The Whirling Dance of the Dervish

Spinning.  I googled it, and after the Official Spinning Site (registered trademark and all), I came across a dictionary entry that referred to the "whirling dance of the dervish".  So now you are going to wonder how I am going to link my morning fitness to this sufi ritual of which the purpose is to reach religious ecstasy, right?  Well, rest assured, the spinning class at my wellness center is no where near ecstacy of any type.

How did I end up in a 5:15 AM spinning class?  It's the only class at 5:15 AM, and that's the only time I can guarantee I won't schedule something else instead of working out.  While I was at Hilton Head Health, I took every class that was available at least once.  I did things I never considered doing.  So when I decided I would have to work out at 5:15 in the morning, I didn't question what the class was.  It was whatever it was.  And that "was" is spinning. 

So what is my take on spinning?  Well, humans created a simple machine called a bike wheel, then made the bike not go anywhere.  And instead of the difficulty of the ride being determined by the trail

it is instead determined by a red knob below the handlebars.  We are then told to pedal across non-existent flats and over non-existent hills, and to then purposefully make our journey more difficult.  We've made going nowhere really hard to do.

It produces great magnitudes of sweat, and after 40 minutes, I miraculously feel better than I did before I started.  Well almost.  One part of my body feels worse, or if I am lucky, it just feels numb.

So, no I do not feel like a whirling dervish as I spin, and I have not yet experienced religious ecstacy on my Spinner bike.  However, the word dervish comes from the word for door and it may be that this spinning is a way in which a door will be opened.  I just wish the triangular torture device, a.k.a. the seat, was more comfortable...

You Want me to do What for How Long?!

One day, a few years ago, I signed up to run a marathon...in Paris. Yes, bribery is a good thing. I took a whole three minutes to think about it before committing to the 16 week training program. I don't like to run. I wasn't running at all when I started. I've never run again.


(I'm second from the right)

When I finished the marathon, after 5.5 hours, and right before I drank the first bottle of champagne and ate the little quiches someone brought to me at the finish line from our little neighborhood bakery, I thought to myself: there aren't that many things in life that I ENJOY doing that I would be willing to do for over five hours...(in fact I think you are supposed to contact your physician if you have that much fun for that long). I just did something I hate doing for five hours! Man, am I glad I'm done, and wasn't that fun!

I've resisted starting the new "exercise program" that I should have started with my "nutrition program". There are so many things I'd rather do...like read a bunch of articles, or send emails to the Done birthday girls, or get ready for work, I have shoes to pick out after all...

I just got the two Sparkpeople DVD's that have a bunch of 10 minute workouts on them. (Well, they lie because they make you do a little warmup and a little cool down with the 10 minutes in between, but who's counting other than moi).

I started wondering how many things I didn't like to do, but could stand doing for 10 minutes.



* Folding fitted sheets (I gave this up for Lent)
* Paying bills that can't be automated or paid online
* Cleaning up after a good party
* Grooming a muddy horse
* Flossing
* Changing someone else's baby's diaper
* Wait in line
* Have my legs waxed

You know what? I could do any of the above things for 10 minutes and wouldn't like it. But those 10 minute cardio blast videos with coach Nicole aren't that bad...I actually kinda liked them, the two I did yesterday and today.

Maybe I'll do another one tomorrow...instead of folding the sheets. (The housekeeper can just pull those suckers straight out the dryer.)

But don't count on a marathon movie run of Coach Nicole's greatest hips...

Left Something Behind at the Horse Show

2.2 pounds got left behind somewhere at the horse show. I have some ideas about where they may have gone.

Saturday was a cold, misting, sometimes rainy, gusty winds day. I went for a nice ride in the morning to get my mare and my own brain reacquainted with the arenas. We had a nice quiet ride.

In the afternoon, I started warming up before my test (white breeches alert) when the german cowboy rode his stallion into the warm up arena. My mare who is experiencing midlife crisis and is hearing her biological clock ticking loudly at her own stables that don't do foals or stallions, decided to play hard to get and hard to stay on. It was a handsome stallion, but explosive canter departs are not my idea of a good warm up before a dressage test.

(certainly, this is what she was trying to do)

Against the recommendation of my trainer, I decided to enter the arena and ride my test anyway. Winds were gusting, and the tent flaps were flapping, and the the tent poles were being raised and pounding the ground behind us. It wasn't the best test, very stiff and tight, but I kept her on the pattern and we stayed in our arena. Our exit from the grounds was again explosive when the tents almost blew over. I dismounted and walked her up the hill to the stalls (look, exercise!!!!)

So even though things were different, difficult, and distracting, I stayed on course. Hmmm. I think I can extrapolate that lesson to something related to my eating and exercise habits...

I was mostly concerned this weekend that I would lose my nice pattern of eating, spending time on SparkPeople for motivation, and logging my food. I did bring my regular breakfast and tons of good veggies and fruit to snack on. I forbid myself to eat cheese and crackers which is our normal show grounds fare. I did drink all the champagne I wanted, but I filled up on celery, carrots, and hummus first.

I was so physically busy with riding, grooming, tacking up, cleaning tack, video taping other rides, that I really didn't think too much about eating and I kept moving.

So I think it is my job that makes me fat. My work is intellectually intense, but doesn't require much movement other than my fingers across the keyboard and electrical impulses between neurons and sparks jumping over synapses in my brain. I could stop being an engineer and business COO, but after seeing my riding scores this weekend, I think I'll keep my day job.

The 2.2 pounds I lost were significant. Well, the 3.2 ounces (the .2 pounds) were the significant part. They put me down a notch in the first digit of my weight!

This Alice is in Onederland, and will be chasing the 65 pound jabberwock the rest of the way home.