Home » 2013 » March (Page 2)

March 2013 archive

30th Birthday Gift to Myself: My Own Schwinn Indoor Cycling Bike

Hi! A big thank you to everyone who came out to the DSB & Fitness NYC Revolve Body Ride class! last night. Jason is an amazing instructor who taught a challenging, fun, motivational, high-energy class.  I’m amazed and impressed by his ability to know every nuance of every song and be able to cue perfectly to those. I can only hope to be half  as good of an instructor as he is one day. I consider every class at Revolve “studying” and Jason is the perfect study guide.

So about that thing about me hoping to be half as good as Jason Tran one day: I have this need to be awesome at certain things. By awesome I mean the best and by certain things I mean everything. That reflects to work, to my writing, to my performance at Refine Method, to my running (I take my own improvements as the measure of awesome here) and now, with being an indoor cycling instructor. And when I’m not awesome, I’m hard on myself. Really hard.

The entire reason I even became an indoor cycling instructor is because I was unhappy with many of the cycling classes I took in Jersey City and believed I could be better. And I can – but me being me, I want to be better than better.

The thing is, there’s a natural talent some people (like Jason Tran and the other Revolve instructors) have. I don’t have it.

I’m not saying the great instructors don’t work hard, don’t listen to every song 200 times before playing it in a class, don’t labor over every song on every playlist. It’s more of a personality thing. There’s a way of being that makes a great instructor, and I am not that way.

That doesn’t mean I’m not a good instructor now (I am) or that I won’t ever be a great one (I will). Rather, it means I have to work on figuring out my place as an indoor cycling instructor. Where do I shine? What am I doing that isn’t reflecting my own personality, just because other instructors do it? What would I be doing if I just relaxed and was more myself? How can I give my class the best possible experience? What will make me a favorite instructor? Would I benefit from taking a shot of vodka before each class?

OK maybe not that last one. (Or maybe EXACTLY that last one).

My point is, I want to be better. I want to be awesome. I want to the best. Or at least, one of the best in Jersey City.

Dori's Schwinn spin bike

Enter my own indoor cycling bike.

After obsessing over this purchase for about a month, I realized the only way to stop thinking about it would be to just buy it. But $318 is a lot of money, especially when I’m trying to pay for a wedding. Then I realized I’m turning 30 on March 21, that’s a huge birthday, I’ll probably get a little money and this could be my birthday present to myself. After all, it’s helping my future earning potential.

After doing tons of research, I ordered my original choice, the Schwinn IC2 (Amazon affiliate link). I got it for $318 and the price went up since then, further validating my decision to go for it. I chose this bike for a few reasons, the most important being that I was certified through Schwinn and believe in their indoor cycling philosophies and bike technologies, and because this was one of the only inexpensive bikes to have a display monitor for RPMs.

If I’m getting a bike so I can plan the most awesome and effective rides,  I need to be able to see my RPMs. That’s a personal decision for me because, like I said, I don’t have that natural talent on my own. I need to see the numbers and work hard.

I haven’t had a chance to use it much yet other than jumping on quickly the other day when I wanted to see if a certain song would work in a class, but I’m excited to start using it more. I want to be able to hop on to test songs and also to try full classes, to see how the class will feel when they’re riding what I planned out and most importantly for me, to better learn the cues of my music.

The fact that the bike takes up very little space in my small apartment and that Andy can (and I think will) use it for his own workouts makes it even better. When the weather is shitty or I don’t feel like leaving the apartment, I can get a great workout in right at home (especially since as much as I try I am not a workout DVD person).

In addition to the bike, I also ordered this gel seat cover and mat (both Amazon affiliate links).

So, happy birthday to me – the gift of pressure to be the best at yet one more thing! Kidding. The gift is for my capacity to improve, my desire to give other people a great workout, my happiness in doing something I love.

Have you ever bought yourself an extravagant birthday gift? Does anyone else have their own spin bike?

Workout Plan: Week of March 10, 2013 + Daylight Savings Victim

I had a crazy morning and I am so frazzled right now. Something about me: I am insane when it comes to being early. I am always ridiculously early for everything. I can’t ever be on time and I can certainly never be late; I NEED to be at least 15 minutes early everywhere I go, usually more. If I’m not 15 minutes early, I consider myself late.

When I teach spin, I’m there at least 30 minutes early so I can take my time, use the bathroom, set up my bike, make sure my music cord is plugged in and playing correctly, etc.

I set my alarm for 4:30 this morning, to teach my 6am class. I woke up before my alarm feeling nauseous, but awake. I usually wake up on my own between 5 and 5:30, so normally waking up on my own before 4:30 would be a red flag that something was off. But since I felt nauseous, I just assumed that my nausea is what woke me up. I didn’t think much of it.

