Teaching Fitness Classes + Week in Review

Happy Friday, friends! How’s your week been? Too long, too short, or just right? Mine has felt like it just flew by, every day was jammed with something or other to keep me busy!

My Monday and Tuesday nights tend to be the most set in stone: Mondays I have rehearsal for a local choir I’m a member of, and Tuesday nights are reserved for watching the Bachelor or Bachelorette (whichever happens to be in season ;) ). Usually another friend hosts, but this week everyone came over to our place for homemade pizza and (lots of) wine.

Is anyone else a huge Bachelor fan? It’s definitely a bit of a guilty pleasure for me (catfights between twenty plus women, all fighting to take one guy home, no big deal), but it’s become a bit of a ritual for our friend group and is the perfect reason for us all to get together on a weeknight to enjoy a glass of wine (or four. You think I’m joking…)

Sadly there isn’t a season running constantly throughout the year, and we’re currently in a Bachelor break right now. To fill the void, we’ve started catching up on old seasons while we wait for a new one to start. Tuesday we just wrapped up the final episode of season 1 of the Australian Bachelor(!!). The American version of the show is usually entertaining enough, but with the addition of Australian accents (“Tee-im” is apparently the appropriate Australian pronunciation of Tim), a new continent, and new rules to add to our Bachelor drinking game, this show is where it’s at. See below for the main attraction:

Anyway, we don’t take ourselves (or the show) too seriously, but we nonetheless have a great time hanging out on Bachelor nights.

So while Mondays and Tuesdays are pretty predictable, the rest of the week is always up in the air (and this time of year usually involves cuddling up on the couch with a book or tv show). This week we went to the annual dinner for Downtown Madison, Inc, which is an organization in Madison that promotes the growth and sustaining of the downtown area. I don’t go to a lot of events like this (someone happened to have a few extra spots at their table), but it was cool to have the opportunity to be there and hear more about the organization and those involved in it (especially since I both live and work downtown). The keynote speaker was R.T. Rybak, a former mayor of Minneapolis. It was entertaining to hear him poke fun a bit at the Wisconsin-Minnesota rivalry, but also share some of his own thoughts on how Madison can further grow and prosper. Even though I’ve only lived here about 2 and a half years, I love this city, and am so glad that there is such a strong sense of direction for how we can continue to add to the already vibrant area that Madison represents.

Thursday morning I woke up with a case of the butterflies… because you guys, I finally got the chance to teach a fitness class at my gym! I’ve been a member at this gym for about two years now, and the motivational atmosphere and energy has always kept me coming back. I find it so incredibly helpful to have others around me during workouts to drive and push myself, plus I love the variety of fitness classes available, and I decided that the next step I wanted to take was to give some of that positive energy back by teaching myself. That’s why I became certified as a Piloxing instructor, and why I also reached out to the coordinator at my gym to get involved with teaching other classes too.

The class I taught today was a 45 min treadmill class, and I had about 8 people join me in the studio. I definitely have some points to improve on teaching-wise, but overall it went well! The hardest part for me was talking/yelling loudly enough for everyone to hear me over the music. The studio is set up in a long, narrow area, with the treadmills lining all sides of it, so some people end up far enough away that it’s difficult to hear. I’m hopeful that as my confidence in teaching grows, that part will get easier too. The class seemed to get a good workout (we did several sets of hill intervals, plus a few sprints at the end), so I’m calling it a success! I teach another treadmill class today, and soon I’ll also be teaching a treadmill/bootcamp combo every other week or so.

Started off the morning with this green smoothie (milk, chia seeds, oats, frozen tropical fruit mix, and a handful of spinach) to power up for class and soothe my nerves:

(You’ll notice the smoothie is hanging out in puzzleland because some of the better lighting in our apartment happens to be on this currently occupied table.)

It was such a relief (but exciting too!) to have gotten through that first teaching experience, so after finishing up at work at my day job, Aaron and I headed to Cooper’s Tavern for dinner. Cooper’s is located right on the Capitol square (their upstairs bar area has one of the best views of the Capitol around) and is one of our favorite restaurants in that area (although it is pretty hard to narrow down, Madison has so many good restaurants downtown).

I got a Monk’s Sour to drink (sour beers are one of my all time favorite types of beer!). For an appetizer, we split an order of Belgian frites, which came with a vinegar aioli on the side. For my entree I ordered a chicken sandwich (topped with bacon, cheddar, and avocado) with a greens salad. Yum yum yummy!

The rest of the night was spent peacefully at home, and now I’m looking forward to even more downtime this weekend! Planning to do some more preparation for teaching classes, and I also need to settle on an appetizer to bring to my family’s Thanksgiving celebration next week, which my aunt is hosting (we have 25 people coming this year, holy cow!).

Hope you have a wonderful start to your weekend!

What’s your favorite class to take at your home gym? Instructors, what’s your favorite class to teach?

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