Blogger Ride at Revolve

Last Thursday I was invited to a special spin class Revolve hosted for D.C. area fitness bloggers and enthusiasts. It came together out of a group of bloggers featured in the Washingtonian chatting on twitter and turned into a big event. I go to Revolve regularly and love their classes, and am also a huge fan of a lot of the bloggers that were going so I was really excited to take another class there and actually meet some of these people who’s blogs I’ve been following.

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I stole this shot from Anne’s at fANNEtastic food blog.

Francina Segbefia taught our class with awesome energy, a kick-butt Vegas-themed playlist and a flair of style. She kicked things off by having everyone introduce ourselves and the name of our blog so we could know each other in the real world too. It was so much fun. She had the whole class singing along to Gold Digger and other songs and pushed us all the way to the end where we wrapped up with some weights to work on the upper body. Their body ride classes are fast becoming my favorite type of spin class – it’s a great change of pace and this one was an absolute blast.

On the bikes next to me were Melody from Will Run for Margaritas – love her blog – and Laney from Running On Veggies – I hadn’t seen her blog before, but it’s great and definitely worth your time to check out. Turns out Melody and I used to teach boot camps at the same site – small world D.C. for you. Some other bloggers I really enjoy reading were also there including Melissa Romero who does the Washingtonian Well Being blog, Ashley of Coffee Cake and Cardio, Workout Wonks and DC Fit Crasher.

Blogger Introductions

Blogger Introductions

After class we had some time to mingle and post-ride refreshments from Gouter. I was a bit skeptical that I would like something labeled raw, vegan and organic, and I’m not really into juices or cleanses, but these were surprisingly tasty!

Post-Ride Refreshments

Post-Ride Refreshments

Overall it was a great night – fun to meet other bloggers excited about health and fitness in D.C., and get a great workout in too!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I can hardly believe it’s 2013 already. I had such a great 2012, and am looking forward to an even better 2013!

The New Year is a great time to reflect and think about goals for 2013, although I often like to pick something each month that I’m really going to focus on and improve on. This helps me keep things fresh and top of mind so that my New Year’s resolutions aren’t completely forgotten come summer time.

Here are my big health- and fitness-related resolutions for this year:

Get Healthy
I’ve been working really hard at physical therapy and doing my strength and flexibility exercises, so I have no plans of giving up on this now. I can’t even remember what it feels like to run at close to 100 percent, but that’s what I’m shooting for this year. For now I’m still doing PT, but even after that’s done with I need to remember to focus on strength and stretching as important parts of being a good runner.

Stronger Core
This goes hand in hand with getting healthy. When I used to teach boot camp, I told my class every day as I made them do plank after plank that a stronger core makes everything else easier, and now it’s time to practice what I preach. Strengthening my core will play a major role in stabilizing me when I run and helping me avoid the hip drop I started doing to compensate for my injury. This will be my big January focus, and I have a goal of doing my version of the P90X ab ripper workout at least five times per week.

Drink Less Soda
Soda is my biggest vice. I love the way it tastes and since I already drink so much water, it is usually a nice change of pace to have something with taste. My office has free soda, so I’ve started drinking way too much with it easily available. I’m not a coffee or tea drinker so it’s my main source of caffeine, but when you start getting caffeine headaches from not having your daily soda, I think that’s probably a good sign that you drink too much!

Boston Qualifier
OK, so this is more of a goal than a resolution, but qualifying for the Boston Marathon is something I really hope to accomplish this year. I was bummed to have to defer my entry to last year’s Marine Corps Marathon, but can’t wait to run it this year and go from my sub-3:35 qualifying time.

Hope everyone has a happy, healthy and fun 2013!

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Ian and I getting ready for NYE festivities