#3 Get certified in spinning

Do you ever want to do something, but you don't necessarily have a great reason for why?  To be more specific, your reason is simply "Just because," or "I just think it would be awesome", rather than a more well defined answer that is compelling, like "I want to do this because it will save the world, cure cancer, and make money grow on trees."

Yeah.  No great story behind #3 Get certified in spinning, and no real reason for why. Mainly, it's just because I wanted to.  I may never do anything with the certification, and that's just fine with me. Maybe it will come in handy one day and if it does, well that's sprinkles on the frosting on the cake :)  Maybe not. But still, I wanted to do it.

So I signed up for the 9 hour Spin Instructor Orientation workshop on spinning.com, and showed up at the gym near Times Square. The instructor for the class was Iona Passik, who has taught spinning since 1991, and who was taught spinning from spinning's creator, Johnny G.  Pretty impressive, right?

Throughout the course of the day we alternated from lectures in a classroom, where we went through the Spin Instructor's Manual, to lectures and rides in a spinning studio.  One of the main things we focused on in the morning was how to safely and properly set up the spin bike.  See, spinning bikes are completely adjustable - from the seat height, to the placement of the seat from front to back, to the handlers up or down, etc.  You need to have it properly set up, or you could injure yourself.

Fellow students in the Spin Instructor Class - I'm in the back of the room in the mirror on the far left :)

After setting our own bikes, we then hop on and start pedaling for the next hour, and go through the proper form for each of the various positions - seated flat, standing flat, standing climb, jumps, etc.  This is where I learn that I've been "standing flat" incorrectly for the past five years.  Oops. 

After the one hour "form" ride, we take a lunch break and are back in the classroom to learn four important items: how to combine different positions in to a flowing, challenging class, the importance of music, tips on being a great instructor, and finally - the importance of heart rate monitoring.  After learning all this, we had back down to the cycling studio and complete another hour long class, but this one is NOT easy... it's taught by the masterful Iona, and I'm sweating like a pig after only the warm up!!!

I learned a couple of interesting things while in Spin Instructor Class:

1. Spinning is not just a cardio workout.  It's a spiritual journey, kinda like yoga.
2. Spin music is supposed to be world / jazz music, not Top 40 music.
3. There is no yelling in spin class.  No Jillian Michael's "KEEP MOVING UNTIL YOU PUKE OR PASS OUT!".  It's about positive, zen-like reinforcement. 
4. I've been doing spinning kinda wrong for the past five years... 
5. Even if I never teach a spin class, I am so grateful that I took the class... I learned a lot about something that I thought I was "experienced" with.  

The final step to get my certification is to take an online exam... 50 questions... if I pass (80% required), I'm certified... and well...

I PASSED!

So I am now an official, certified spinning instructor.  I can teach a class if I want.

Or, I can just continue to take classes and enjoy my newly acquired knowledge. It's nice to learn new skills and have options.  Getting certified in spinning is something that I've wanted to do for a while, and I'm glad I finally had the opportunity to do it :)

Week TEN Update

Ten weeks.  I've been working on this challenge for TEN weeks. Count 'em.  I've completed 15 of the items on my list, and I have just 3 weeks to complete the remaining 15... way to leave it all to the last minute, Kim ;)

There are a couple of items on my list that I've done NOTHING with, so I need your help.  Help me, and get a shout out in the blog.  Here are the items:

• #6: Learn how to drive stick shift (Helen, Jon, anyone else???)
• #16: Go on a date with a fireman.  (OK, thinking about turning this one into "a man in uniform" just to open it up a bit more... but I still maintain that he needs to be single/divorced and a nice guy. Preferably cute ;) )
• #28: Learn the Single Ladies dance by Beyonce.  I can probably figure it out on my own, but if anyone already knows it and can teach it to me, I'll be grateful.  So grateful, I'll buy you margaritas.
• #30: Readers Poll: Get certified in scuba diving.  I recently found out that this actually takes a lot of time... and I didn't allot nearly enough for it.  Therefore, I am officially petitioning that I can replace this challenge with a different one.  Perhaps, do yoga in Times Square?  Or maybe attend a bachelorette party in Key West?? Any objections?  Raise them now, or forever hold your comments!

So, how'd I do this past week?  Pretty awesome, I think :)  See below for updated stats, yay!!!

#9: 30 new recipes.  2 new recipes this week for 17 out of 30!!

• Shrimp tacos with a cilantro chile lime sauce
• Poached eggs!! (stay tuned for post!)

#10: 12 total items done and blogged! New blog posts this week:

• Hire someone to do something I don't like doing
• Go Skydiving

#12: 30 hours of community service.  I completed another 15 hours this past week (for a total of 27), all due to coordinating my company's team in the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge.  Man, y'all were NEEDY this year.  300 employees in 11 different locations, and lots of work... I always say "I'm never doing this again," but I keep doing it.  This is the fourth year.  I just love organizing events!

#24: Quit something I do a lot of.  Um, yeah.  Try as I might, with all the right reasons ("You can go to the gym early in the morning!  It's better for you!  You never feel good after you snooze!"), I have not been successful in stopping my finger from pressing the snooze button... HELP!

#25: A picture a day for 30 days.  I'm ~28 days!!!  Almost done!!!

#29: Read 30 books.  Finished #12! The third and final installment of the "Shades of Grey" series.  And I'm kinda disappointed in it.  It's the same as the last two books - sex, danger, Christian and Ana fighting and making up.  Woo.  Need something new to read. Suggestions???

Awesome week... don't forget to tell me if you're interested in helping out with the above!!!

#1 Go skydiving!

