Last few workouts.

Sorry readers, I haven't posted anything in about a week about my workout barbie lifestyle.

But no fear - it's not because I haven't been working out, my fingers have just been lazy. So here we go...my last 6 days of workouts (don't worry, it's not long).

Saturday: I ran.

I woke up and did about a 1.5 mile run to Clarendon and back. Nothing special happened on the run, except afterwards I felt GREAT!

Monday: I ran.
Sunday night I get a call from Spicy with his HUGE news...

Spicy: Ok Ape, it's time. I'm coming out of retirement.

Me: Really? So we are working out in the AM?

Spicy: Yes, I am ready to get back into race mode. I'll meet you at 6am.

So Monday morning, I get up and head to our meeting spot. I text Spicy, no answer. So I wait a little bit and decide a little while later that I would go ahead and start running. I ran from Rev Cycles up to almost Glebe and then back. It was about 2.5 miles. As I passed the other morning runners, I had a thought...

What makes someone a runner? Is it the moment they buy their first REAL pair of running shoes? Is it when they have that thought...I want to start running? Or is it when they run their first race? I know I decided I wanted to become a runner, and ran in various races, including my half-marathon, but still don't feel like a runner. Do I need to run DAILY in order to feel like one? My girls Hollee and Ashley just decided on their first race (congrats Hollee on your time, and good luck AJ on yours!) but I don't think they consider themselves runners as well. I mean I know people who are like "I'm a runner" and I just don't know at what point do you KNOW you are a runner?

Once almost back at my car, I was half expecting to the Spicy-mobile sitting beside Spike. It wasn't. So much for day 1 out of retirement for him.

And those were my last workouts. I know, I've dropped the ball on workouts this week (which sucks since I'm about to hit the beach for 4 days!!!). Hopefully I'll jump back in once I'm back.

Have a GREAT long weekend!!!

- apes -

Lady Lazy with a side of Crazy Legs McGee

As the prince of freshness would say..."And i liked to take a minute, And sit right there"...Imma tell you about my spin class this morning (sorry that didn't go with the end of the verse, guess my rap career is over).

I stroll into class as instructed by Senor Spicy himself:

Spicy Text: "Lot's of traffic, head to class"

So I head in and grab a bike...and the class starts. No Spicy. Warm up goes by. No Spicy. 1st set of our crazy workout. No Spicy. DID I REALLY GET BLOWN OFF BY MY "trainer"?!?!?! Yup. Sure did. Oh well, at least I got to class.

Ok so first up I'll tell you about my workout, then I'll introduce you to Ms. Lady Lazy and Ms. Crazy Legs McGee.

This class we did a "Maximum Workout" (that saying was incorporated about every 60sec - "you should be at your maximum right now", "Come on guys - let's reach your max!", blah blah). This workout consisted of TONS of intervals. All in groups of 8. Let me break it down for you:

20 seconds of sprint (again "Ok guys - you should be maxing out right now!")
10 seconds of recovery
Repeat 8 times

20 seconds of sprint standing up (again, to MAX OUT!)
10 seconds of recovery
Repeat 8 times

20 seconds of spring with higher tension, as if you're on a hill
10 seconds of recovery
Repeat 8 times

Then recover from ALL that on a 1:30 flat road (that just means no tension)
Repeat above with more tension
Then recover for 1:30 on a flat road
Repeat above with MORE tension

Then we did our cool-down stretching.

Ok, so while all this MAXIMUM EFFORT was going on for 20 seconds at a time I observed 2 characters:

First up...let's meet Lady Lazy (LL)

"Notice the tranquil state"

She was none other than MY TEACHER! Yes, that's right. The lady busting our butts for MAXIMUM EFFORT every 20secs or so was the laziest one in the class. I like when my instructors do the FULL workout with the students...that way I know they care about the workout as much as the rest of us, and they aren't short changing us on the activity. Now I understand that as a class instructor you need to check out the students and help their form and whatnot. But let me explain - she did MORE than just that. Every 10 sec's in our 20sec maxeff (what I'm calling it now, I'm tired of continuously typing the same saying) she would hop off her bike, and walk around. Now it's not as if the class has tons of bikes spread out all willy-nilly. Its 3 rows of bikes vertical, made up of 5 bikes horizontal. That means there's BARELY any room to walk. There are also about 5 bikes that face the side of the rows of bikes (where I happened to sit today). So basically you walk in the room, there are bikes on the right, then rows of bikes on the left. The only walkway is from the door to the front of the room (where LL sits on her bike facing the class). Ok, she walked around to 'check on the students', whatever. I'll chalk that up to being an observant teacher. When she wasn't taking time to hop off her bike during our maxeff, she was messing with the sound system, her Ipod, etc. I KNOW that she needs to change the music - but do you need to explore your Ipod every 30 sec. to see what song you're playing next? NO. Songs aren't 30 secs. So I chalk THAT up to being lazy. Moving on...

