Last Thursday I got invited to attend a spin class at Revolve DC, a new cycling studio in Arlington, VA.


I was pretty excited to check out the class. It's been ages since I've been to a spin class, even though it's one of my favorite indoor workouts.

When I went online to reserve a class, I had the choice of three different styles:

• Real Ride - A spin class designed to mimic outdoor cycling conditions
• Complete Body Ride - Heavy on the cardio with strength and flexibility work added in
• Barre Ride - 30 minutes of spin followed by 30 minutes of barre-based exercises

I thought the Barre Ride sounded really cool, but I opted for the Real Ride since I was looking for something more cardio intensive to fit in with my tri training.

Revolve requires that you use clipless shoes when you take their classes, and they allow you to rent them for $2, which is perfect for newbies like me who have never touched clipless shoes.


I couldn't believe how much of a difference clipless shoes made in the class. Now I understand why real cyclists are so into them. My movement felt really smooth on the bike and I got the benefit of pushing down on the pedal as well as pulling up.

The people at Revolve were great about walking around the studio in the beginning to make sure everyone could get set up on their bikes and get clipped in without a problem.


Surprisingly I had zero trouble clipping in to the bike. (It helped that I knew the bike wasn't going to fall over.)

However unclipping at the end of class was a different story. I was able to get my left foot out without a problem, but for the life of me couldn't get my right foot out. I ended up having to take my foot out of the shoe and then yank the shoe off the bike with my hands.

The class itself was pretty stellar.

The instructor led us through a solid warm up before taking us through some really challenging drills. We did high intensity sprints, long slow climbs and plenty of quick riding on flat roads.


She played great music, and she dimmed the lights, which is something I always appreciate in a spin class.

I actually couldn't believe how quickly the 45-minute class flew by.

If you're in the Arlington-area I definitely recommend that you check out a class at Revolve. I really can't say enough good things about my experience. I just wish the studio was a little bit closer to me because it's tough for me to get out to Arlington on a regular basis. (Although rumor has it they may be looking in to adding additional locations in the future!)

I can't believe the second week of BodyMedia FITness challenge is already over! I'm loving wearing the BodyMedia Fit armband and checking out/mildly obsessing over all the stats it captures.

I probably plug the armband in to my computer way more often than I should to see how many calories I've burned doing really mundane things like typing at my computer or driving my car.

Here's a peek at my stats from this week:


What I Learned This Week:

Even with my regular workouts, I'm not really burning that many calories:
A lot of this is probably because I sit on my butt at a desk for a large portion of the day. Sure I get up to fill my water bottle and go to the bathroom and stuff, but other than that I don't get a lot of movement during the day. I'm lucky that I at least have a short walking commute each day so I get to sneak in a little bit of extra movement. I need to find some creative ways to sneak in a little bit more movement to burn some more calories outside of my regular workouts.

Tracking my food makes me really, really conscious of what I eat:
I'm a snacker by nature. When I'm in the kitchen packing my lunch or making dinner, I'm always munching on some of the ingredients, but ever since I started writing down everything I'm eating I've stopped doing that. It's too hard to figure out how much of a food I've eaten while I munch so I can get it recorded properly. For the most part though, writing everything down is forcing me to make pretty solid food choices.

I eat a pathetically small amount of protein:
I mean check out the breakdown in the charts here.


Only 17 percent of my daily calories on average come from protein. That's definitely something I need to work on.

Alcohol has a lot of calories:
Ok, I know that's sort of a giant "duh", but I just never paid attention because I never had to write it down. I don't drink very often, maybe a drink or two when I'm out with friends at happy hour, but man, having to record the few drinks I had over the weekend killed me. I tend to drown the taste of alcohol in deliciously fruity concoctions (like Malibu bay breezes...don't judge) and I thought it was going to be the fruit juice that killed me here, but no, it was definitely the rum.

How I'm Doing on My Goals So Far:

Last week I set three goals for the remainder of the challenge. Here's a look at how I'm doing.

Average 8 hours of sleep each night: Epic fail. I only averaged 6:24 of sleep this week. I'm going to dial this goal back and make it my goal to get 7 hours of sleep each night.

Track my food: I'm doing awesome on this front!

Lose five pounds: So far so good. I'm down a pound.

If you're curious to learn more about the BodyMedia FITness challenge, you can check out the details on EmpowHER.

About the BodyMedia Fit Band:
BodyMedia FIT automatically tracks the calories burned during your daily activities — from pumping iron to using an iron — and monitors the quality of your sleep, an important factor in weight loss. Add in the easy-to-use food log and you have the information you need to improve your weight loss. The 3 part system includes: 
1. An Armband that automatically captures data 
2. An optional Display device or free downloadable mobile apps that give you up-to-the-minute readings throughout the day 
3. An online Activity Manager* that analyzes raw data, allows you to log food and presents info in an easy-to-understand way (*subscription required)


Standard Legal Disclaimer:
Device and accompanying online Activity Manager subscription was provided by BodyMedia via EmpowHER. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of BodyMedia or EmpowHER.

Nothing quite like signing up to run a race on the coldest day of the winter.


With temperatures in the low 20's and wind chills bringing that down to the low teens, I'm pretty sure it's the coldest weather I have ever run in.

The morning got off to an interesting start when I was woken up by a phone call from Megan saying the fire alarm in her building had gone off and she was wondering if she could come over early to get ready for the race.

In my exhaustion what I heard was "I'm at your door, come let me in."

I was ready to roll out of bed and run downstairs to let her in, until she assured me that she in fact was not at my front door yet.

Megan eventually made her way over to my house, we bundled up in a million layers and headed off to Virginia for the race.

Luckily we were allowed to wait in the restaurant that was hosting packet pick up until minutes before the start of the race. So we grabbed a table and waited for the rest of our friends to arrive.

Megan spotted Emily, who joined our little group.


And Ryan and Abe made it to the start after a less-than fun morning on the metro.


Waiting in the cold even for a few minutes at the start of the race was miserable. I was shivering and couldn't feel my fingers.

The race eventually got underway and I was so happy to be moving, even though after the first turn I found myself running up a massively steep uphill.

The course was a straight out and back so I knew I'd get to run back down that hill right at the end of the race. I settled in to my pace and focused on warming up.

One thing I love about out and back races is that you can look for your friends on the course. I saw my friend Zach fly past in a small group of super speedy people, and after I hit the turn around, I saw Ryan and Abe weren't far behind me and they were looking good.

The back half of the course was nothing too memorable. I hit that big downhill and just let loose around the final turn. I may have kicked it a bit too hard because I sort of felt like I was about to puke, but I crossed the finish line in 26:74, only a few seconds off my 5K PR.


Not too shabby.

Ryan and Abe finished a minute behind me in 27:47. That's almost a three-minute PR for Ryan and an awesome debut race for Abe.


After regrouping inside and taking a minute to warm up, we piled into cars and headed over to brunch.

Belgian waffles and omelets have never tasted so warm and satisfying.

Congrats to everyone else who braved the cold weather and ran the race yesterday. It was a fun and well organized event, despite the freezing temps. Apparently there were even two proposals at the finish line.