I don't know why I've always wanted to go skydiving.  I just have, and it's always been on my list of things that I wanted to do one day.  Any time I've heard anyone else talk about it, I've always commented that I wanted to do it, too.  But I just never got around to doing it...

So obviously, the first thing on my list was #1 Go Skydiving!

What I found interesting is that not every one shares my excitement skydiving.  I was actually kinda shocked.  I emailed a bunch of girlfriends asking if any of them wanted to go with me, thinking that they'd all say "yes", but the majority responded with "hell no" (synopsis of the conversation).

Thank goodness my work colleague Elizabeth (we shared bone marrow together for #17 - try a new food) was enthusiastic.  What made us even more enthusiastic is that we found a groupon via Gilt City  for 50% off!  Now, most people also responded to the fact that we were going skydiving with a groupon with "Do you really want to skydive at a discount", but I had already scoped out the joint.  The groupon was just the icing on the cake!

So on Saturday, June 9, 2012, Elizabeth and I woke up early and drove (in Elizabeth's amazing Audi convertible to Skydive Jersey:

Elizabeth and I driving in her convertible :)

Skydive Jersey is located at Alexandria Field in Pittstown, NJ:

We arrived, parked, and got driven to the Skydive Jersey offices in a golf cart:

We then watch a video on the safety harness, and sign a four page legal document... one of provisions on that document was acknowledging that I could be injured or killed...  Not too comforting, but at the same time, so many more have gone before me and were fine... so what did I have to lose?

Elizabeth signing her life away :)

I also noticed that they sold cute t-shirts like the following:

So after signing our life away, we get harnessed up.  And everything else happens so quickly.  Tall, gorgeous Chuck (my instructor) says "Let's go!" and we walk over to the airplane.

Elizabeth and her instructor climb in first, and then I climb in, followed by my instructor Chuck.  Now, this plane is not what I imagined it would be.  I was envisioning it being bigger, and thought we would be sitting on little benches along the side of the plane and then having to jump out (I've seen way too many spy / war movies, apparently).  But no... it is a tiny plane, and the five of us (there is a pilot, after all) are scrunched close together.

So we're in the plane, and we start taxiing to the runway, and meanwhile, I'm starting to get nervous.  I mean, I'm in a tiny plane, and I'm about to jump out of it.  There is no way out.  Not that I was looking for one, but still... 

The longest part of the trip was actually the flight - it took about 10 minutes or so to reach 10,000 feet, and then my instructor starts telling me what I need to know.  Now I'm getting nervous...

...and then all the sudden, he opens the door to the plane, which is, by the way, literally right next to me.  So I manage a "Gah!!!" sound and my instructor puts one foot on the little ledge (OUTSIDE THE PLANE!), and tells me to put my feet on the ledge.  I grab hold to the side of the plane through the open door, say "AHHH!" one more time, put my left foot out, say "OH MY GOD WHAT AM I DOING!", and then my place my right foot on to the ledge.

Now, Chuck (my instructor) takes his good ole time (it seemed like hours) doing some final preparations. One of the things he told me earlier is that he will do the jumping for me, so I just have to get out on the ledge and he'll take it from there. All I have to do is keep my head pressed back on to his right shoulder so I don't smash him in the face with the back of my skull.

And then, after waiting for what seemed like forever, we're falling ("plummeting to the Earth" is how one friend described it).  I immediately go from being nervous to having the time of my life (as is evidenced by this picture:

We fall for about 45 seconds before Chuck (my instructor) pulls the cord to release our parachute.  It was such an incredible experience falling at 120 mph.  I didn't even think about the fact that we were "plummeting to the Earth"... I just felt the adrenaline pumping through me, and I LOVED IT.

Too soon, the parachute opens and we slow down to start to float to earth...

While we're floating in the air, Chuck (my instructor) does donuts so we spin around in circles.

Six minutes later, we're maneuvering our way towards our landing site... and I lift my legs up, and we scoot in on our bums.  I high five Chuck, and Elizabeth and I hug and excitedly talk about how much fun we just had...

Watch my skydive journey here!!!

After we landed, we took a photo together.  The plane that took us up is in the background!!

Would I do it again?  In a heartbeat.  If any of you want to go, I'm there with you.  Diving through the sky, falling to earth, and then gliding through the air, breathing and observing, was just too incredible for words. For me, the scariest part was working my way out of the plane... but now that I've done it once, I think I'll be much less scared the next time! 

Now, my family knew that this was on my list... but I didn't tell them the date that I would be jumping. Right after we safely returned to earth, I called both my Mom and Dad to tell them the good news.  My Dad chuckled (in relief) and told whomever he was with "My daughter just jumped out of a perfectly good plane!", and my Mom (who I had talked to the previous night) scolded me for not telling her I was going to be doing this.  She then admitted that she was glad I had not told her, as she would have been worrying the entire time. :)

After our skydiving adventure, Elizabeth and I went to a local Jersey winery, Alba, and sampled the wines.

The most delicious red raspberry dessert wine... I could drink the entire bottle in one sitting... so yum!

Elizabeth brought cheese, veggies and dip for our lunch after wine tasting

This was one of the most fun days I've had in a long while... from riding in a convertible, singing at the top of our lungs, to SKYDIVING, to wine tasting... this was such a perfect day.  Thank you, Elizabeth, for going with me and celebrating my birthday in such style!!!

Elizabeth and I singing along to Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call me maybe"

Highly recommend skydiving to each and all of you.  In fact, everyone gets a discounted rate for the rest of 2012 as my referral, so let me know and I can hook you up!!!  It was safe, and it was just so much fun.  And, Chuck (my instructor), why don't you call me, maybe?  :) :) :)