Re-discovering yoga: The Downtown Fitness Club

I first set foot in Tom Somerville's yoga class at my beloved Downtown Fitness Club an hour and a half after I finished the Flower City Duathlon.

My muscles were screaming at me, and I had a half marathon the next morning. I'm going to try it, I said, laying my mat down by the door for easy escape when I inevitably got bored 20 minutes in.

Tom shared his story with me when I was doing short Facebook bios of DFC instructors. Fifteen years ago his spine started dissolving due to a rare disease. He was told he'd never walk again.

This is the part that resonated with me -- he could only afford so much physical therapy, so started practicing yoga and slowly rehabilitated himself through the process. He saw himself teaching, and eventually went for it.

I train in fear of getting injured. The fear isn't just of the injury itself, but of the cost. My insurance has a ridiculously high copay for specialists. As I've started to have aches and pains as a result of increased training, I've realized -- I need to take more precautions.

Tom and I had emailed and chatted on Facebook but I had never met the man in person. He has a way about him though, that first time I went he recognized me immediately and made me feel welcome in his class.

I'm not very good at yoga. When I first joined the Licking County Family YMCA in 2010, I did it regularly but eventually abandoned it. Never had the patience to continue. I told myself I'd stretch on my own, but that slowly went away too.

As an instructor myself, I appreciate how hard it is to teach a big class, there are so many different levels to cater to. But Tom did it seamlessly my first class. I, the person who didn't currently have the flexibility to touch her toes, worked through the various modifications next to the more flexible types. My alignment is bad. Tom works slowly enough where I remember to keep myself straight.

After Flower City, I forgot about Tom's class for awhile, but have since recommitted myself to going back. The thought of sitting and stretching for an hour still pains me, but Tom makes it go quick.

After taking a yoga class elsewhere recently, I have much more appreciation for Tom. There, the instructor focused on crazy balance poses and headstands, so I felt out of place. While you see a few people at the Downtown Fitness Club go into some pretty crazy, painful looking poses, you don't feel out of place being the one sticking to the basics.

I'll be dragging my tired, sore butt to his class tomorrow before the Quakerman triathlon.

For once, I'm actually looking forward to going to a yoga class.

I'll admit I had a hing of hesitation to writing this. While the room in the back corner of the basement club is filling up, I now dread the day when it gets so crowded that people get turned away!

The Downtown Fitness Club is a wonderful place. I've belonged there since September, and taught there since April. You feel welcome there, but you also don't feel pressured. There's always a treadmill, a bike, or a lane in the pool for you. You feel like a member, not a customer. The staff wants you to succeed, they don't want to squeeze more money out of you. There are no confusing contracts or no high pressure sales. It costs what it costs (which isn't much).

Namaste.

Musselman 70.3: How to fuel this beast?

I did my first swim-bike brick Sunday. I swam 1500 then rode 54 miles.

Every long run/swim/ride has left me positively famished by the end, so now I'm grappling with how I'll get through this event with enough energy.

Before I went to the pool, I had a Greek yogurt and a banana. This was enough for the entire swim, which was about 20 minutes. Then I did a Honey Stinger when I was out.

Once I was on the bike I consumed sport beans and one of those PowerBar fruit squeeze packs, and I mixed just a little bit of Gatorade powder in with my water.

By Mile 25 I was crashing hard. I stopped at a gas station and partially out of desperation, partially out of knowing from previous times that a salad and trail mix weren't good options, I snagged some pretzels and an ice cream sandwich. Surprisingly this didn't hurt my stomach too much, and I bounced back instantly and finished the ride strong but completely famished, topping it off with a DFC protein shake then grazing on nachos from Moe's Southwest Grill for the rest of the evening.

How would I sustain myself with a slightly longer swim, two miles tacked onto the bike, and a half marathon after all that?

So, it's mission find some easy on the stomach, gluten free (or maybe I should go ahead and do gluten and accept the tummy ache the next day...), portable, real food options for the race. I do like dried fruit, I'm going to make some quinoa bars to experiment with, hmmmm...

Other suggestions?

New Twitter, and a plug for the local guys

I've been a terrible blogger lately. I've got a blog coming Sunday about a 100 day challenge I'm taking on, but today (Saturday, because I am absolutely not writing both entries Friday night while I should be out having a life and setting them to autopost ;) ) there's something else on my mind.

Shameless plug first: I have a new Twitter account -- @jessicatris703. Follow me!!!

There are a lot of choices for fitness clubs around Rochester.

I've been really happy teaching for Rochester Athletic Club, they've taken the time to teach me some new class formats and I'm so excited to be taking on my own bootcamp-style class next month! And I've been able to push both myself and others teaching with RPMs on their awesome bikes. It's out of Buffalo and I really like that they have five locations. When it comes to group fitness, they're very organized and professional, and the instructors are excellent. My experience there has been overwhelmingly positive.

But RAC can afford to promote itself (just watch any video on the D&C site)!

I've had two very positive experiences, though, with private fitness centers in the past week that I thought I'd share.

I joined the Downtown Fitness Club on Chestnut Street for one reason: The pool. I needed an inexpensive place to swim with flexible hours and that was it. But ever since I joined, the owners/managers remembered my name. They've held some awesome events and challenges that you just don't see at a corporate place. This week I emailed them for more info on a challenge they were hosting. I decided it wasn't for me. The owner pressed back, asked what my goals were, recommended another program. It's so clear that the club values its members, and when LA Fitness opened, with a pool, for the same price I had no interest in jumping ship.