Let's meet the next entertainer....Crazy Legs McGee (CLM)

Normally, I actually sit behind this woman. But due to the full class, my bike was taken when I arrived. So I grabbed the empty seat that faced the rows of bikes, which put me parallel to CLM. That meant I was stuck with her being in my direct focus the whole class. Why the name Crazy Legs, you ask? Easy - she looked like this:

"She's so fast her legs are just a blur!"

For each 20 seconds of sprint we did, I thought she was literally going to fly off her bike. While that's awesome that she was doing such a great sprint, LL kept telling us if we feel we are going to fly off our bikes, then increase the tension. CLM wasn't having any of that nonsense. She was literally trying to fly off her bike. Now THAT would have been a sight!

After the class, I chatted with the the desk guy about the AB class (woo-hoo 30 min of hard-core abs!) and when THAT instructor didn't show, I just did some on my own. I obv missed the memo of lazy instructor day. At least LL actually showed up for her class (physically) though...

- apes -

Spinning Like CRAZY!!!

Crazy as in super intense...not like "Brittany Spears shave her head crazy". I'd like to point out that when I searched for a "crazy" picture in Google Images, this is what came up....

Hahah...this just made me laugh.

So anyways. I get to Spin Class Saturday morning....YES, IN THE AM. Granted it was 11am - but that's still the AM ON A WEEKEND!! And...I went by myself (Spicy had to work).

So I get to class, adjust my seat, and get ready for what will HOPEFULLY be a hard workout.

The teacher (I think her name was Amy or Ashley...I dunno, some A name) told us this week her workouts were "holiday themed" and her last class was Halloween and this class was Valentine's Day. That means all the music will love songs. WTF??!? I had a few problems with this...

1) Since when does Valentine's Day come directly after Halloween? What about Thanksgiving Day music, or Chismakwanzikkuh music, or NYE (Let's party like it's 1999)???!!?

2) HOW THE EFF AM I GONNA GET A GOOD WORKOUT WITH LOVE SONGS? I'm thinking she's gonna bust out any of these

• Boyz II Men - On Bended Knee
• Backstreet Boys - You are my fire...my one desire (what's it called, I want it that way?)
• Elton John - Can you feel the love tonight

Luckily, she didn't. She played songs like "Heart breaker", "Shot Through the Heart", "Love, Sex, Magic"etc. I am thinking she hasn't had a great Vday so far?? But whatever, it ended up being a decent mix.

She also had us doing new exercises I hadn't done before - some up and down sprints, where you get out of your seat, and then back down. Yeah, those got me working all right.

The class was DEF my best one yet...I mean afterwards I felt like this kid:

Even my eyeballs were sweating!

Afterwards I asked her what other classes she teaches, and unfortunately only Sat AM and Thursday night classes. Oh well, looks like I better make it out on Sat AM if I wanna take her class again!

- apes -

Quarter Marathon....after a Romero Wedding!

Sunday morning was the Pacers Race Festival in Rosslyn. It was a quarter marathon and a half marathon race. Leo and I were signed up to run the quarter marathon. No biggie, right?

WRONG!!!

The night before the race was our good friends Juan Romero and Stephanie Long's wedding. We've known Juan since Freshman year, and at this point we know a lot of his family also. So we made sure to celebrate....which didn't help Sunday morning.

We left the hotel around 7am Sunday morning and headed to Rosslyn (about 40 min away). The race started at 8am - and I was EXHAUSTED!!!

Once the race started I was feeling surprisingly good! I was trucking along on the crazy route (the route was on the interstate, going on off-ramps, and then back ONTO the interstate - weird!)...and then it came....

Mile 4. My body died. So I started to walk....almost the rest of the way.

