Influence

Influence

I really hadn’t thought I’d convert to a “Fit Mommy” Blog, but when inspiration strikes one to write…

I was taking my last opportunity until fall quarter to workout at The Rec this morning. Today was both my last day of summer quarter and Charlie’s last day of preschool. I was in the downstairs weight room doing an upper body set (hitting back, triceps, biceps, and shoulders) when I saw Charlie walking in the main entrance with his class for their weekly round of swim lessons. One of his classmates had recognized me first and waved and then Charlie saw me and got all excited. There’s a big glass window facing out also I walked up and blew him a big kiss through the class. Seeing him excited and pointing with pride, “that’s my mom” means the world to me.

The reduced presence of required P.E. classes and funding for athletics in schools these days is something that bothers me. I think promotion of exercise at a young age serves so many positive purposes. It fosters the groundwork for a lifetime of healthiness. I’m not exactly writing a well cited research paper here or anything that formal, but over the years I’ve read many little blips about sports helping to keep kids off of drugs or drinking, more focused in school, less depressed, and healthier over their entire lifetime. I can see how exercise does all of these things, the endorphins create a rush to your brain making you happy, not desiring artificial and detrimental endorphins, and they relieve your stress and excess energy to allow you to sit down and focus when needed. My awareness of all these benefits is precisely why I was in the gym this morning instead of this afternoon. I had my last exam of the quarter at 12 pm and knew that the best way to mentally prep for it was to physically sweat before it =)

Naturally, I want my son to grow up with all of these benefits as well. I didn’t get into weightlifting because I’m a single mom and wanted to be able to teach stereotypically boyish hobbies to my son, but seeing his excitement and intrigue with the sport one more reason, and the best reason, for me to want to keep it up for the foreseeable future. A year ago when I first started with Body Pump classes he was exited to help and would proudly carry over the little 1 kilo plates for me. When we went to see family out of state and were caught gym-less he was pleased to be my weight for triceps stair dips and imitated me lunging across the courtyard. When we both began our new schools here last fall he most mornings say “I don’t want to go to school, I want to go to the gym.” When I was being a goof and set up a dumbbell at home to match his bodyweight ad curled it in one arm with him on the other he grinned. Around that same time he bent over and made an attempt, in what was essentially dead lift form, to hoist a 20 lb dumbbell at home. At that time that was 76% of his body weight, equivalent to my dead lifting 108 lbs…not bad for such a skinny guy. When I fixated on a YouTube video of Erin Stern doing a hang snatch with an Olympic barbell and wanted to try it he did too. Then, when I arrived home with myself and Rachael on video dong them at The Rec he REALLY wanted to try it. So he did, with his “horsey weight” and a HUGE smile. When I ordered Nicole Wilkin’s video we watched it together and then he started requesting the “girl with the big weights” movie over his usual classic kiddo movies. So when I saw him all elated to spot me in the weight room this morning it made my heart smile.

Whether we intend to or not we influence our children, even before they are born. It is said that a baby’s tastes begin to form around what you eat while you’re pregnant and what you eat while you breastfeed. When I was pregnant I ate a ton of veggies, whole grains, lean meat and dairy, oh and 4 Marie Calendar’s Chocolate Satin Pies (shhhh I’m human and those things are far too tasty to have come from the grocery freezer aisle). The funny thing is that is what Charlie willingly eats: veggies, lean meats, he prefers brown rice and 9 grain bread, likes his dairy, and is weak for chocolate. It is really hard to get him to eat more than two or three French fries, go figure.

I’m an imperfect mom: we watch a lot of movies together, don’t go exploring the outdoors as much as we should, etc., but I’m so immensely happy to be influencing him to not only see working out as an expected aspect of daily life, but to love it for what it is. I love that he gets so excited about trying the things he sees me do with weights. I absolutely cannot wait until I can take him with me, not to the gym childcare, but to the weight floor of the gym to show my little man how to lift =)

A side note: I expect my blog entries as “Fit Mommy” to occur sporadically with no predictable pattern whatsoever. I only write well when a tangent inspires me to do so =)

“There is a difference between giving up, and knowing when you have had enough.”

