I'm Sweaty and I Know It

(Pre-note: this is a really old blog I never posted.)

"I'm going to go sit down now, because you're so sexy, my knees are weak." Really? Really? An older man said this to me as I passed him at the gym. Okay, two things I hate: when old, dirty men hit on me and when sleezy guys whistle at me on the street. During my aqua aerobics class, these two old men always sit on the bleachers behind me and watch me... from behind... in my swimsuit. It is so not cool. One of them asked for my e-mail last week so he could hire me as his personal trainer... so not cool. Another man, Mark, comes to the gym and hits on me every time I see him. I'll be with a client and he will come over and try to tell me all about his busy sex life when he was my age. Then he proceeds to say things to me that make me blush and all I can do is ignore him. Ugh!

Now, when little boys have a crush on me, that's precious. This thirteen-year-old kid Aaron used to work out with me every Friday night. One Friday, I stayed late with him so he could finish his test. His mom came in to check in on him. When she introduced herself to me, she said, "Ohhhh... you're Ashlee. Aaron talks about you all the time. He has the biggest crush on you!" The poor boy turned beet red.

Last week, Brian brought his eleven-year-old son to work out. A couple days later, Brian came in and said, "My son had such a great time! He admitted that every time you walked by, he would work harder to try to impress you." I told that to another guy in one of my classes and he admitted he does the same thing... but he's 26... that's a little different.

I have to admit that I love the way I've been motivating people. My mom sends me texts all the time telling me how long she worked out for, Kristina sends me her miles that she ran, Nicole asked me for swim workouts, people ask me for training advice... it's so cool to have helped motivate my friends and family to live healthier. Sophia sent me the greatest text the other day. I truly feel like I've found my calling. When I was younger, I wanted to be a professional singer; I never would have imagined myself doing triathlons and encouraging the people around me to be more active. I definitely never would have imagined myself running over 100 miles a month (P.S. I went WAY over my goal for February! Yay!).

Thursday, I taught aqua aerobics and circuit classes and cycle. My cycle class was overfilled. There are twenty-three bikes, including the instructor bike. I gave mine up to a member and still had people poking their heads in to see if there was room. David, Mike and Barry told me they thought I was taking Drea's place as the "Drill Seargent". I will never be Drea, but that is awesome that they think I'm that tough! I love that over half of that class is these big, strong men who are so into my class! They motivate me to push harder. They refer to me as "Seargent" and I give them the boot. One of them asked if I was ever in the army... weird... that's the 7th person to ask me that this week, no joke. Are my workouts that intense? When I take a Drea class, I don't feel like they are; although, I feel like it's easier to teach than to take a class.

I did my swim, beating my times by quite a bit... 10:00 warm-up, 10:00 technique drills, 10:00 force drills, 20:00 muscular endurance sets and 10:00 cool down. After Matt gave me those pointers, I can feel the difference in my form. I feel a lot stronger and more confident in the water.

Marcus taught Fit Buddha on Thursday, so I went in to try a MegaFormer class.... it killed me. This thing is the most brutal thing I have done in my entire life. My Wednesday night class was hard, but this was a different level of hard. I am hooked! Marcus is so knowledgable and I am excited to have the opportunity to learn from him! I wish I had more time to take classes there.

After FitBuddha, I raced over to the pool and taught my tri group. I had them do the same set I did earlier. They performed well and I finished the night with 3 miles of sprints with Richard.

Friday morning I had my running strength class. Bob told me I wouldn't be teaching Pilates on Saturday, so I gave it all I had. I was definitely feeling it afterwards. Gosh darn that Drea! Why does she have to be so gosh darn cute and kick-butt? Grrr... but I love it. People love pain.

Speaking of pain, when I went to teach Pilates this afternoon, I ran into Vince, who had taken my class Wednesday night. He said he will never take my class again. He was so sore that he skipped work on Thursday. I giggled when he told me about wandering through the grocery store after class and having to keep himself upright with his grocery cart because his legs were shaking so badly. Is it bad that I laugh at people's pain? Eek.

Then I walked into my Pilates class. Lorind was there and she was so excited to see me. "You're subbing," she asked. "Pilates is the hardest class I've ever taken and your's is the hardest Pilates class I've ever taken." Why, thank you, Lorind. This coming from a woman who has taken every class imaginable. Solid. In the middle of class, Kim said if I start teaching this class on a more regular basis, they will have to rename it "Power Pilates". Last week, I had a new person in the class and she didn't finish. She left early. Actually, most the class left early. Actually, no one finished the class last week. They all told me it was too hard. Oops. Lorind said someone was throwing up in the bathroom afterward because of my class. I feel so badly! I had a new woman today, so I was a teensy-weensy bit nicer. I think she enjoyed it! At least, I hope so!

I almost cried when I told my aerobics class I would only be there for two more weeks. Lynn came up to me afterwards and said that was the worst news she'd heard in a year... this coming from a woman who sees death and illness every day... it almost made me cry. She recently told me that mine was the best aerobics class they have ever had at the retirement center. I love my active older adults. They will be missed.

After work this evening, I cycled for 30 miles, all of it was working on speed skills. It killed me. I feel so out of shape on the bike. I'm not sure what to do to build my maximum power, but I want to do some research because I should have a higher power output with how often and how hard I cycle.