Tag Archives: graduation

Today’s Workout: 1.5 mile run (RW Streak Day 3), The Ride+Abs at Crunch, PT exercises

Tonight is the graduation ceremony for my Master’s degree in occupational therapy! Basically its a faux graduation though because I’m not really done. Its sort of anti-climactic. While I’ve completed all my classes, I still have two Level II fieldwork affiliations to complete (basically its working full time for credits). So until those are done I can’t sit for my licensing exam. But its only about 6 more months until I can get a real job! Then I’ll probably feel like this…

Later I’ll be going out to eat with my family before the ceremony so I didn’t want to go overboard with my food today (since I know I may indulge a little this evening). In the past few weeks of being off from school, I’ve felt myself losing some control over my diet. Perhaps its me just getting lazy or the change in my daily routine but I’ve noticed I haven’t been feeling the same lately.

Because of that, I think I may have gained a couple pounds. Its only a few and nothing major, but I want to be better about not snacking too much and making better choices in general. I want to feel as good as I did a few weeks ago, which is most important to me. So today I had a Clif bar for breakfast on my way to the gym and for lunch a green smoothie (almond butter, banana and spinach) and TJs salmon burger. Filling and tasty! Plus, there was a ton of protein in there for my muscles.

I was so sleepy when my alarm went off this morning and basically had to pep talk myself into getting up. Its gloomy in NYC lately which makes me feel this way… I’m missing the sunshine! Anyway, I did get up eventually and headed to Crunch gym for a class. I ended up getting there sort of early and decided to get in my run before the class to complete Day 3 of the RW Summer Running Streak.

Since its normally supposed to be a “rest day” for me, I decided to take it easier and run 1.5 miles on the treadmill. I’ve been running on the treadmill a lot lately just because its convenient but I really need to get my butt outside more. I’m just not thrilled about running on the city streets and since I can’t run that far right now, there’s no sense in commuting to Central Park or Prospect Park. But this week I’ll man up and run in my neighborhood! Watch out pavement!!

Proof that I ran. I think that calorie burn is a lie.

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After my quick run I headed to the spin room for my second spin class ever. I may be an addict.

Class: The Ride+Abs@ Crunch
Instructor: Brooke E
Length: 45 minutes

I’ve already talked about the Crunch gym spin room at Lafayette street in this post, so I’ll just get right into the class itself. Basically this class is different from the regular “The Ride” class at Crunch because its only 30 minutes of spin and 15 minutes of abs.

Unlike the last spin class I took with Tomas (mostly in positions 2 and 3), Brooke utilized all three positions pretty equally. We did some seated sprints and then some in the other two positions on the bike. I really enjoyed the 30 second sprints that were incorporated, they were my favorite part.

Brooke seemed to emphasize high-resistance riding while Tomas used more of a moderate resistance throughout with some higher level resistance sprinkled in. I think I prefer the way Tomas organized the class in that sense but I still feel like I got a really good workout today, which is really what matters. Brooke was also very high energy, helpful, and kept everyone motivated!

The music was pretty good overall but I prefer more dance type, Jersey shore fist pumping music for classes like this than the mix that was played. However, it still was coordinated to the pedaling and the resistance on the bikes which I really enjoy since it helps me keep my uncoordinated self on track!

After spin we went into the group fitness room for some abs. Now, I have to preface this by disclosing that I have incredibly weak abs/core. That being said, the abs section of this class was TOUGH! Although it was a quick 15 minutes, I definitely got in a great core workout. I liked the variety of the exercises Brooke chose and how they flowed from one to the next. I was seriously feeling the burn!

I would recommend trying this class. I liked how it incorporated spin + abs, which adds a little variety to the workout. I’m really liking spin and want to take as many classes as I can before my membership expires. I’m also going to keep an eye out for Groupons or discounts that agree with my student budget! If you know of any, send them my way

What was your workout today?
What did you have for lunch?
Which do you prefer: running outside or running on the treadmill?