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A little while ago, Kim had sent out an email to her blogger friends about a weekend workout class she would be hosting. The date of the class happened to coincide with my clearance to work out, so I was in and excited about it. I haven't attended a strength class in a long time and this was the perfect opportunity. I made the over an hour trek to Essential Fitness with plenty of time to spare. Bobbi had so graciously agree to watch baby Patsy while I worked out. As Bobbi is a fellow mom, it total put me at ease leaving Patsy with her. :)

Pre-class photo... Complete with Bobbi and baby L to R: Bobbi, me, Erin, Rachel, Maggie, Alyssa, Anne, Melanie and Amy

Yesterday I had a meeting in Michigan and then met up with some friends for a "couples trip" in Wisconsin Dells. I drove an hour to Chicago, 3 hours to Michigan for a client meeting, another 3 hours to a Chicago suburb to drop off a colleague, and then 2.5 more hours before reaching my final destination. As I sit here writing this post and doing the math, that is a lot of hours and a lot of driving. Yikes. I didn't get my run in afterwards because I was absolutely spent when I reached my final destination. That is probably the most driving I've ever done in a single day in my entire life.

I wad hoping to sneak in a run before we have too many activities to do today, but I slept in instead. Oopsies! We did go to some waterparks so at least I got in some cross training with the stairs and swimming. That totally counts, right? :)

Tomorrow I'm hoping we can go the the outlet mall and get in our run while the boys are at the casino. We have very different ideas of fun so it will be nice to split it up like we did when we were in Las Vegas.

Have you ever been to Wisconsin Dells? We've hit a lot of the tourist hot spots today (including Wizard Quest) and it looks like that will be continuing into the evening!

So last night I tried crossfit for the first time. I had heard about it for quite awhile and decided to see if it lived up to the hype. I was able to coerce Amanda to go with me after one of our Thursday night runs. I wasn't sure what to expect as I have heard various things from various people. Since this was our first time at crossfit, what we were tasked to do was very achievable. The instructor was very nice, friendly, and explained things well. He knew we were newbies so his instructions were easy to understand. It was definitely nice to have someone there with me who also had no clue what they were doing.

After our warm up (using the rowing machine for 500m) and some stretches, I realized that I might be in trouble. I hadn't had anything to eat since the energy bar I ate on the train (at about 5:30pm) and no water with me. I kept going through the explanation and demonstrations of each workout. Once the clock started, I think I took the first cycle a bit too fast as I lost steam and significantly slowed down during the later reps. I guess the same goes with crossfit as does any run or race. Be sure to not go out too fast! Haha. The cycle "WOD" included ball slams, sit ups, ring rows, and push ups. The push ups were what killed me. I could handle everything else, but the push ups took me forever and were very defeating. On the plus side, I can work on these at home and try to get better for next time. Maybe I have such a difficult time because of my long legs and arms? (That is the excuse I'm going with for now.) After a break, we did another thing where we pushed a weight across the length of the gym and back. This was the last item of the day.

After our workout as we were doing the end-of-class stretches, I started to feel light-headed and had to sit down. I was so embarrassed that I didn't properly fuel my workout and now I definitely know what to do differently for next time (because there will be a next time). I'm not sure if I'll get as into the whole crossfit thing as everyone else, but I had fun. It is a great alternative to stationary gym equipment that include strength and cross training all in one workout. The crossfit place that I went to was also quite reasonable and cheaper than some of the other cross training alternatives in the area (spinning, local community center classes).

Since every post needs a photo, I'm going to reuse this one of me attempting to flex in the mirror. That is one of the things I'm looking forward to this winter and spring... getting stronger!

As I have mentioned a few times before, we have a rowing machine in our basement. My husband's aunt and uncle were going to get rid of it and asked if we wanted it. We agreed and I've enjoyed it ever since. I really love it for cross training as it keeps the impact on the knees and feet low as you're working out your arms and back. I think it helps with toning in general, especially if you don't always have time to lift weights. Now that rowing is part of some cross fit workouts, it is definitely getting more press and most gyms have a few machines. I highly recommend checking it out, if you haven't already. Our glamorous rowing machine is pictured below. It has seen better days, but it gets the job done.

I haven't been as good about my cross training lately. I feel guilty about it as I just haven't made the time to do it. There really isn't a better excuse than that... I have a rowing machine in my basement and a workout facility at the office. I have the tools, I just need to get back to utilizing them!!!

I've also had lots of talks recently with some of my friends that do crossfit, and I've been thinking of possibly dabbling. I know things would be tough, but I think I could learn a lot about efficiency and form. Have you done crossfit before? I know there are quite a few running bloggers out there who have started to get into it.

In other news, I took a funny video of my dog that I thought I would share. It really is no secret that she likes toys and playing tug of war.