Monday, March 23, 2009

Cycling

I've been attending cycling classes at the gym I joined, you know, "spinning" for you sophisticated types. I like cycling. It's a solid hour of serious ass-kicking, especially if you really push yourself as hard as you can at all times.

Today, I almost lost my ankle. No joke. I really didn't think cycling on a stationary bike could be considered dangerous to one's health; today, however, I met my match.

We were about twenty minutes into the workout. This is around the part where I start sweating profusely and people mistake me for a man. What can I say, sweating in large quantities is in my blood. I thank the southern Italians. Anyway, we were in the phase of the workout where we were sprinting; this is where you pedal as fast as you can without any resistance. As we were in our second sprinting interval, the bottom portion of my left pant leg got wrapped around the pedal. My pants were wrapped a good four times around before I felt the remainder of the pants cutting off the circulation just above my ankle! Ouch.

Thankfully, I was able to free myself from this workout debacle without any permanent damage to my ankle, lower leg, or pants. This is obviously a good thing as I'd like to have full function-ability in my lower extremeties for the remainder of my lifetime. I can deal with the slight pain I'm still feeling. It takes my mind off the pain throughout the remainder of my lower half from the actual workout.

(I'm not sure function-ability is a word, by the way.)

Sunday, March 22, 2009

The Television Season

I remember a time when television shows followed a traditional season of new episodes. There was a one or two week span in September when stations would premiere a newly anticipated season of episodes of various shows. I'm sure there were others like me who spent a large chunk of the summer anxiously waiting for the new season to arrive. I remember also that a show ran every week, keeping viewers in suspense only for an appropriate seven days. After a certain number of episodes, the season would end in a cliff-hanger finale and summer would again bring its wait.

In recent years, I've noticed that television only partially follows this formula. Yes, there are premieres. Yes, there are episodes each week. Yes, there are cliff-hanger finales. However, it seems that some shows' seasons have a lot of interruptions.

Take for example, two of my favorite shows on ABC: Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters. It seems that I now have to wait four weeks for new episodes to air. Then I imagine, there will be four or five new episodes in consecutive weeks before the big finale and hiatus for the summer. I find myself thinking that this type of set up is more common lately. Sure, there's always been a week off for things like Christmas or the SuperBowl or March Madness or the occassional awards show. But a whole month? That didn't seem common until recently.

Now it seems shows take these mid-season hiatuses, two weeks here or four weeks there. New shows are airing in September, November, January, March... whenever. Really, it makes the whole "season" hard to follow.

I like the frequent and consecutive season. I like the seven-day wait. I don't like the extended hiatus. I mean, there's only so much wasted air space one can take.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Working out is hard to do...

I've been trying to stay committed to my new life as a work out buff, but I tell you, it's quite hard sometimes. You know, there are days when my body is so sore that I really don't want to get out of bed, let alone go back to the gym. But somehow, I've maintained the will power to stay committed.

I've noticed that joining a gym at home has brought about some sort of strange motivational factors. For starters, in my prior life in Mount Carmel, I was considered pretty athletic. Granted, this was 10 years ago, but still, I feel that some people may still associate me with this former life. I find this to be motivational. Like when I start to get tired after 10 minutes on the treadmill, I use this as motivation to keep going.

Another motivational factor also comes via other people. You see, there are a lot of parents of my friends who work out at this gym. I find myself thinking, "I wonder if they tell such-and-such that they saw me at the gym. I hope that's all they say. Not something like 'Boy, that Carol, looks like she put on a few pounds, doesn't seem to move very well.'"

I also notice that some of these parents, as well as people my age who I consider to be unathletic, can kick my ass in aerobics classes. I didn't think I would like aerobics classes, but some lower-body workouts and some occassional cycling classes are quite intense 60-minute workouts. I often can't walk after these sessions. But again, these people keep me motivated, especially when they're not sweating and I'm busting my ass and sweating like a hog. Makes me feel like my time is well spent.

But seriously, the real motivation is that I have felt much better overall the last few weeks since I started working out. I am sleeping much better, rather than tossing and turning and waking up every few hours. I have more energy and have cut back on the time I spend zoned out in front of the tv. I'm watching what I eat a little more closely, which basically means I don't drink as much caffeine. I'd like to think these are all positive steps for my life.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

In the dining room with the candlestick...

I previously posted that I've started participating in Sunday GameDay with my aunt and cousin. We try to play some sort of game one day a week to pass the time and just enjoy each other's company. Our first outing involved playing Monopoly while other outings have included Clue, Life, Racko, and Boggle. Last week, only my aunt and I were able to play so we opted for two-player games like Electronic Talking Battleship and Stratego.

Occassionally, we try to pick up a game during the week. Today, after a delicious lunch, we opted for some Clue, since it is our favorite game. At this point, I think it's the only game we can play so Jen will keep joining us. The first time we played Clue we used the original game, but since then, we have been playing the revamped, newer game. This new version has the same characters like Colonel Mustard and Mrs. Peacock, but there are some different weapons like a trophy and poison and some different rooms like the observatory instead of the conservatory.

The goal of the game remains the same. Prove who committed murder with what weapon in what room. However, there are a few new twists. Your character has some special powers as it relates to moving about the game board and figuring out clues. There are also intrigue cards; if you roll or land on a question mark or are "rumored" in committing a murder, you get to choose one of these cards. These cards allow you to make certain plays in the game, like taking an extra turn or moving anywhere on the board. Hidden in these cards are also "clock cards"; these cards are considered a timer. The person who draws the 8th clock card is considered murdered and cannot continue in the game.

We have played probably 20 games using this new version and no one has fallen to the wrath of the clock card. Until today, that is. I had the magical opportunity to draw the clock card and upon doing so, immediately yelled "Murderer!" in the spirit of the game. It's fun when new things happen during GameDay. Unfortunately, I didn't win the game, but it was fun to see the entire new game finally play out.

I really love GameDay. I never could have predicted at this point in my life that this would be one of my favorite things about each week, but I really do enjoy this quality time with the family. I just hope next time we play, I get to solve the murder. It's a pretty good feeling when you figure it out first!

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Out of Shape

If I had the proverbial magic wand and could change one thing about my life, it would simply be that I would have never allowed myself to get out of shape. For the past ten years, I have battled back and forth between out of shape and in shape; if you know me well, you know I've spent much more time out of shape. It's quite depressing.

In the past, I've found myself in this vicious cycle. Out of shape. Start working out. Pain everywhere. Be committed to working out for a good month. Miss a day or two. Miss two weeks. Turns into months. Out of shape. Repeat every few months. Like I said, vicious cycle.

This week, I joined a gym, as I am determined to break this cycle once and for all. I won't allow myself to say this in 2010. 2009 must be the year I break the cycle. With all of the free time I have at present, I really have no more excuses. It's time.

In the past, my approach to getting back in shape followed an easing-in approach, start light and slow, ease back into things. I realized as of late why this has failed me. Because with this approach, every day seems like an uphill battle. Each new day you have to take things to a new level. It never ends.

So this time, I'm taking a new approach. I'm going to basically kill myself from the start. Push myself as hard as I can. Endure the pain. Suck it up and keep going. No excuses. No laziness. No easing in. Just go. I figure if I can take this approach for three straight weeks, I will be on my way to having this a habit in my life. My mom claims there's some theory out there that says you have to do something 21 times to make it a habit. I'm too lazy to verify the truth to this, so I'll just believe it and set this goal for myself. 21 days of hell and hard work.

So far, 2 days down. And yes, today's cycling workout definitely kicked my ass. As long as I can walk tomorrow, I figure I'm on my way.