| I was moved!
Big Time!
Friday, Marisa (long time client, former 6:30p coach and friend), invited me to be a guest at a LifeTime Fitness, spin class. A while back I wrote about how I was encouraged by members to check out different classes & programs to learn from them, so Marisa pitched a number of classes to me that she thought I should check out. This was the first one of her recommendations I tried. And it delivered, but not like you imagined.
The class was called, AMP, and taught by Samantha. I came in blind, I didn't do any research, I figured if Marisa said I should do something, I'd listen and do it. Well it was like a party and Sam reminded me of my daughter Vivi. She had a raspy voice and Vivi does too and she had dirty blonde hair, and so does Vivi. She was high energy, and if you meet my daughter, you'll think the same, so it was cool and weird to be led by her, yet heart warming at the same time.
Today Here's how the newsletter is going to work. I'm going to tell you the unexpected story right up front and then share my thoughts and experience of the class. Ready?
I was moved! The class was tough. I had done my 2nd, P12, Workout A workout earlier in the morning, prior to meeting up with Marisa and FYI, it's going to be an awesome and tough workout, but I'll save that story for another day. So I was pre-fatigued. There were 52 or 54 bikes, I can't remember. Lots of lights. An amazing stereo system and tons of ups & downs. It was like a party, an it's ironic Samantha's Tagline in her bio is "work hard play hard", because it totally brought me back to my 20's and going to clubs. I felt like I should have been wearing my DKNY or Calvin Klein fitted shirts.
In any event, I was getting humbled, especially with Marisa by my side, crushing the workout, and then we reach the point where the cool down is coming and I'm like, "yes!", "finally!". Sam says, to turn it up to medium-heavy or medium-hard, I can't remember and we start to slow down. Sam, was real good at "rah, rah" talking during the workout and painting pictures and asking good questions, and now she says, "think about putting good into the world. Think about who could use a hug. Who could you give a hug too? Who could you help that's down? Who do you love, who haven't you said you love to in a while, that you could say it too? And then...
Make You Feel My Love She plays, Adele's version of "Make You Feel My Love". That's my wedding song, and I start crying. The dam is open, tears flowing down my face, I tell Marisa this is my wedding song, and I'm physiologically so confused. I've got salty sweat dripping down my face and now salty tears are dripping down my face. The room is pitch black, the speakers are booming, surround sound amazing, Adele is singing. I'm matching her word for word, except for the many parts I make up because I really don't know the words, so I pretend and keep singing anyways. I flash back to the wedding. Holding Vanessa. Eyes closed. Smelling her. Kissing her neck. Holding her tight. All our people surrounding us watching. She's singing. I watch her. I love her neck line. She's crying. I'm so in love. Then I flash back to every wedding, every car ride, every time we're in the kitchen that I hear our song. My body is so confused. My legs are working hard, I'm breathing heavy, but much easier compared to 5 minutes ago. My arms are tired, yet I'm somewhere else. Sam keeps saying stuff, and each time it notches up my emotion another level. I feel like I'm watching the Mighty Ducks, Braveheart, ... every movie I've ever teared up to. I can't stop thinking about Vanessa now. I should have made dinner last night. I need to help her more. I miss her. I wanna get her flowers. I wonder if I can catch her for lunch. I can't believe, this workout did this to me. I wonder if everyone else feels like this. I hope they don't try to sell me a time share because I might just buy it. And so I leave. I thank Marisa. I want to hug her, but I'm not sure she's on the same level as me right now. I want to profess my gratitude to Sam, but I figure I'll tweet her or something. I wonder if I can catch Vanessa. I shower. I call her. I don't get her. I figure I'll got to Winston's because that's where we got her wedding bouquet. I show up. I get greeted right away. She asks if I need help. I say yes. She asks if I know what I'm looking for. I say a bouquet. Do you want white or coral. I say coral. Which do you like? I ask if they have Ranunculus? She says, only in the spring. I say these one's because they look like Ranunculus. I ask if they have Peonies? She says no. She asks if there's an occasion, and I spill my guts. I say I was moved. She says you