I quit. Actually, I quit a week ago, but I wanted to let it settle and make sure it wasn’t an impulsive decision before posting it here. I still train and lift and I intend to keep that up on a perpetual basis, but I quit the prep diet. The funny thing about the sport of figure is that it is essentially a dieting sport not a weightlifting sport. While it is true that to be competitive at it you must have both a solid training regimen and a very specific very restrictive diet plan, 80% of it is the diet.

There are many women out there who make all that work and are successful at it. There are caveats though; I recently ran into a woman I know who competed a year before I did and she said it well. She said that she loves the sport and the industry surrounding it, but that it is a selfish sport because it affects everyone around you. I thought she summed it up perfectly.

By training and dieting to gain the competitive edge I lacked at my first competition I was wiping out everything else in my life. I was really tired, coffee was useless, I was forgetful and lacked the energy to do anything else. At first I thought maybe I was just a wuss and would acclimate to 1,100-1,300 calories a day of very specifically combined and timed macro-specific mini meals, but then people in my life started commenting on my demeanor with concern. They all worded it various ways: “worried about me,” “that I was getting a bit loopy,” “figured you would want to stay in because your diet had you so drained.” It was costing me too much. My son comes first, doing well at school is important to me, I need energy to get my work done, and it is nice to be able to have a social life that includes dining without carting along little 4 oz. Gladwares and staring forlornly at your boyfriend’s or friends’ plates.

During and after my first prep, which will now be renamed my only prep, I started getting lackadaisical about other long-established goals of mine. I started questioning whether I should just quit with a B.A. in Accounting or just take random other classes to fill out a fifth year. I had pretty much moved a Masters off the table. Now that I’ve gotten my wits back about me I’ve become decisive and taken action. I had my major evaluation completed to confirm that I can graduate when I intend to with the class schedule I’ve planned. I also visited the Assistant Director of the MBA program to find out what I can do now to strengthen my application and undo the damage I caused to my transcript when I crashed after Ecup. Everything looked rosier than I had expected so I’ll be spending my free time before fall quarter starts studying to take the GMAT. That’s not something I could have done if I had continued on with figure. I’ve reordered my priorities and am much happier with myself now.

This does mean the end of Figure Mommy though. I’ve become pretty affectionate towards my blog so I’m sorry to say that. Part of me is tempted to cross out the “Figure” in my title graphic and rename the blog “Fit Mommy” sporadically posting tales / tips on maintaining / achieving a fit physique while balancing life with kid(s), but I’m not sure if the candor or quality would be there as that is after all a rather common theme.

For me, the whole point of my alter ego (for lack of a better term) Figure Mommy was to be rare, or most optimistically an exception to the rule. When people used to ask me, “how do you do it all?” I used to smile and minimize my obligations to deflect the compliment. The accurate answer is, “I can’t.” Sometimes saying it is the healthiest direction to take.

I saw this saying in my Google+ feed, the original author is unknown to me, but thank you to E.L. for posting it. I hope you don't mind my borrowing and embracing it =)


“There is a difference between giving up, and knowing when you have had enough.”

Wasssssssup??!

Day 18 Ironman Prep

How do you Wasa??!!

Wasa is a word you can say very enthusiastically to the point of ridiculousness (if you want to). I however had never heard of a Wasa cracker until a few days ago when I got my second phase of diet dictation. I had to Google “Wasa cracker” to find out. It turns out they are a super healthful cracker with big dreams of knocking out bread and replacing its role in dietary society! Or, um, something like that.

I intentionally have been staying away from my blog since getting my latest nutrition plan because I was being negative about it and I try to not write if I’m not going to have a good attitude (seems a fair presumption that you don’t read this to hear me bitch right? ;) It was a pretty big downer to tally up the new meal plan and find I was getting cut another 200 cals a day and see that one of my six meals consisted of half a can of water packed tuna and 2 Wasa crackers (three others are equally tiny). Some plain tuna with 2 crackers? Really? I’m supposed to eat that and still do things like expend 50% of my total daily caloric intake on an hour of quality time spent with a stepmill? The notion almost turned me into a quitter! So I took a few days to digest it, pun intended. I got the details behind my nutritionist’s philosophy and I realigned my attitude. I don’t want to be a quitter who only ever competed once, didn’t pace, and gave up. I want to get better at this sport.

