’t know why but I lift my effort to the extreme with her at the top of the key.  And in sprint mode today I hit 135 RPM’s and 6 months ago 110 was daunting but today I was touching it with regularity. I love how she can take us on an extended set and keep us there with just the right amount of verbal encouragement sprinkled in along the way. 

A new discovery after two years is the racing position. For the longest time I just couldn’t get comfortable getting aerodynamic in the Lance Armstrong pose but now I can do it with ease and comfort and I found out why it was because of my belly. Now that it’s virtually gone and I have a 2 pack on the way to a 6 pack I can get  low and now  I feel my ribs on the top of my thighs instead of my once protruding abdomen.  

What will you do with the other 96% of your day? My 4% will make the balance all the more enjoyable.  

Saturday KSC what a blast.  

The Blue Sapphire Revisited

This was my second dance with Carolyn Mellace and with a full house in the CS this Sunday morning; the heat was turned up full with all of us in pedal stroke synchronicity.  Carolyn Mellace a petite physically gifted specimen with flashing eyes fixed on high beam and a neon smile that sets off her riveting countenance. 

This spinning class unique unto itself had me running low on gasoline by the 50th minute.  It might have been the combination of speed and resistance that had me so caught up in keeping pace with this female dynamo.  She may be diminutive in stature but the talent wheel she spins is 10 feet tall.  Truly here is another gemstone in the Equinox palace of professionals.

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy myself as much as I did but Carolyn’s choice of music felt like Shakespearean iambic pentameter.  She had each interval choreographed perfectly and the condiment of her smile made it way more than worthwhile. 

I don’t know just how many spin classes these old legs can handle but they will just have to make an adjustment to include Sundays with Carolyn.  I can’t wait until next time. They boys in the locker room were all buzzing about how great this class was and how Mellace must be running on 93 octane.  I totally concur. A spinning mate John told me she has an evening version on Thursdays, I want to catch that edition when that one goes to press too. 

Spinning Choreography: Plays on Sunday Mornings at 10:15 don’t miss it.

Thursday March 29

The person that comes to mind when I revisit some of the spin instructors of the past two years and miss most is the Blue Sapphire, Carolyn Mellace. I even started a blog in her honor but because of my schedule and her part time status, I had discontinued this particular entry.  I am here to tell you though that the diminutive dynamo is even more fit than the last time I took on her brand of spin. Carolyn was always fun but there is a definitive science to her discography and call. She always has a bright smile but she’s here to show us how to work. And the class is always challenging. The Blue Sapphire a pro’s pro with a distinctive edge. You can see it in the way she attacks the pedal stroke whether it be a sprint or a steep hill climb. And she is the first instructor that introduced me to “jumps”. And never ordinary always EXTRA-ordinary Carolyn has us in and out of the saddle with grace and there is never a time where I feel any strain on my joints. The one thing I do experience is an elevated HR when we settle back down for the next 

“road”.  

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.

A1A

Since most of my rides have been of the virtual kind inside the Lavender Palace I always wonder if the acumen I have gained in the CS has any applicability on the open road. After this week I can say that from a tactical point of view like catching some of those imaginary riders we encounter in the periphery of our imagination take on different paradigm. Sorry my readers I guess I have a preponderance to get way too deep in my etchings sometimes.  

One morning this week as I was turning around on my ride I was a bit startled to hear: On your left! Good morning.  Three riders whizzed by as if I was standing still. Within seconds my competitive edge compelled me to start out after them. Not moments before I was admiring to myself just how fit I was and as I was busting my “virtual” buttons these athletes shattered that hypothesis like exploding glass.  

An element of doubt crept in. I said Jack you’re 61 these riders are 30 something don’t be upset its just Father Time reminding you where you are.  That was not sitting well with me and to make matters just a bit more challenging I hit a hill they had just conquered and I miscalculated my gear shifting and I lost 100 yards more between me and them in a flash.  Undaunted I kicked in to a higher gear and gradually, inexorably I started to make up the ground I had lost and within ¾ of a mile I had caught my riders with a considerable amount of huffing and puffing. What I did hear in my minds ear was the Evil Woman telling me to breathe through my nose and out through my mouth and I could feel the extra oxygen aiding me in my pursuit.  

