A Perfect Day For Sweatpants

This morning I posted my “Weekend To-Do List.” Let’s just say I accomplished…some of the things I needed/wanted to.

Honestly, on days like today — wet, gloomy, rainy, cold — To-Do lists should be thrown out the window. But of course, I’m much too crazy for that. So here’s how today went down (wonderfully — that’s the short version)…

My alarm went off at 7 am. ABS and I were in bed nice and early last night, so even though I was waking up at what felt like the crack of dawn, I was OK with it.

The plan was to attend a Suspension Ride class, which is 30 minutes of Spin followed by 30 minutes using the TRX suspension system. (Fun fact: The class is featured in this month’s issue of Shape as a new and noteworthy class at Crunch.)

I arrived at the gym five minutes after it opened. I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to get a good bike on the sign-up sheet (like I’ve said before, I have OCD-like tendencies). After signing up (an hour before the class even began) I realized that I had the entire gym with which to play. It was empty!

I also had the locker room as my private area. Naturally I took advantage of this by taking silly awesome photos of myself to share with you.

I took the pre-spin time to focus on strength training, extra emphasis on the arms. Now remember, I’m no fitness professional. Some of the things I do are exercises I learned when I worked with a personal trainer during my senior year in college (Hi, Robert, wherever you are these days.) but other things I’ve adapted from my favorite moves in group fitness classes.

Here’s a little rundown of today’s strength regimen:

• 200 crunches: 50 regular, 50 right-side obliques, 50 left-side obliques, 50 alternating obliques
• Bicep curls on an incline bench: Using 15 lb. dumbbells in each hand, do 2 sets of 20 reps
• Chest presses on an incline bench: Using the same 15 lb. dumbbells in each hand, do 2 sets of 20 reps
• Tricep presses: Seated, with a 15 lb. dumbbell, do 2 sets of 20 reps
• Tricep pushdowns: Using the big scary apparatus (yes, that’s the technical term), do 2 sets at 25 lbs. and 2 sets at 20 lbs.
• Hold two 2-minute planks with a 1-minute rest in between
• Hold 1-minute side planks (one on each side, with a 30 second rest in between)
• Wrap it all up with some foam rolling

It was really nice to have all that time to strength train. Usually I feel rushed because I try to do it all in half an hour or so, but today I was able to use all the machines and weights I wanted at my leisure.

Sadly, Suspension Ride wasn’t happening today. The, um, Pole Dancing Championships were happening at my gym, apparently (?) so we couldn’t use the TRX studio.

The instructor, Vladimir (adorable, great house music during class), said that in lieu of TRX, we’d just do a regular 45-minute ride. Then someone in the class shouted out, “Make it an hour!”

Alrighty then.

So we spun for an hour.

Whoa.

Class was really hard. I swear he had us increase our resistance every two seconds. My legs were shaking by the end of class!

When I left the gym — basking in my sweat, nom nom nom — it was raining. Not like, “Do I need my umbrella or not?” but full on raining.

After a quick shower back at the apartment, it was off to check off a few errands from my list.

(By the way, high 5 to ABS, everyone — He went to the gym today, too!)

First up: Picking up my race number and T-shirt (long-sleeved!) for tomorrow’s Gridiron Classic 4-mile race in Central Park.

I spend so much time in Central Park, and it was nice to walk alongside it today, even in the rain.

From there, I hopped on a bus downtown to go to Exhale Spa where Erica was having her trunk show for her jewelry line.

A few notes about this portion of my day:

• Erica is the sweetest, most wonderful person. It’s kind of hilarious that we had never actually met, because she recognized me as soon as I walked in, and vice versa. We then proceeded to chat like longtime friends. Meeting bloggers = awesome.
• Erica’s designs are stunning. Seriously, I wasn’t just being polite when I bought these earrings. I absolutely love them, and the rest of her stuff is equally as impressive.
• Exhale Spa smells really good. Like, really good. Being there reminded me of when I got a massage back in December.

My pictures don’t do the jewelry any justice, but you get it. I was like a little fan girl.

I could have stayed and chatted with Erica forever, but she had too many customers! I didn’t want to distract them from making tons of purchases.

When I left Exhale — new earrings in tow — I had plans to shop. I need to buy ABS many birthday presents. Then I realized, no. Sweatpants > shopping.

Also, NYC looked like this, from underneath my umbrella:

Back on the bus I went — time for a warm apartment, cozy clothes and snacks.

I was starving by this point, so ABS and I went to town on some shrimp cocktail, cheese (Yay Vermont!) and crackers, bruschetta and other various/random afternoon treats.

Now, although I’m not hungry, it’s time to start thinking about my pre-race dinner. I haven’t run a race in so long, so I kind of forget any “routine” I may have developed!

Anyone else running the Gridiron tomorrow?

TELL ME: What’s your favorite pre-race/long run meal? I usually go with a basic pasta dish, but pad thai and sushi also typically sit well with me.