So tonight Charlie and I went to the grocery store in search of the mysterious Wasa cracker. There they were, bottom shelf mid-cracker aisle and they were big. BIG crackers! They have a slogan on the package, “How do you Wasa?” With tuna thank you! Wassup Wasa cracker?!? Really, try saying Wasa dramatically. It’s fun. Say it like you’d saw “wasssssssup?!?” Or, just say I’m WEIRD, but in my defense one must delve deeply to stay spunky and positive about their figure diet!

My new plan dictates eating exactly the same for four days and then a second meal plan for the next three days. I’m pleased with the boringness as it makes planning and prepping easier. Plus, the more monotonous it gets the easier it is for me to quell cheat urges. Any creativity or variety just begs for a fueled flame to cheat. Same old same old is thus desirable =)

Wassssup Wasa cracker…. wassup??! Lean muscle mass is up and body fat is down! ;) Hehe.

I love it when famous people remain real people and act as such

Day 15 Ironman Prep

I was having a bit of a little bit of a downer day today. I was tired when I woke up this morning and only did 25 minutes of cardio instead of my usual 30. After class I wanted to go sleep, but I went to the gym instead. When I walked in I saw Laura was working so that was a happy thing. Sometimes talking to someone who knows can really help. Most people just think you’re nuts with the diet and training, but Laura has five bikini competitions (the training for bikini is VERY similar to that for figure) behind her so she knows. She’s also used the same nutritionist I’m now using before and it was a relief to hear that she was also tired all the time on this plan; I’d been starting to wonder if there was something wrong with me.

Lately, I seem to forget something every day. A few days ago I got to the gym only to realize I hadn’t packed a sports bra. After I got creatively dressed I promptly realized I’d walked out of class leaving my favorite water bottle behind so I’d jogged back to that building and up to the third floor to retrieve it. Today I almost walked out of the house without my iPod, thankfully remembered, but forgot to pack RedLine. I bought some at The Rec. I used to be anti-supplement, but now that my nutrition is the figure norm I need them. I’ll stick to RedLine and then when it starts to lose effectiveness I’ll replace it with a different pre-workout supplement.

Awhile back I ordered Nicole Wilkins' DVD, In Pursuit of a Dream, from her website. It came in the mail today and I was shocked to find it in an everyday manila bubble mailer hand addressed to me. The DVD case was also signed by Nicole and matched the handwriting on the package. Her and Erin Stern are the biggest names, the top champions, in the Pro Figure world so I had been expecting it to ship in a barcoded package from a warehouse somewhere. Nope!

It’s a little thing, but I thought it was really great. I love it when famous people remain real people and act as such. The DVD itself is really good. I’d ordered it so I can put the portion on posing on repeat and emulate a zillion times with a full length mirror next to my TV. Posing is my biggest weakness, so imitating an expert at home for the next few months can only help me. I was also surprised to see footage of an F&M Hers article I read some months back. Nicole and her trainer, Kim Oddo, had a body transformation challenge competition. I distinctly recall the article because the winner, Shannon, was actually a single mom who did almost all of her workouts at home while her shorty slept. In the DVD when they’re talking Nicole compliments her for pulling it off as a single mom, committing to getting organized to eat right and be regimented with the workouts. Of course that struck a chord for me. Someone should do a study to see how many extra calories daily responsibility for a small child causes a parent to burn! Kidding (sort of, haha). All I know is every time I give Charlie a piggyback ride (he thinks it’s more fun when I run) I start getting goofy ideas about using him at a track for some sort of weighted sprint plyometric theme….you know the whole sprints with a weighted backpack or parachute thing … just with 30 lbs of 4-year-old instead ;)