Riding outside is bike of a different color but one thing I do know and that is my Spin Cycle in the CS ain’t no joke on the open road.  

Spinout

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.

Reprinted from February 2010

The Devil Inside

So often I have found myself keeping my vociferous nature while in KSC subdued. I have always felt it’s Kristen’s show and I just didn’t think it was my place to bellow like I so often do in Tripper’s classes. However perception is not always the way things are and of late I have felt just a little bit more relaxed and on cue and only on cue from the Evil Woman will I answer loudly in the affirmative about just how much I love spinning with her.  

When I used to run long distance I kept the voices inside my head right there inside my head thinking that I needed all the energy so that I could expend it all on the road race I was in.  But I think spin is more like dance and in my past life as a dancer I was extremely vocal and although the movement was the thing so it was for me letting out the devil inside. And those voices inside my head seemed perfectly at home beneath the din of the loud pulsating music of the discotheque. Spin is almost like an aphrodisiac because it brings out the passion just like the devil inside.  

When Love Takes Over

What does it say when you look in the mirror and can actually say that you like what you see in terms of your physical form?  It took two years and as I am now able to slip my size 32 jeans off without unbuttoning them I can only speculate what it’s due to.  Oh yes spin class, less diet soda (I am convinced it creates an appetite for junk food) better eating habits, and a general sense of well being even when things are as uncertain in my life than ever before.  

My friends yes FRIENDS that I have met in KSC and Tripper’s classes have given me the gift of recognition. Doesn’t everyone long to be recognized by other human beings? It’s what we crave beside air, food, drink and sex.  The feeling of even the glance and smile of another you’ve sat next to in the effort we give each hour in the Lavender Palace is hard to put a price on.

 Sometimes things have a way of coalescing all at once as if an alchemist showed up on the scene and magically took time and space and compressed it into a narrow pocketbook and made it an easy read in one sitting.  Lately I find that my friends do a double take when they see me now. Something must be agreeing with me these days and it’s not my hairdresser that knows for sure.  

The new week is upon us and De-Tox Monday will help us shed those unwanted carbohydrates that like to make a home above and below our waistline. Hey have you seen Kristens new website? It’s pretty cool and whatever is for sale I’m buying. How about you?  

Beast It

I had to think about how I could write a paragraph of expletives that would describe all the superlatives that danced in my head riding with Darryl Gaines today in the 9:45. I might start with HFS. And if you need a translation of what that means send me an email or ask me in class because this man has Game with a capital G.   Right from the get-go he had me from the first note. And just so you know in the Webster-Merriam Dictionary next to the words enthusiasm and rhythm is this mans picture. 

He had the most engaging countenance I have ever seen on a man. When he looked at you petitioning for just a little more you felt it deep in your solar plexus. He loves what he does and I am reminded of that song by LL Cool J: Doin' it and doin' it and doin' it well. And he was. He moved like a Twyla Tharp dancer with grace and as he slipped invisibly between the bikes and rows you could feel his charisma leaving a white smoke trail that soon permeated the whole room. 

And talk about an innovative move, he had a sparkling assist from Pam Polestino. Because whilst Darryl performed his Merlin show, she sat atop the instructor bike and gave a performance like a co-star in a Jane Fonda video. I don’t get to take Pam’s killer classes probably because they might leave me crippled but seeing her up there was a treat in itself. She’s a pros pro and her presence jacked me up even higher. By the way I cranked out 969 in the calorie burn and even that number didn’t shock me because it was not just a spectacular ride and call but it was killer as well.  

I could go on about Darryl Gaines about his voice, his music, his fluidity and most of all his captivative charm and I am already thinking road trip into Manhattan I gotta have more. . If you missed this ride I’m feeling sorry for you.