were moved? I said yes. I tell her we got the bouquet there and I thought I'd try to remake it if I could. I didn't. Now two ladies are helping me out. Gosh, I can't remember the first ladies name. She says I should write a card. I said that's a great idea. She says, we have cards. I say, great. She gives me a card. I can't write fast enough. I write so many words, that I run out of space and now starting writing around the border to finish my thoughts. They tell me they love stories like this. It means there's good in the world and that there's a chance. I said, do you want to hear what happened? They say sure. I tell them. They melt. O.k. They didn't melt. But they love it. They ask if I want a vase. No. They ask when I'm going to give it to her. I said, I tried to catch her, but I didn't so I won't see her until 5:30. They said do you want it water wrapped or wet wrapped or can you put it in a cup of water. I said, I can't. I said it's going to sit in the car until I go home. They say water wrapped. She rings me up. I walk out to the car. Reach into my pocket no keys. F*#k! I walk closer to the car. The car is running. That's weird. OMG. I f'n left the keys in the car and the car running with my bags in the car. What is happening to me? I turn off the car. Go back inside. Go right up to the girl who's now with another customer and say, talk about a moment. I couldn't find my keys. They were in the car and the car was running. We laugh. I leave. I text Vanessa that I want to either pick up dinner from anywhere she chooses, take her and Vivi to dinner, wherever she chooses or meet her for dinner wherever she chooses. Then on a confusing high, I go and write, because the words are flying, I'm moved and it's a good story. I hope you enjoyed it. I'm excited to see my girls, especially my wife. We're going to dinner at the place we had the reception for our wedding at. We're going to walk there. I'm a big pile of mush right now. I'm so glad Sam, wasn't selling something I shouldn't be buying. I'm glad Vanessa didn't suggest I go see Josh, because we'd probably walk out of there with matching earrings to her ring. Pfew. Subject change.
Lifetime Fitness That place is no joke. It's huge. They've got like a 13,000 member capacity. They've got most everything, I'd want to play with as a coach. It's totally like a spa, gym and high performance training center. Heck, even free Valet parking. Showers are awesome. Nice products. Everyone gets free towels. They've got a cold plunge. Sauna, steam, hot tub. It's pretty dope. I went once before with Jim P, and had a great experience. We did one of the CYBBC workouts and they had all the tools we needed, even the hurdles and ladder and medicine balls.
AMP Spin Class That class, that room is like a party. It totally brought me back to my 20's, when I used to go to the club. I wish I came up with that idea. I'm not sure I would go to the club now, because, my lifestyle is totally different. I'd have to sleep for 3 or 4 hours and then get up to go out for 11p, so I could make it through the night. In any event, it was fun and brought me back. You probably won't go to a club anytime soon, but if you could have that experience, the lights, the music, the energy, the people, the highs, without the cost, the hangovers, the bad decisions, the wasted next days, wouldn't you try it every once in a while. What if you could get it, in the middle of your morning. A friggin club experience at 10:30am. That's nuts. That's what this was. A party. High energy. Great music. Great sound system. Fun light show. Great instructor. Great experience. Equipment was great. Top of the line. Free towels. Carved pumpkins (Ride Strong). It was cool.
Sam She already reminded me of my daughter. She was that super fun, high energy and positive friend. She brought out your best, she even got me to work harder than I wanted to (remember this was a double session for me). She danced. She was a good dancer. That made it fun. It made everyone want to dance. She said really inspiring words and asked really good questions. She got us to the highest point and then did the unexpected and floored at least me with the channel your energy to do something good for someone else who could really use it, and then she played my wedding song. Now I'm sure there's 10's of thousands of couples who share the same song, and there were probably people in that room too, but I wasn't thinking about them. I was thinking about doing good, being good and now how can I do good for my wife, and damn, why did I drop my towel, because I need to wipe up these tears. I'm so glad it's dark, so no one asks me if I'm crying to Adele. Thumbs up to Sam!