I started walking...and got passed by a juggler. You may remember him from my last 5k post. Luckily, he wasn't dropping his hackeysacks (I woulda said dropping his balls, but then I figured a bunch of "that's what s/he said" jokes would come about).

As I kept walking I started to figure out how long an actual quarter marathon was. 6.55miles. So I had 2.55 miles to go. GREAT. So I just kept on trucking on...getting passed by a LOT of people.

Then it came...almost the finish. So I put a little pep in my step, and finished at a crazy 1hr.22min39seconds. HORRIBLE. So I decided to see what place I had. I came in as #460. Oh, that's not too bad, right? Well, then I realized there was only 495 people running the quarter marathon.

Yup. I did TERRIBLE.

I also had lots of titles for this blog as I was running:

- And then it hit me...I AM a runner
This was referring to racing the morning after a wedding...but then when I hit mile 4 I realized, I wouldn't put myself in the "runners" category just yet.
- The Quarter Marathon ain't got nothing on me
Turns out, it had EVERYTHING on me.
- I'm ready for the marathon!
I think I was smoking crack when I thought of that one.

Ok...time to get back on the training wagon.

- apes -

It's all Spicy's Fault

So this morning was SPIN CLASS!! And with the GOOD teacher, too. I was excited, I’ve been waiting for it all week. So I get up, get ready and get to our meeting spot at wait for Spicy. He shows up at 6:10am. The class starts at 6:15am. He has to get his shoes out of the shop, where he left them, and by the time we get to the gym, its 6:15am and the class has started, and there are NO free bikes left. Thanks a LOT Spicy.

This is me.

So since we were planning on spin class, I didn’t have running shoes, or clothes to change out of my bike chamois (those padded shorts that feel like a baby’s diaper).

Again…not a happy camper.

So we jump on the elliptical for a short warm-up, at which we couldn’t figure out how to work the individual tv’s and then we went through the “Express Line”

No silly, not the grocery store!

It was the line of 7 or 8 weight machines to use. The key is that a trainer can kick you off if they need to. So Spicy and I did the machines while we waiting for our new ab class to start (more about that later).

After our machines, I wanted to talk to the trainer. Here’s the scene:

I walk up to the front desk, to see the trainer
Me: “Hi. How can I get a rock hard ass?”
Trainer: “Lunges and Squats. And our Glutes Machine, I’ll show you”
He walks me to the machine
Trainer: “I like you’re direct questions”
Me: “It’s too early for me to beat around the bush”
He shows me how to use the crazy looking machine. Pretty much I lay down, and push the machine with my back leg, like a laying down lunge, he makes sure I do it right.
Trainer: “I also teach a Sunday morning class on weight training, it’s a class the pretty girls take. You’re welcome to come”
Me: “Ok, cool. I mean I don’t need crazy muscles like you” (he is a body builder)
Trainer: “Well, it’s like a lecture and weight class. What I’m saying is, your pretty”
…and then we went into the locker rooms…bow chica bow wow.

HAHA, JK. Nothing happened further then him telling me I was one of the pretty girls. It still made my morning to be called pretty by a bodybuilder/trainer at 6:30am before I’ve showered.

So back to my workout with Spicy…

This morning a new class started at 7am…HARDCORE ABS!! WOO-HOO!! Of course I was planning on attending, and Spicy was forced to join. So at 7am we went into the studio room, got our mats, and waited with the 2 other women. Then the bodybuilder/trainer (Pat) came in, but just to take the class. Then our teacher came in…Garret. I don’t think he’s our real teacher, since Pat had said Allison was our teacher, and when Garrent came in he asked if Pat was teaching. Once Pat said he was just taking it – I think it’s a requirement to take all the classes for them – Garret started teaching. We did some regular abs, abs with weights, abs across the floor, lots of planks, and abs with the big ab balls. My abs didn’t feel too worked out, but my arms sure did (from holding the weights, being in push-up position, etc). I’m ready for next week when (hopefully) the real teacher will be back and working us like crazy!

Friday is our off day, but Becca is coming to visit for the night, so her and I might hit up the Sauna (finally!) to sweat out our Thursday night kickball drinks.

- apes –

Spicy Speak!

Spicy came equipped to our run with more inspiration quotes.

Piss Lightning, Shit Success I hope this doesn't come out when I pee.