It was really interesting to hear what Nicole eats. No foods I haven’t already used in my diet. The most encouraging thing I heard in the DVD was that Nicole has a tendency to hold a lot of muscle in her thighs. That’s me! Her trainer combats that with track workouts among other things and Nicole demonstrates one in the DVD. She is huge on cross-training: traditional gym/weights stuff, 1-2x week track workouts, 1x week gymnastic workouts, yoga. I’d like to try the hand stand step-ups from her gymnastics workout sometime; they work both your core and shoulders. If you’re at all curious about what Figure really is, what the lifestyle is, how it all comes together, I’d highly recommend watching this DVD. It’s pretty inspiring; I know, I was having a shitty day and it made me feel better ;)

The Early AM Expedition

The quiet parking lot, cardio stats, and breakfast afterwards. The whole point in am cardio is burning calories on an empty stomach and forcing the body to turn to fat as an energy source to burn. This stage takes far longer to get to when your tummy is full and you're adequately fueled.

Ironman Prep Day 14

You know what is not tasty? A shot of RedLine and a grape berry glutamine chew before you’ve brushed your teeth. It flashed me back to the very first time I ever got up for morning cardio. I had been trying to be super sneaky and get on my machine as quickly and quietly as possible so I’d decided brushing my teeth could wait. Yuck! By day two I’d decided the extra few minutes of running water was worth the risk of waking Charlie. Now I have my routine: I set out shoes, clothes, my iPod, and water bottle the night before so that I can get up and get going as quickly as possible. I know the creaky spots in the wood floor by his room to avoid when heading to brush my teeth. Most mornings I estimate too conservatively and am up and done with cardio 30-40 minutes before he wakes, but on occasional mornings he’s up early and sneaks up on me in the middle of it. He finds it especially funny if he catches me doing abs because then I’m on the floor oblivious with a blaring iPod, he’s taller than me, and he likes to take advantage and sneak and growl like a big scary Charlie-saur.

Charlie was at his dad’s house last night though so I had a rare opportunity to try morning cardio the way most people do it, at the gym. Sunday is rest day on my current schedule which means no weights and 45 minutes of cardio. I ran off to Gold’s arriving by 7:20 am with fewer than five cars in the parking lot. Abandoned! I was definitely more awake than usual which was both a blessing and a drawback. I was trying harder to keep up my RPMs, but I was more conscience of being tired. In the end I did 50 minutes instead of 45 because I wanted to cross the 500 calorie threshold and then I did three sets of shoulder crunches, reverse crunches, and mini crunches with some brief stretching before heading home. I love the little elliptical I have at home, but it isn’t the greatest for longer bouts of cardio so it was nice to get my longer session done on a gym machine. I’ll definitely do it again given the opportunity.

P.S. I haven’t had any coffee today. I do, however, have a quart and a half of coffee creamer in the fridge. What in the world am I going to do with it if my coffee hiatus turns out to be permanent?

Natural Mindset vs. Fake Energy

Day 13 Ironman Prep

Ode to an Olympic Barbell

I know my weaknesses and I know my strengths. If I had to pick my top competitive asset it would have to be my biceps. Proportionately, they’re the most developed muscle group on me. They also show vein pop most easily which is something that ALWAYS boosts my mood. Yesterday, I briefly mentioned Olympic barbell curls. Today, I’d like to show them to you: the latest and greatest in my vein pop repertoire ;)




Natural Mindset vs. Fake Energy

The mental rush of visual muscle pump, like that above, helps to create the necessary mindset to get through a challenging workout when your energy level just isn’t there. Lately mine simply hasn’t been there. I drink my three sludgy cups of coffee in the morning and I don’t feel them at all anymore. Meanwhile I’ve sporadically tried various pre-workout supplements that pack a caffeine punch. I’d like to use them more frequently, but I worry about their caffeine content on top of that of my coffee. I think I’m going to try quitting coffee for a few days to see what happens. My favorite pre-workout supplement, RedLine (pictured above) will sub in. It doesn’t taste great, but it’s a small dose (like taking a shot), packs amino acids and a ridiculous amount of B12 in addition to the caffeine and is zero carb zero cal.


