Another Training, Another Adventure!

After missing training on Monday, I felt compelled to take the new bike out for a spin on Tuesday night - in the theory that it would help me make it through Wednesday's night funfest! Bike fits me well - smaller frame, great big seat, can sit up rather than ride all hunched over. Was feeling pretty neat until I got out of the driveway and the wind got ahold of me! 20 minutes later, after using pretty much every one of the 21 gears (and some of them twice) I was very glad to be back. I thought the route I had selected was pretty gentle - some uphill and some downhill - mostly flat (like the event course!) - but somehow it seemed the wind was always in my face and never at my back - oh well - I survived.

Wednesday three of we angels met up (one still on vacation) and beat the rain over to Vincennes. Had a brief presentation on stress fractures by Molly Weiss, MD - orthopod in Vincennes who is also one of the ladies taking the training and participating in the event - who knew! Tiffany was on to our 'extend the talk (defer the training) by asking LOTS of questions scam' (can't get much past her!) so our group went out for a short run. As we headed out we consoled ourselves that at least we had core training last, so could 'rest' since we'd be on the floor on mats - wrong again on that one!

Core training was in, of all possible choices of all the rooms at the YMCA, a mirrored room - so no escaping the sights of a group of ladies in various positions - except by closing our eyes - and then we tended to bump into each other! The first activity (after stretching, of course) was 3 sets of 25 ab crunches (oh goody) - when we collectively moaned the instructor said - it's ok, I'll count - and she did - about every 5th one - never gasping for breath at all.

This was followed by a series of various exercises - all good for us I am sure. I am particularly fond of something called 'superman' because we get to lay down completely on our stomachs and only lift arm/leg combinations (right arm/left leg then left arm/right leg). She said we would do a couple of set of 15 lifts but I was counting each lift rather than each set of lifts - so was amazed that I was ahead of the 'official' count by so much!

We also were introduced to something called a 'reverse ab' that involved laying on our backs, hands at our sides (relaxed), and our feet more or less together up in the air (making a 90 degree angle). Then, when she said 'lift' we were supposed to somehow mystically lift our butts off the ground - making our legs go higher. While I believe this goes against the laws of nature, several of the ladies seemed to accept this without question, others of us found this a bit more difficult!

It was raining when we left the building, we briefly flirted with the idea of 'running' to the car but wisely reconsidered that under the thought that the rain would probably make us smell a little better than the sweat we were presently drenched in!