Pump’d up!

Whew! The last two days have been pretty crazy- but in a good way.

On Thursday night, Greg and I picked up my mom and stepdad (Joe) to head to Baltimore for our annual Colin Hay concert. I’m pretty cure I’ve mentioned Colin a few times on this blog before, but he has a really special meaning to me and Greg. When we started dating, we both discovered that we were both big Colin Hay fans. I haven’t met many other people that even really know who he is (which is a shame!) or do only when I say “he was the singer from Men at Work….” and start singing “Down Under.”

Colin has an amazing solo career and one of the most beautiful, timeless voices I’ve ever heard. It gives me chills, and he sounds just as good (or even better) live. Apparently Zach Braff is also a big fan of his, because Colin appeared on a few episodes of Scrubs and also provided some of the music for one of the best movies ever, Garden State.

He tours with his band around the west coast, and does solo shows all over the world. He’s played in Maryland during the month of April for the last 5 years, and Greg and I have seen him each time. Two years ago we started bringing my mom and stepdad, who have also become big fans. The last four shows we’ve seen him play have been in Annapolis, but this year he came to Baltimore. And our seats were awesome! (and the lighting…. was not. Very dark, grainy pictures are ahead.)

I always get tickets the moment they go on sale, because I like to be CLOSE.

Did I mention that it was also Joe’s 60th birthday? What an awesome way for him to spend it! He even wore an awesome pin and got a free drink. 🙂

An artist from Boston named Chris Trapper opened for Colin. He also opened for him last year, and I really liked his music. It’s funny- I have only seen him play once, but remembered almost every song he played from last year.

And then it was time for the main event: Colin Hay!!!

Colin tells a lot of stories during his performance, which are awesome to listen to. He’s also got a thick Scottish accent and uses the f-word pretty liberally, which is always hilarious.

He mostly plays his solo stuff (he has a ton of albums out), but always throws in a few on Men at Work’s big hits. And this night in particular was a bit strange, because the former saxophone player from Men at Work (and Colin’s friend since high school) was found dead the night before. Colin spoke about him before playing “Who Can It Be Now,” which you can here around 1:36 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKbaW-gZKCQ

I took a video of it also, but for some reason, can’t get it to upload. I found this on Youtube. Here’s another video- of him singing the Men at Work hitOverkill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sj1BCqdRMs

He played for about two hours, just as he has done every time we’ve seen him. He also jokes about encores- because he doesn’t do them. He’s like “why am I going to walk off a stage and come right back?” 🙂

It was a really great night- but a LATE one. We got home around midnight, which is unheard of for me and Greg! We both like our sleep, and rarely stay out past 9 or 10 pm. You might call that lame, but I call it awesome. I love sleep, and when you get up around 5:00 am every day, staying up too late just isn’t an option.

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Since I took Friday off, I actually got to sleep in… a little bit. Greg set his alarm for 6:00 because he had a 9:30 flight to catch to Chicago. He’s there for a few days setting up a new network (or something like that) in one of his company’s new buildings. I woke up then too, and headed downstairs to ride my spin bike and watch the Bodypump 81 DVD one more time before meeting up with another instructor to practice. The two of us were lucky enough to present the big launch for BP81 that night during her regular 6 pm class, but wanted to run through it one time in the morning first.

We met up at the gym, did the routine, and I felt confident about the choreography. But, I was really tired. And hoping to fit a nap in sometime before that evening. Annnnnnd…. that didn’t happen. I just can’t nap! I don’t know why- but I am never able to fall asleep in the middle of the day. Man, I wish I could!

By the time 5:00 rolled around, I changed into my new Bodypump shirt, laced up my shoes and headed for the gym. Oh, and took a silly self-portrait with my iPhone.

I got to the gym a little early and ran through the Abs and Cooldown one last time (since these were the two tracks that I spent the least amount of time learning).

Just a little sidenote, in case you’re not familiar with Les Mills Bodypump: Each quarter, a new “release” comes out, which is titled by a number (so this one was release 81). Each release had 10 tracks and focuses on the same muscles groups in the same order, but the choreography and music switches up each time. It’s all put together to constantly confuse the muscles and make you STRONG (and not bored!). At our gym, two instructors are chosen to introduce the new release (which we call the “launch”), and I was really excited to have that opportunity this time, along with another instructor named Davina. (and BTW, Davina is pretty bad-ass. She’s also certified in Les Mills RPM and Flow, both of which also had their launches this week! That’s A LOT of choreography to learn!!)

Davina suggested that we get matching shirts for the launch, which I thought was a cute idea. Here we are getting ready to teach!

We split up the tracks evenly, but were both side-by-side in front of the class the whole time. And SUPER HIGH ENERGY!! Lots of “whoop whoop-ing” going on. 😉

Davina taught the Warm-up, Squats, Chest, Lunges and Shoulder tracks and I taught the Back, Triceps, Biceps, Abs and Cooldown tracks. If I HAD to pick a favorite track from this release, I’d probably go with the Back track… but I also really like the Chest and Abs. And the warm-up!! The most difficult by far is the bicep track. I was literally growling (Grrrrr!!!!) when I taught it and encouraging others to do the same. And people were dying. I loved it. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE teaching Bodypump. I can’t say it enough. There’s just something amazing about helping people get strong and challenge themselves- and helping them to learn to LOVE exercise!

At the end of class, we were all flying high (and nice and sweaty!) and posed for a photo with two other Bodypump instructor BEASTS that were there, Jill and Bonnie.

I got home around 7:30 and didn’t have much energy to make dinner. Luckily, what I was craving took very little effort.

I started with a bowl of baked kale (sprinkled with nutritional yeast) along with some spicy ketchup (siracha + ketchup).

And then I made myself a big old bowl of ice cream smoothie.

I have been LOVING this combination for the last week. In the smoothie: one cup frozen butternut squash, a handful of spinach, 8 ice cubes, flax milk, 3 T peanut flour, 1 T vanilla protein powder, 1 T unsweetened cocoa powder, “English toffee” stevia extract, and guar and xantham gums. Once it was poured into the bowl, I sprinkled a little sea salt on top- which really takes it to the next level. The sweet and salty combination is unreal. I could eat this every single day (and pretty much have this week!).

Perfect ending to a perfect night. 🙂

Have you tried the latest Bodypump release yet? Thoughts?

 

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