Ok, so there's no background on this one like the bee/racehorse quote but here’s my take. Am I part thunderstorm? I am PRETTY sure lightning does NOT feel good to piss it out. Wouldn’t it actually electrocute me? And what does it have to do with running? Should I be pissing fast LIKE lightning? That would make more sense, but why not just say…PISS FAST.

Suffer the pain of discipline or suffer the pain of regret.

This one I kinda like (don’t tell Spicy!). It def makes sense. I mean if I discipline myself to go further and faster I will be in pain, but a GOOD pain. If I don’t I will always say “Man, I regret not working harder last week” and etc. And that’s NOT something I want! When my marathon comes up I do not want to be saying at the end “Ah, I could’ve trained harder” or “I could’ve sprinted earlier” etc. I want to say “…..” that’s right, NOTHING. I want to have ran that so hard and well I don’t have the energy to speak. WOOAHHH…Apes not being able to speak? Yeah, pretty much impossible, but that’s how hard I want to work in the marathon. It’s not enough to just finish. I’ve gotta finish WELL.

And that’s the latest installment of Spicy Speak.

- apes -

Key Bridge Loop - COMPLETED

So this week Spicy and I weren’t able to meet up for our morning workouts until Wednesday. So of course, Wednesday meant we were running.

When I woke up, I got on my running gear, and headed to meet Sergeant Spicy. We started off on the direction to the Key Bridge, and I ended up running the whole way – all the way to the bridge, over the bridge, and back. It was about 3.8 miles! Woo-Hoo!!

On the way back the hills really got me, but Spicy wouldn’t let me give up. He even game me some new quotes (check out Spicy Speak).

After the run, and I was feeling great! We realized it was only 7am. I still had 30 minutes until I needed to be getting ready for work. So we headed to the gym and did some core/legs workout until it was time to head out.

Before we left, we signed up for the Thursday spin class – the teacher asked us to make sure we sign up since it was so packed last time.

- apes –

Sometimes a Marathon Just isn't good enough

I was reading the June issue of Runner's World and realized that some people aren't content with just running a marathon...some get a little creative. Check out their stunts:

- Fastest Marathon with a loaded baby jogger: 2hours 32min

I hate when these strollers pass me!

- Longest Scarf knitted over 26.2 miles: 5feet, 2inches

She then sold her scarf and donate the proceeds to charity

- Fastest Marathon run as a vegetable (carrot): 3hours 34minutes

Nothing like getting beat by a carrot...

- Fastest Marathon run as a fruit (orange): 4hours 32minutes

Orange you glad you don't have to run in this costume?

- Fastest Marathon run as an animal (ostrich): 3hours 42minutes

Oh hello...you think you can beat me, huh?

- Fastest Marathon while bouncing a basketball: 3hours 48minutes

Well BOUNCING isn't exactly running now is it?

- Fastest Marathon on STILTS!!: 8hours 25minutes

This is the actual Stilt Girl

- Fastest Marathon while juggling three beanbags: 2hours 50 minutes

Yeah, but how many times did he DROP the beanbags?

- Fastest Marathon finish by a team of 5 runners linked together: 3hours 38minutes

best picture I could find for this

- Best Marathon while running backward: 3hours 43minutes

You may be running backwards, but you still look like an idiot.

So I am not trying to do anything fancy for my marathon...just finish without dying. But at least it'll give me something to look out for while I'm running, maybe I'll end up behind someone else getting their best time while doing a stunt!

- apes -

Skins vs. Dallas 5k

Well it was here...me and Roomster's last Crystal City 5k. Since we missed dressing up for the red dress, we decided to do our own theme this week....and since the NFL draft was last week and teams are still getting settled, we decided to wear our jerseys!

We got there on time!! But once we got to the bag check, I realized I didn't have my Ipod, so we had to go back to the car. So now we were of course late.

So we jogged to the start line, where people hollered to us we were late (as if we didn't know) and we crossed the start line together. At the start line, one of the guys shouted to me "Let's go April!" and I looked and waved, but had no idea who he was (if you're reading this, I'm sorry!!). So we started the race.

Sidenote: the night before was the first night of kickball, and we celebrated our 9-0 win a little hard...the race was NOT something I was looking forward to.

Roomster is her ugle blue star jersey got lots of acknowledgement at the beginning of the run, but whatever. They were on the sidelines for a reason. I'm sure all the skins fans were actually RUNNING the race, hence why they couldn't cheer from the sidelines.