P.S. RedLine isn't quite that visibly powerful, although I like to think my picture edit above captures the potential energy of the supplement ;) I applied a "Space Textures" effect to it at Picnik.com, which is in my opinion, the best ever novice photo editing package =)

Encouraged and Intimidated

1) My biggest worry about competition remains my “wings” aka having big enough lats and pulling them out for an effective back pose come competition. As such, I was as entertained as could be when picking my son up at school one day this week. He’d made a set of paper wings and antennas with his teacher that he was wearing. He was super excited to show me his butterfly wings and I couldn’t help but wish it were that simple to create my own wings.





2) Me curling an Olympic barbell during a biceps workout this week. This is a recent addition to my repertoire. What makes it different is that an Olympic barbell is 7.22 feet long so your muscles are challenged beyond simply lifting the weight to stabilizing it as well. Also, an Olympic barbell weighs 45 lbs and my coach has me do sets of 15 reps. For perspective, I used to curl a 40 lb or sometimes 50 lb standard barbell in my EC training, but would only do 8-10 reps for most sets.

3) My coaching is primarily online so I have to take periodic pictures to email my coach so that he can assess my progress and base the next phase of my nutrition and training upon it. These were taken yesterday, 11 days into training. I have a long ways to go yet!

4) My freaky thigh picture. I snapped this while doing leg extensions on quad day this week. I really love the degree of quad definition I have built up at this point =)


Encouraged and Intimidated

Day 12 Ironman Prep

Having 5 days off from blogging has definitely shown me that I’m a better blogger on a daily basis. I’ve had many fleeting thoughts in the last few days, wisps of things to write about, and I’ve forgotten most of them. When I write daily I get to focus in and devote a few paragraphs to whatever little idiosyncrasy of this bodybuilding lifestyle has most struck my fancy that day. On that note, aside from sporadic days off I intend to go back to my daily entries. They kept me straight for my first competition and I’m finding I really need the routine of daily reflection on my sport to stay focused for my second competition.

I feel both encouraged and intimidated. I know where I erred last time (diet – allowed myself too much total intake) and I’ve remedied that by taking out the guesswork and acquiring a nutritionist. I’m also starting with a better base from which to build. There is substantially more muscle on me now than there was in January when I began my first quest. I find these facts encouraging. However, having some history now I know I have to take my game up a notch. Any cheating on my diet will have to be very small in scale and very infrequent, no decadent cheat meal events like last round. I will have to become very diligent about my sleep routine. I’m quickly realizing that I need at least 9 hours on this kind of calorie deficit. Getting in my workouts is easy to meet, but I need to jack up every rep to maximum effort, every cardio session to maximum rpms, and every set rest to the minimum plausible. I am intimidated by these necessary changes, but I can do these things and I will find the will and energy to follow through.

Ginger Lime Chicken with Snap Peas

Grabbing a few things at the store. I hadn’t planned it then, but the ginger and lime turned into dinner and the cooking video below.

Day 7 Ironman Prep

I’m really tired today. I think I’ve likely shocked my body from a metabolic standpoint. New workouts, back on am cardio, a substantial caloric intake reduction, an elimination of all simple sugar or processed foods. I’m there mentally, but the change can take a body some time to acclimate to.

I decided to spice up my 5th meal of the day today without hurting its nutritional value. Check out my Ginger Lime Chicken with Snap Peas here:



I did my 30 minutes of am cardio at 6:30 as usual and then went back to bed till 9 am as I was tired and Charlie was still snoozing away. To deal with gym closures tomorrow I switched my Sunday and Monday workouts. Today was supposed to be my “rest day” aka 45 minutes of cardio, no weights. I can do that at home tomorrow if I need to so I did Monday’s hamstring workout today. It’s a toughy and I showed up at Gold’s with zero energy despite the ½ serving of Redline I decided to take. Let’s just say it’s comprised of 75 dumbbell push-ups, 72 wood chopper medicine ball squats, 6 side planks, 120 total deep stretch weighted walking lunges, 70 hamstring curls and 40 medicine ball squats and the whole thing goes down in just over 40 minutes. I had warmed up with 8 minutes of cardio and capped off the session with another 25 minutes of cardio.

