Happy Holidays

Happy last Monday of 2020! The past few weeks and months have felt so fast lately- I've heard that when you don't have anything special or unique to look forward to and have the same routine days just blend together and seem to go by really quickly. That's definitely happening to me, but "celebrating" Christmas this week with Dan was a bright spot. Now I have the week off and I'm looking forward to disconnecting and recharging.

Here's what my workouts looked like this week-

Monday

30 min Holiday Run with Matty

If you remember back during Halloween, Matty was "injured" and was replaced with Mara Thonner for a very fun run. Well, disaster struck again and Matty was sent some bad egg nog, and Mara filled in again! This class was once again a blast..I almost want to petition to make Mara a full time instructor. She's amazing!

15 min Intro to Pilates with Aditi

There's a flash challenge to complete three of the new Pilates classes in ten days, so I took another of the intro classes. This one was nice and we learned some more moves! Can't wait to take one of the actual classes now.

Tuesday

20 min R+B Walk with Chase

I took Selma for a lunchtime walk and this class was soooo good. I'm making it a goal to start walking more- I find myself just sitting all day long and only getting up when I exercise. In January, I want to make it a point of going for at least 2 short walks during the day, and I figured why not get that started now! Back when I was in the office I would walk to my bus stop, to work, and around downtown at lunch. Definitely missing those steps so this should help a lot.

20 min Yoga Flow with Anna

I think that 20 minutes might be my favorite length for a yoga flow- it seems long enough to get in some good movement but I'm never bored. I always end wanting to do more instead of counting down the minutes till it's done! This was a really fun class and ended with us going up into wheel.

15 min Country Ride with Ally

It's been a while since I've done any live class that wasn't holiday themed, but this was right before my longer class so I used it as a warm up. It wasn't my favorite class ever but was a good way to ease into my workout.

45 min Holiday Ride with Christine

I always love rides with Christine- she has such a calming energy around her and makes me feel so powerful when I ride! This class was a mix of holiday songs with some other slower, "cozy" feeling songs. I was super excited when she played a song by Lindsey Stirling, one of my favorite violinists!

Wednesday

20 min Caribbean Holiday Ride with Ally

What a fun ride! I loved the different island holiday and party songs- there were a few traditional songs but even those were pretty much unrecognizable. SO much fun and made me wish I was somewhere warm and wonderful this year!

30 min Pop Run with Adrian

It was a gorgeous day out (almost Caribbean but not quite..just kidding it was only 50 degrees) so I decided to head to the park later in the day for a quick run. It was PACKED so I wore my mask the entire run and luckily saw a lot of others wearing theirs as well. I liked this run a lot and pushed myself hard during the "sprint" sections!

40 min Yoga with Ross

I'm doing a lot of yoga lately because I've been doing a Yoga-mas challenge on Reddit (the person who came up with the challenge is donating to charities for everyone who finishes a bingo board with different yoga instructors - you can see mine above). I crossed off two of Ross's classes with an evening yoga flow followed by a restorative class. So relaxing and a great way to get ready for bed.

Thursday

30 min Holiday Flow and Let Go with Aditi

This class was a great stretch for my hips and general lower body. It felt so good and I loved all of the holiday music! I had to borrow the heated blanket that Selma was resting on at the end of class, and she decided to join me for the last pose! Can you see her curled up on me above? After I finished up I took Aditi's Seasonal Meditation that was also relaxing- I had Dan join me for that and he joined it as well. I used to do a meditation every day and haven't done any in a while, so I need to get back in the flow.

Friday

60 min Climb Ride with Christine

Started off Christmas morning with my final Haleakala Climb ride with Christine! It was such a great class as always, and I'm going to miss doing this series! There are so many other climb rides out there, so I might just have to make it part of my routine to do one of these a week. 

After I finished, I made breakfast for Dan and me- a Great British Bake Off technical recipe from the holiday episode! It was blinis topped with cream cheese and beets and smoked salmon over top. So delicious! We spent the rest of the day relaxing, watching Christmas movies, and drove to see some Christmas lights. It was actually the snowiest Christmas day that Pittsburgh has ever had, so it was fun to see all the snow and not have to worry about driving around.

10 min Intro to Pilates with Emma

Another intro class for my second Pilates class of the challenge. I always love Emma's classes and she is the best at toning your core. Even thought this was tough I liked it a lot.

Saturday

10 min Pilates with Sam

This was my first non-intro Pilates class, and it was fun! Lots of abs work and staying in the same position which isn't my favorite, but I enjoyed it. Plus, I just love Sam's energy and he always makes me so happy.

30 min Holiday Slow Flow with Chelsea

I'm not sure if it's because I did this after my Pilates class or because I've been more consistent with yoga lately, but I felt really good and bendy during this class. Everything felt like it was coming easy to me, and I really enjoyed it! Plus, the playlist of more soul / r+b Christmas songs was really nice with our flow. As usual, Selma kept an eye on me during the flow as well.

30 min Peloton Top 50 (Songs 50-41) with Emma

Over the next few days, Peloton is doing a daily class to count down the top 50 songs they played this year! Today we started with songs 50 to 41, and it was so much fun. It reminded me of being younger and listening to the countdowns on the radio on the weekend. I loved how there were different genres and artists from different decades (some Lenny Kravitz along with Megan Thee Stallion and also some classic 90s pop).

Sunday

45 min Hip Hop Fun Run with Chase

It warmed up just a bit and was sunny out, so I headed to the park to run. This was my first time doing a full lake loop in MONTHS, and it felt so good! The roads weren't plowed or salted, so there were a few icy spots but overall I was just loving this run. Plus, the view of the lake was absolutely gorgeous.

20 min Yoga Flow Hamstrings with Kristin

I thought this would be a nice little stretchy class to take after my "long" run (usually these focus classes are a little more stretching and less flowing) but this was tough! We worked on both stretching and strengthening our hamstrings, and there were some really hard moves. Apparently I'm not as flexible as I thought because some of the moves I just couldn't do.

30 min Peloton Top 50 (Songs 40-31) with Leanne

Next set of songs was up today! Another great mix, with some JLo, Sia, and even "Song 2" from Blur! I didn't know what song that was when I saw it on the list, but it ended up being a song that we always played at Penn State football games..it's been a while but I think we played it on defense if we got a 4th down. If you don't know the song here it is! Now just imagine over 100,000 fans going crazy and yelling "woo hoo" together. Miss those days!