I got up, took my time getting ready and at 5am thought about how I had so much time. That thought was literally interrupted by seeing the clock say 6am. It hit me right away what happened, and my stomach dropped as I realized my class should be starting at that exact time.

I was a victim of daylight savings.

I was the person I usually judge. I have an alarm clock that automatically adjusts the time to what the iPhone or iPod says. Of course, that only works when you actually DOCK the iPhone into the alarm. Which I obviously did not do.

I yelled for Andy to get up and he said he’d drive me. (Normally, I walk the 15 minutes myself). I shoved my stuff in my bag (forgetting all my clothes for work and tonight’s Revolve class) and called the gym on the way to let them know I’d be there in five minutes.

I am so grateful to Andy for driving me and not complaining about his unexpected early wake-up. I ran into the gym and there were three people in the class. I apologized profusely and they were all really nice about it.

I started my music and then realized I was using the gym’s cord and not my longer one that reaches to my bike. I tried switching it but for some reason today it wasn’t working! So the music stopped for a minute, making me even more frazzled, as I switched back to the gym’s cord and accepted that I wouldn’t have my playlist in front of me.

Did I mention it was a mostly new playlist full of songs I haven’t taught before?

Once we were up and running for real, I asked the three students if they wanted a shorter version of the class or if they’d like the full 55 minutes. They all said I should teach the full class and I told them if anyone had to leave early, I understood. No one did! I was so happy they all stayed and were so nice about it. The class itself was awesome too and I know I provided an awesome workout despite the issues! I really liked the playlist and the ride profile, and the three students being so nice about it made me feel so much better. If any of you from today’s class are reading this – THANK YOU!

We wrapped up at 7:10, 15 minutes later than usual. Not too bad, and I’m just relieved they were all so nice about it. I’ve been annoyed with late instructors before, but I know it happens to the best of us (even my idol Brynn from Refine, on Thanksgiving day when she realized she couldn’t get across the parade to teach class on time. It all worked out in the end and we had an amazing class when she got there anyway. You just have to adapt). It won’t happen again because it’s just not in my nature, and I am definitely learning to teach under stressful circumstances. So in the end it will hopefully make me a better instructor.

But the frazzle didn’t end there. After class I showered at the gym, and when I went to get dressed realized I left the entire bag of clothes I packed at home. I packed them, but in my frenzy didn’t throw the bag in my gym bag. So I had to go all the way home (the gym is closer to my office than my apartment) so I could get dressed and finish getting ready, before heading back out to walk to the office.

On my way to my apartment, a black cat walked right past me.

And that was all before 8 am.

In other news, tonight is the FREE DSB & Fitness NYC Revolve Body Ride class! Jason Tran is teaching, he is sweet and awesome and funny and motivating and high energy. We are all very excited to see you all tonight at 8:30 pm! Shoe rentals are free. I believe there might be a couple of spots open, so please let us know if you’d like to attend (or if you can no longer make it).

Here’s my workout plan for this week of March 10, 2013:

  • Sunday – Rest (When I saw how nice the weather was, I hoped to get a 3 mile run in before the sun went down but thanks to 45-minute Holland Tunnel gridlock in Manhattan I didn’t make it back home from Boston in time. I hate NYC.)
  • Monday – Teach spin (55 min) and Body Ride at Revolve (45 min)
  • Tuesday – Refine (1 hr) or run 4 miles (Depends on how late I get home from the Revolve class….)
  • Wednesday – Refine (1 hr)
  • Thursday – Refine (1 hr)
  • Friday – TBD – Either Refine, Revolve or Run based on Tuesday….
  • Saturday – Teach spin (50 min) and Refine (1 hr)

Here’s how my workouts last week went:

  • Sunday – Refine Method (1 hr) – Complete!
  • Monday – Teach spin (55 min) – Complete!
  • Tuesday– Refine Method (1 hr) – Complete!
  • Wednesday – Refine Method (1 hr) – Complete!
  • Thursday – Refine Method (1 hr) – Not complete, got a call to sub spin at Club H so I did that instead
  • Friday – Run 4 miles outside – Not complete, the weather drastically changed since the initial report and there was a snowstorm. Considered treadmill but decided to REST.
  • Saturday – Teach spin (50 min) – Complete!

And that’s where we are. I have more to update you on. I bought myself an exciting 30th birthday present (my birthday is on March 21) and I’m excited to share what that is with you.

Looking forward to seeing you at Revolve tonight!

Have you fallen victim to Daylight Savings? Make me feel better and tell me about it. I won’t judge you (anymore).

1 2 3