My Dislikes I'll do my best to be not negative because it was a great experience. I don't like the hip hinge push back thing where you're just above your "saddle", aka seat. Every time, I almost hit my package. Either the frank, the beans or both. Those hinges were fast. I'd go fast and have to hit the breaks fast (not the cycle breaks, but my breaks. I had slow my hinge down to be careful). It was awkward enough as a first timer to hinge on the bike while peddling, but then to be careful made it more challenging.
My feet cramped up after 20 minutes, like they do with skiing, ice skating or single leg deadlifting or 1-leg squatting for 20 minutes straight. That wasn't fun. It did give me a good excuse to sit and pedal vs. stand and pedal, but that means I was a bit lame and that didn't feel good.
The class was hard. I've only done maybe 5-10 spin classes in my life and they've all been hard. It's not my strength, so the ups & downs, and forward and backs are not my thing.
It's significantly harder than walking. My arms were tired, which made it feel more like a total body workout, but I'm not ready to not count spin classes as full time cardio minutes. Even though it was a great workout and fun. There's something about the bike that feels non-weight bearing. Like being in a pool, but with resistance. Like the old assisted dip / chin station at the gym. The arms part, felt real. No doubt about it. There was a part where she challenged us to push past our limits, and I was dogging it. I was going through the motions, but I figured, screw it. Let's see what I could do and I kept turning the nob to the right until I had to lean right & left and right & left to make the pedals go. That was hard, but it still didn't feel like a stadium run.
The seat was HARD. I don't think I'm used to it. I got over it quick.
Work Hard Play Hard. That statement also brought me back to my 20's and I let her. It was fun. I'm all in, if work hard, play hard, is done in your workouts. That's the way it should be. There's not really a cost that way like there would be if you went out all night to the clubs and partied hard.
Spin classes feel like I'm a hamster on a wheel.
What I liked? I did love the right, left, down & right, down & left at the end, and I did get the hinge pattern down by then, and it was super cool to have everyone doing the same thing in sync. I thought Sam did an outstanding job coaching us to be this good, because we weren't always in sync earlier in the workout and I thought she was doing great then.
I loved how Sam customized the bike to me and anyone else who asked.
It was a great workout.
It was an amazing experience.
Work Hard, Play Hard, was really a 21st Century version of Work Hard, Rest Hard, where the Rest has fun without a cost built in, and this class, training, workouts, would be a great way to play hard.
The speakers.
The playlist.
The lightshow.
Marisa.
Sam.
The stadium set up for the bikes.
The stretches at the end. Great stretch choices. Great length of time on
each stretch.
That Sam rode in front. Walked around. Danced. Move her bike in different
directions. Rode a bike next to us. She was entertaining, fit, knowledgeable
and fun.
Would I do it again? Yes. Definitely. It wouldn't be a part of my regular programming b/c it doesn't fit my interests or my goals. Would I do it every year. For sure. It's fun. It's a nice change of pace. You get a great cardiovascular workout, a great leg workout, great arm workout. You burn calories. Gosh, if you could share your post workout high with someone, that would be so fun.
So if you made it this far, thank you for reading. I've already FaceTimed with my wife and Vivi. Vanessa is super excited. She wanted to know every detail until she didn't want anymore because she was super excited and wanted to leave some as a surprise. I don't have any more surprises. Maybe they should have sold me a timeshare, or some Jewelry. Josh? You still got that bracelet Vanessa liked? I'm kidding. I guess this is a good way to warm up for our anniversary and Vanessa's birthday. Good karma. Who can you give a hug too that needs one? Who can you pick up that needs some picking up? Who can you say I love you too, that you haven't said it too in a while? Go do it. It'll make you both feel good and it'll put more good karma and hope in the world.
Thank you Sam.
Thank you Marisa.
Ready to put good into the world,
Coach Mike
p.s. P12 Begins Monday. It's awesome even if there's no light show. Plus I've been moved, so you'll get to reap the benefit of my renewed high energy and inspiration.
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