Once I hit the first turn (and still feeling the alcohol from the night before), I hear another cheer "Yeah, April" so I just cheered back "YEAH!" and when I turned to look, it was one of the guys from the bike shop, running in the first group! I was like who the EFF would I know running in the first pack of people?! It was Drew, who is a newbie at the bike shop.

So I keep running, and I'm of course way behind EVERYONE (and lost Roomster way at the beginning of the race since she's a lot faster). Then on the turn I see her, and so we started cheering for our respective NFL teams as we pass each other...I am sure the runners around us loved that.

At one point (after the final turn) I was behind this girl with hot pants on. Now I don't mean running shorts that were tight...I mean Straight-Up HOT "PANTS". They were so short I could see her butt, and I am just happy that was ALL I saw. I passed her quick so I didn't have to keep looking....but I guess that would be a good way to pick up an athletic guy?

I also got stuck behind the juggler. UGH. That was the WORST. It was seriously a guy, who juggled 3 hackey sacks throughout the whole race. I wouldn't have minded so much, except I got stuck behind him and every few steps he would drop one and he'd have to stop and pick it up. UGH, GET OUT OF MY WAY!!!

So I have come to the conclusion that if you start the race WAY late, it is ONLY fun if you are running with someone. If you start way late and end up running the whole thing by yourself, it's not fun at all. Not only was I just putting along, I also looked I was the slowest person there!!!

However, our end results were the following:

Cowgirl: 25:36
Redskin: 30:46

So yes, my time wasn't great...BUT considered I was hungover, I was just happy to have ran the whole time! And yes, the cowgirl DID beat me. But with the new changes on the Skins team I figure I would let them get their only win against us now. I figured I'd be nice like that.

Afterwards we went to the after-party to meet up with one of our new kickballers, Derrick, and we ended up meeting his running club. We grabbed our free drink and checked the place out, and it was AWESOME! It was just this big open room, with Live entertainment, drinks, and sweet art. There were tons of photo op places - one being and option to pose by the golden shoes (which of course we did). While we were having our own photo shoot, a woman took our pic and asked if she could use our picture in her neighborhood newsletter. So now we have deemed ourselves Crystal City Celebrities (by our photo only).

There was also a place where we could write on the wall, and there were some awesome inspirational quotes. We both of course signed the wall:

"I let the cowboy fan win, I felt sorry for her - The Skins Fan" - Me
"Cowboys win again! Good Luck with the MCM Apes" - Roomster

And that ends our month of 5k's on Fridays :(

- apes -

Spindoctor Apes

...and that's the last of the titles I can think of to relate to Spin Class.

Thursday morning Spicy and I hit up another spin class, this time joined by our buddy Alex! When we got to class, it was PACKED! There were a ton of people, so we couldn't get bikes by each other. So I grabbed the first one I found, and the boys found 2 together. So I felt like I was in time out, sitting far away from my friends.

Luckily, they didn't have a silly hat for me to wear.

This time we had a different teacher, so I didn't know how intense the class would be. I figured it would be similar to Tuesdays, but I wanted more of a workout than before, so I made sure to increase my tension a lot.

I was getting into it, feeling the burn, and really getting a solid workout. Whew, that class just flew by!!! Then I realized we were only 10min into the class. Eff. So I made some tension adjustments, and was able to make it through the rest of the class.

This week the teacher was jamming out some good tunes, and when "I want you to want me" started playing, the guys (Spicy and Alex) caught me lip sync'ing and hard core jamming to it. Then they saw me rockin' out to the rap songs as well. Hey, at least they were entertained.

The class went over on time, so people started dropping like flies and dipping out to go get ready for work. The 3 of us stayed though...all the way to the end! At the end of the final leg, it was time to sprint to the finish line!!! According to the teacher, Spicy won. Um, No. I mean, he prob beat me, but she only said he won because he raised his hands up like he really did win.

Afterwards, I reconvened with the guys, and we changed out of our heinously sweaty shirts....well, me and Spicy did. Alex had on full blown bibs (a biking one-sie) so he just pulled his arm straps down. Haha, too bad he rode with a shirt on over the bibs, it woulda been great if it was just his bibs we all saw during class.

So, I've now done 2 cycling classes - and I really enjoy them! Spicy doesn't want us to do lots of spinning, but he's compromised and we can do it once a week.

- apes -