14 Days...

Spring. It's only 14 days and a few hours away. Why, pray tell, was it zero degrees and snowing outside when I left at Oh'dark thirty to head to the gym (more on that later)? I realize that I should quit the bitching since it's been an amazingly mild winter and it's currently 28 degrees and sunny out there (sure, now the sun is shining. Where was that refreshing warmth this morning when I worked pony after pony?).

Dude, stop editorializing your own blog and get to the point, ok?

Sorry. My bad...

So why this rant on winter all of a sudden? After all, the end is in sight!
Ice.

Yeah, that's a bad picture of my knee- The bad one- after making what might have been the most spectacular fall of the season in the Library parking lot-the Library that has a bar, not the one with all the books. I hit a patch of ice walking down the hill and WHAM, down I went. Fortunately I have cat like reflexes and I was able to break my fall and slide with my left knee. You know, the one with the pins. But I save my wrists and elbows! My pride, not so much...
Lesson learned: No matter how sexy and adventurous cowboy boots may be, they have very poor traction on ice. No cowboy boots on  45 degree hills either.
What's one little bruise (which is now less greenish and more blackish-purple)? That's hardly anything to complain about....

Which leads me to today.
I have decided that I need a kick n the pants, so to speak, to lose this final 15 pounds (and when I do, I'm gonna walk around in nothing but a bikini! Thank god I have no neighbors...). This thought neatly coincided with an email I received from the group that hosted the five mile bridge walk last fall. It was fate; a whole schedule of exercise classes aimed at the working individual!
There was a "Cycle Fusion" class starting at 6 am that mixed strength and weight training with cycling at intervals. Perfect, right? I have a bike, how hard can this be? And I'll be able to head right on out to the barn afterwards and work all three horses! Excellent!
As it would turnout, those 15 pounds fought back.
 After 15 min of that standing/sitting cycling at low to medium resistances, my thighs were burning. My ankles even hurt. Then it was the floor/mat work. Intervals of push-ups, squats and crunches. 30 each, then 20 each, then 10 each, then 20 each finishing up with 30 of each. Now, I have a strong core from all of those hours in the saddle. Unfortuantely, I discovered that my core was the only set of muscles that I have in my body. Push ups were torture. Squats wouldn't have been bad, but my thighs were already burning after the standing-while-cycling routine.The sit ups were like taking a relaxing summer stroll by comparison. I was red faced and panting in no time flat.
Then it was back up on the bike for the final 20 minutes doing 'hill work' and more of that standing/sitting interval stuff.  Ow. I don't know if I'll be able to walk tomorrow... And working the ponies was rough after that!

But I signed up for at least two more classes. Because I'm a glutton for punishment... and I want to be skinny again.

Sigh.