Zumba Fail

While I'm a runner now, I have a deep seated love for group exercise classes. I've mentioned before that I used to go five to seven days a week, and really only started running more because we moved and I had to switch gyms. So with my 12 day pass to my old gym, I've been really excited to get some classes in.

Last night Zumba (a Latin dance class) was on the schedule, and I was excited for it all day at work.

I used to do a decent amount of Zumba, and in my opinion, there are two types of classes. 

Type 1: Taught by an actual dancer, often in an actual dance studio, most likely a great workout for those with ten or more years of dance lessons under their belt. Usually Latin music unknown to Americans is exclusively played. To an outsider, it would appear very similar to looking into a club on Friday night at 10pm, except they would see water bottles instead of Sex on the Beaches and sneakers instead of hooker boots.

Type 2: Some sort of cross between aerobics and dancing, with easily reproducible moves that are generally repeated many times, therefore allowing even the most uncoordinated person, who would normally never in a million years dance sober, follow along somewhat. Usually top 40 music is played, so that Americans can feel all "ya, I know how to do Latin dances!" when really they are just doing modified aerobics moves to Boom Boom Pow. To an outsider, it would appear that a few people are dancing while for some reason ignoring the room full of people behind them who are having violent seizures.

Obviously, I prefer Type 2. I've been to Zumba at this gym before, and it was Type 2 all the way. After a half hour elliptical warmup I headed in to class. I have a strict Zumba rule to NEVER look at myself in the mirror, even by accident, so it's very important to position myself in such a way that there is no possibility of that happening. No easy task in a room that has two walls of nothing but mirror. The trick is to make sure you can see the instructor, and someone who knows what they are doing and looks great. Bonus if they have a great body. This tricks your brain into thinking that you look exactly like them doing all the moves, so actually catching a glimpse of yourself completely shatters that illusion.

I really, really wanted to like it, but the class was so slow and boring I couldn't handle it. I've been mentioning my heart rate a lot lately, and it was barely hitting 110, even in the "fast" parts. I've gotten a great workout in Zumba there before, but I guess this instructor just wanted to have a more mellow class. Nothing wrong with that, just not what I was there for. I held out for half an hour, and then went back to reading Runner's World on the elliptical, but I really just wanted to go home. 

During our run on Saturday, Lily and I challenged ourselves to run seven miles in one hour this week (also known as Kari's robot pace). To be honest, I had my doubts about it when I woke up this morning, due to my complete laziness, lead legs, and general lethargy in the mornings. We decided to just see what happened and ran the first half without looking at the Garmins, while chatting. At the turnaround, we realized we could make it if we picked up the pace a bit. Too bad the way back is nearly all uphill. Lily really pushed us and we made it! 7 miles in 1:00:09. Average pace 8:35. Too bad that wasn't the only challenge I have to face today.

My class challenged me to climb the rope with them in gym today. They claim I did it two years ago, when they were in first grade. I may have, but I also lifted weights regularly and went to Body Pump and stuff then. This is the rope WITHOUT the knots to help you. Maybe I'll have them take pictures so at least I'll have some funny ones to post tomorrow.