Before I get to the point of this post, I have to call-out the new site.  I’m learning to use WordPress at work (they also host our public work website), so I wanted to set up a site of my own that I could play with during downtime.  After learning in last week’s training class that I could import multiple blogs, I thought, ‘what a great idea – I can combine the two blogs I have into one site, sweet!’  Then, as an added benefit, my Asia travel blog was already a WordPress site making the combination even easier.  Really though, even importing from Blogger was painless.  I’ve had fun over the past week creating the new site and I’m sure I’ll be playing around with it as I learn more….so many links and widgets and gadgets and such.  Anyway, on to the real stuff….

Yesterday I had one of the best workouts I can remember having in a long time.  My 24-hour Fitness membership expired last week, and after getting over the plague from earlier this week, I decided to check out the gym that opened in the same plaza as my office.  Orange Theory.  I had never heard of it, but read a little bit about it online and popped down during lunch to check it out.

It’s an instructor led, hour workout, generally half cardio and half weights/abs/etc.  They showed me around – very nice looking gym, and signed me up for a free class later that evening.  I was a little concerned that it might not be the best way to train for my lottery of pain later this spring, but I like new things and the concept was pretty interesting.

Before class started, they gave me a little heart monitor and the instructor showed all the new people (two of us) how the machines worked and explained how the class would go.  I liked this – definitely took out the worry of feeling dumb because I was new.

I got to start class on the treadmill, which was nice – I’d much rather start with some cardio to warm up.  I did notice that the other group, who started with some of the weight exercises, did warm up on the rowers first…I think that would have been ok too.  It started out simple enough – get to a pace on the treadmill that you could run for about a half hour.  Then we spent the next six minutes taking that pace up and down and back up again.  Because the speed was constantly changing, the time passed really quickly and it was on to the weights.

Well, the weights and the rowing machine.  The rowing machine and I, well, we’re not friends…it became a joke between the trainer and I, but I’m sure I can learn it over time.  After the rowing, the floor set involved a couple of different weight lifts; curls and flys and stuff.  I haven’t really done weights since bootcamp, so it was a welcome change to my workout routine.  In hindsight, I could probably use heavier weights (channeling my inner Cat ;)).  Something I can definitely change for next time.

Six minutes later, it was back to the treadmill….this time and the next time (there were three treadmill rotations total) were all about hills.  I’ve never set the treadmill at a ten percent grade….until last night.  There were definitely times that I thought I’d slide right of the back of it, but I managed to hold my own.  ‘Running’ up the hills made the one percent grade feel like a downhill.

The other floor sets consisted of TRX (another favorite I haven’t seen since bootcamp) and ab work.  Halfway through…a quarter of the way through….I don’t remember.  I was dripping sweat.  The other new girl and I kept looking at each other in disbelief or something.  What a workout!  It kept changing, so I never got bored and the hour passed so fast.

After class, the instructor took a few minutes to explain the monitors and the results.  Pretty interesting.  And I was in the acceptable ranges, so I did something right.  Haha.  And burned approximately 600 calories.  In an hour.  Crazy.  Ending verdict – I am still sore today and have plans to make this part of my regular routine.

In other news, my present…the purse I ordered last weekend, has arrived.  What a great ending to the week :).

Until next time…