Next, I picked up a Groupon for Cycledelic Studio, a indoor cycling studio in Brighton. It took me a couple classes to warm up to it, it's a different style and with indoor cycling sometimes it takes a couple tries to find an instructor who fits your tastes. Tonight, though, I took a class with an awesome instructor and LOVED it. I can't remember the last time I've been pushed so hard in a class. Plus, the instructor knew her stuff, which always makes the class better.

I chatted for with the instructor for awhile after class, and an hour later I get a nice email from the owner of the place, among other things concerned that I got my water bottle back that I left there over a month ago. She had also made it a point to introduce herself to me in a previous class.

These things count, and sometimes get lost in the corporate world.  These are the kinds of things that make me want to come back. So, if you've found my blog through Googling different fitness clubs or gyms in Rochester, NY, (yes I pay attention to what Google terms bring people to my blog) do shop around, find the best place for you, but make sure these places are on your list.

Ok, so I've got one more. Anyone who knows me knows that I like my red wine. I adore Century Pittsford Wines, a Wegmans creation. But there's this tiny little wine store by me, Corn Hill Fine Wines and Spirits on Exchange Blvd. I've actually only been in there two times (despite how much I talk about wine, I don't drink that much).

Both times I've been in, the owner was working. He knew about his wines, and tonight I was looking for something new. I described what I liked, he took me right to it, Opera Prima Cabernet Sauvignon, and it's delicious.

Downtown Fitness Club and the 1,000 burpee challenge

Burpees are the epitome of all that is evil in this world.

Which really doesn't explain why I accepted the "1,000 burpee challenge" at the Downtown Fitness Club.

I joined the DFC a few months back for one reason: They have a great pool void of the ear-piercing screaming kid problem rampant at so many other clubs (ahem, downtown YMCA).

I wasn't too keen on the rest of the club, the equipment was kind of old and on the particular day I visited I sensed somewhat of a meathead vibe in the weight room.

But the place has really grown on me. It's a neat club, huge in terms of square footage, and there's plenty of equipment. While some of it is old, most of it is well maintained, and the meathead thing must have just been an anomaly, the crowd has mostly been wonderful, and I've run into a lot of other marathoners which is encouraging.

They have something called the Athlete program -- basically crossfit without the trademark. It's something I'd love to do but time doesn't allow. I went to a meet a few weeks back, where we had to flip tires, beat tires with a sledgehammer, carry tires up steps and run dragging a tire behind us. It was pretty awesome.

The program is now hosting a 1,000 burpee challenge, to be completed over three weeks, and I took it. I still can't make the workouts, but I'm making progress on my own!

I started the challenge three days late, so on Thursday I had to play catch up. I was attempting to clean up my apartment, so I got little sets done in between chores. 200. BAM!

Friday was a lifting day. I did them between sets. Another 150. BAM!

Then Saturday my wrists hurt. So I took then and Sunday off. Today I got in another 50 after class.

So I'm sitting pretty at 400/1000 with nine days to go.

I've got this.

Run bike swim run bike swim

I'm going to do the Rochester Autumn Classic Duathlon at the end of September. It will be a 2 m run, 10 m bike, 2 m run, 10 m bike, 2 m run. Naive me posted on Facebook "I can do that! That's easy!" To which my more experienced tri friends responded: "No, that's absolutely not easy." (I'm cross posting this first part from the Daily Mile with a few revisions because I'm lazy)

I'm still trying to build my running back up, it suffered during the move, so on Sunday I decided to do my own mini dual -- 1 m run, 5 m bike, 1 m run, 5 m bike, 1 m run. This was all after riding 20.

The first run felt great! I was under a 10:00 pace and sure that voice was there "slow down or you'll never make it" but silly me ignored it. Then I was off on the bike for 5 miles... which turned into just over 6 because I needed a place to lock it up.

I then went to run again. And wholly hell. My body was so confused. My legs did not feel right. But slowly I got back in the groove... just in time to get back on the bike.

The bike ride started out rough but then started to feel good, but by this point I am so tired and just want to be done. I'm dreading the run at this point.

Most of the run was rough until the very end, when I was just so happy to be done!!

Next time will be easier :)

Now back to that whole swimming thing...

After my swim lessons last week I realized that RAC's teeny tiny pool isn't going to cut it (plus it's way out in Perinton), so I'm back on the market for another place to join. I'm looking for a reasonably-sized pool with reasonable hours at a reasonable cost.

The first place I scoped out was the Y. I really liked the staff there, but unfortunately joining is impractical. I'd be paying $62 a month, and most of the stuff there I get at RAC.

Yesterday evening I went to Downtown Fitness Club. This seems like a good option. The rest of the club did not impress me, but I really liked the pool. It was quiet and a good size, and not crowded (and no screaming kids!) For $30 a month it's a pretty good option.

There are two other places I need to check out. The first is the Adams Street Recreation Center. It's a stone's throw away from my apartment and it's only $2 a session to swim. But the hours are extremely limited. There's another club called Harro East, but I can't find any information about it online.