We are now in the fifth day of the first Resolution Month at WGOM Fitness month and I'm happy to say that I have four of my committed 20 workouts in the can.

On Thursday, I had my first spinning class in a week and a half with Doug and I certainly felt it. Afterwards, I talked with him briefly and told him that I am gone about half the time and I really felt that. He said, yeah, you can get out of shape fast, but also you can get it back fast, too. Those are true words.

Friday night, I had Simply Strength class with Nik and I really busted my hump. I was right up front and it seemed like every exercise I was pushing through muscle pain (successfully). At the end of the workout, I was fatigued, but I wasn't sore. It was a terrific workout. As I walked out, Nik said, you were really working hard in there. That was a good feeling. I have certainly felt the improvement there. The bad thing about being overweight a lot or weak is that you have a long way to go to get where you want to be. The good thing is that when you start working on it, you can make quick progress. With the weight loss, I made a lot of progress quickly. After four months, the progress slowed, but the good news is that the first four months were so fruitful that I wasn't discouraged (for the most part) about the slow down.

Likewise, with the strength training, I have a terribly long ways to go to be where I want to be. But, there's already a lot of progress. My balance is noticeably improved. My daughter has a hard foam balance beam and six months ago, I couldn't really walk across it without falling off. Now, I can easily do it. Exercises in class that were impossible when I started can now be accomplished. My body is responding.

This morning was spinning class with Dennis. The class is scheduled for an hour, but Dennis goes 90 minutes. Each instructor is different and Dennis is really about speed, out of the saddle. Doug, for example, is about getting to the highest tension for really short periods of time. That's cool, I guess, but cranking up the tension six rotations for 20 seconds and then dialing it right back results in a choppy ride. Dennis does adjust load, but he's more about changing pedaling speeds, getting up out of the seat and really going on a long ride. I love it.

This morning, at about 20 minutes, I was really wondering if I could make the 90 minutes. I remembered how tough Thursday was, I could feel the Grape Nuts in my stomach, even though it had been two hours since I ate. I was, to use a word, uncomfortable. For the next twenty minutes, I labored, but at about the midpoint of the ride, I realized that I was going to make it.

By about 60 minutes, I was feeling great. I was right on tempo with Dennis, churning hard and feeling great about what I had left. I looked around and saw the distress on other peoples' faces and saw that they weren't keeping up to the tempo. That got me going even harder. For the last 30 minutes, I pushed hard. When Dennis asked for more, I had it. By the end, I did tire, but I pushed right to the 90th minute. What a terrific ride.

After the ride, I sat in the sauna for a few minutes and relaxed, thinking about the ride, life, my family, etc. It was a time of extreme positivity. There is no doubt but that exercising improves my mental state of mind. I wasn't looking forward to Friday's workout. Even as I got in the car, I was thinking, "I don't want to go." But, I did it and this morning I was looking forward to spinning with Dennis.

The rest of the day will be spent doing stuff around here that needs to be done. Tonight, we will go out and celebrate my birthday. I am in a great state of mind right now, and I'm pretty sure that working out is contributing to that.