Day 53: Snowbody Can Stop Me Now

It is a winter wonderland outside, so OPM closed the government… which meant my two favorite Airmen were home for the day. Over the morning we mostly just laid around watching Walking Dead and Sleepy Hollow, about 10 Joey started asking “We going to the gym?”, Me: “Yeah, one more show”. We decided to leave at noon. I really thought the snow would be bad enough by then that we couldn’t go, but I was wrong. It wasn’t bad at all yet, so off we went.

Joey put together a workout from Men’s Fitness and I started out with some cardio doing 30 minute interval training with the incline ranging between 3 and 18.5. I was sweating like a pig. When I had 3 minutes left, Joey wondered over to ask if I wanted to do abs when he was done with his next set. Well, duh. Yeah. I like working out with Joey, he makes me push myself harder than I would on my own. Once I was done with the interval training, I wondered over to Joey to find him on the bench press killing it. I had to take a picture of his face. This is the face of a man putting in work, for real.

When Joey finished we went over to the turf and did 3 rounds of the following: Decline Sit-ups, Mountain Climbers, 12 reps; Mountain Climbers, 20 reps; Russian Twists, 20 reps, 35 pound Kettlebell; Roman Deadlift, 12 reps, 35 pound Kettlebell; Bicycle Crunches, 20 reps; Back Extensions; and Side Extensions.

I was so SO dead by the end it. We were at the gym for 2 hours. I am going to be so sore these next few days. I haven’t don’t anything like this, ever. I felt like Wonder Woman. I wish I was Wonder Woman, because that would have meant we could fly home, and that would have been so much better than the shit we had to deal with. We are in the middle of a Snowpocolypse 2.0 up here and there are cars stuck everywhere.

 

Thank God we made it home one piece. I am certainly not getting back out there in this non-sense today. I am going to snuggle up right on this couch, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

Day 41: Snow Can't Keep Me Down!

Ugh, is it spring yet? This snowy crap is for the birds! This morning I woke up all excited for my staging in Fairfax. We knew the snow was coming, but we didn't expect it to hit so early. I got to the warehouse around 10 to grab my assistant and head to the property. We got about half-way there before it started to snow. A few minutes later, I got a message from Mannie, the owner of The Staging Fashionista telling us to call it off because the snow was getting too bad and she didn't want us to get hurt. So, we turned around and I headed off to take Kiana home.

Whew buddy, that was an experience. I ended up turning off a main road and going through some windy back roads that had not been salted (thanks GPS). Needless to say, some people need to stay the hell off the road if they don't know how to drive in snow. A guy in an audi slowed down quickly right in front of me, when I went to pass him my back wheels kicked out and we started sliding sideways. You want to talk about a tight butt. Holy moly. Jesus take the wheel. Thank the good Lord for Erica teaching me how to control a front wheel drive car in snow my first year in DC. Thanks to her lesson, I was able to get us out of it safely. I safely got Kiana home and I safely got myself home... after a lot of nervous joking and cussing at shitty northern VA drivers.

Once I got home, I went into turbo cleaning mode to relieve the stress from the drive. I am pleased to say my house looks awesome right now. About 3:00 Ryan comes upstairs and tells me and Joey that he is going to our neighborhood clubhouse gym to run 6 miles, so we decided to tag along for a family gym outing.

Joey and I thought we were going to swim, but the life guard bailed on his position given the current blizzard, so we modified and went to the weight and cardio room. I did 30 minutes on an elliptical, followed by a 3 set circuit of 25 lap pulls (55 pounds), seated rows, leg press (150 pounds), and two other leg machines that work the hammies and glutes. This is about the time Joey came over to see if I wanted to do abs. Ryan still had about 25 minutes left, so I said sure, why not. I went and grabbed a 10 pound medicine ball and 2 yoga mats and we did 3 sets of 25 sit-up ball tosses, and 2 sets of 25 medicine ball partner throws. I. Wanted. To. Die. But instead, I walked over to the rowing machine and did a 500 meter row on 10 resistance. That rower was right next to the inclined sit-up bench that Joey was on. When he got off, I decided I should try it... mostly because he was goading me into it. Damn. That was WAY harder than it looked. Once I completed my measly 25 inclined sit-ups, Ryan had finished.

This was the first time I have ever worked out with Joey as my partner. I think he may have missed his calling as a trainer. He is excellent at motivating others. During the last round of sit-ups I was getting SUPER tired and he never let me quit. Trust me, I tried.

We got home about 5:30 and spent the rest of the evening around the fireplace watching movies. It was a nice night after a really good workout. We rescheduled the staging we missed today for tomorrow, so I must go and get my beauty rest. I will talk to you tomorrow.

Day 37: Back On the Wagon

Today we got a whopping 4 inches of snow here in Northern VA and the entire world shutdown. I was planning on laying in bed the entire day feeling sorry for myself, but I got a text from my bestie Abby that said "I love you, don't forget that". She has a knack for texting me right when I need her to and as such gave me the push I needed to get my ass out of bed and back to it. So, I got up, took a shower, put on my snow boots, and ran outside to shovel my driveway.

If you have never had to shovel a driveway before, let me assure you it is a hell of a workout. I got about halfway done before Joey wondered outside with a bottle of water and asked if I needed help. Again, timing with my people can't be any better. I was just about to walk over to my patio to take a break, so I handed him the shovel and then my phone rang. Q was calling to see if I was still acting like a big baby and if I wanted to come and get a workout in since we had to cancel yesterday because of the storm. I did, so we scheduled a 3 o'clock and I went back to de-snowing our cars.

Of course, this turned into a snowball fight and all out war. I ended up getting tossed in the snow a couple times, Joey got snow shoved down his shirt and in his ears, while Ryan stared out the window shaking his head. It was pretty fun. It was like we were 5 years old. Maybe next time I will get Joey and Ryan to build a snowman with me.

At 3pm we were off to the gym. Q had me do a treadmill workout that included 5 minutes on the machine at a 10% incline, 10 walk-out pushups, 15 air squats with a shoulder press, and planks till failure. We did this four rounds, then I went off for 30 minutes in the sauna. It was pretty magical.

Between brutally honest pep talks and a good workout, it was the final push I needed for me to say fuck the people that make me sad. I am not going to give anyone power over me (other than Q), because I am mother f'ing rock star and I am in this to win it and don't have time for bullshit.

So yay for being back on the wagon, we are only going up from here! BTW, thank you guys for all of your kind messages, texts, and phone calls. You make me strong and I will be forever grateful. I love you and I mean that. I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Day 36: Netflix Marathon Here I Come

Well, it's like negative 47 outside or something and it's snowing. The gym has canceled all of the classes this evening and the entire world as we know it may end. I have only gotten off the couch today to eat and fight Joey out of boredom.

Q just sent me a workout, so I should probably go do that... But after this next episode of Walking Dead, okay?