I am so used to squats consisting of a rack or a Smith and plates and a bar accumulating to my body weight and more. So far in my coach’s style of training my squats are more like plyos: holding a medicine ball, focusing on the motion etc. I haven’t asked yet, but what I think is going on here is trying to shrink my lower half. I built up a lot of lower body muscle my squatting heavy throughout my training. To be competitive at figure I actually need to sacrifice some muscle in addition to melting body fat.

I’m debating whether or not to write another book. The video explains:



P.S. Don’t mind my voice in tonight’s videos, I sound as tired as I feel. My normal tone is much more chipper =)

A Few of My Favorite Things

Ironman Prep Day 6

I was done with training by 11 am today. I broke a rule too. I’m not supposed to hit the gym until I have at least 2 of my 6 meals behind me. We had a Birthday party at noon to go to though and Gold’s only has am childcare on weekends. So I set my usual alarm for 6:15 am and had 30 min of cardio, breakfast, and a shower behind me before Charlie woke up. Then we were off to Gold’s where I warmed up on a rowing machine, did triceps and biceps, and wrapped up with 15 min on the stepmill.

A few of my favorite (fitness related) things:

1) Suits by Amy – Amy Ardizzone designed the suit I wore at Emerald Cup. She’s great to work with and turns out beautiful custom suits. www.suitsbyamy.com

2) Gaspari MyoFusion – My longstanding favorite protein powder. I should warn you though, once you go MyoFusion the texture of all other proteins will suck by comparison. It’s a mix of whey, casein, and egg albumin. This makes for a good all-purpose protein, the only caveat being that it is a little higher on cholesterol than some other protein powders. It’s available most places: Amazon, GNC, and Bodybuilding.com to name a few.

3) Dave’s Killer Bread The Good Seed Sprouted Wheat – I love bread in general, but the DKB brand makes extra scrumptious bread you can actually feel good about eating. The one mentioned above has 110 cals / 17 g carbs / 3 g fat (0 sat fat) / 6 grams protein / 4 grams fiber. Higher protein and lower carbs than your average slice. Yes, there are a zillion 70-80 cal per slice breads out there, but they aren’t satisfying. This slice is satisfying, and it had better be; my current nutrition plan only nets me 3 slices of bread a week. DKB bread is available at most grocery stores. Just stay away from the loaf called “Sin Dawg.” It is a little cinnamon loaf, maybe 10” long with a 2” diameter. That tiny loaf has 1,600 cals and tons of fat! Scary! I tried it once, prior to reading the stats. It is DELICIOUS, but deadly ;)

4) Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey and 100% Casein Protein Powders – I have a 5 pounder of the whey in Cake Batter (great flavor!) and a 2 pounder of casein in Chocolate Peanut Butter. These are great protein powders because they’re reasonably priced and are loaded up with 4-5 grams of glutamine and 5-5.5 grams of BCAAs per serving. I prefer this over taking a bunch of separate supplements.

5) GNC Glutamine 2500 Power Chews in Grape Berry – I know I just said I don’t like taking separate supplements, but glutamine is one that I sometimes take in contexts where I’m not eating, such as prolonged exercise. These chews are handy to pack and they’re as flavorful as a grape Laffy Taffy.

6) HTC Incredible aka my phone – Think this is an odd thing to list? Not really =) Each and every video clip posted on this blog and just about every picture has been captured with my phone. I also have an app on it called JEFIT Pro that shows me animations for a ton of different exercises and sorts them out by muscle group for easy on the fly referencing. Lately, I’ve started using the stopwatch to time my rest time between sets. Naturally I scan Facebook and catch up on emails on it during my am cardio. My Amazon app lets me cross-check prices when I’m in GNC and sometimes save a lot on my protein, I’ve even ordered it from my phone. I love my phone; it’s a figure girl’s best friend ;)

My Favorite Abs & a Snazzy Bike

The bike kept making me laugh because it would scroll across the screen and tell me to “ease back into a relaxed state.” What?! No cardio machine is supposed to tell you to relax, lol, that is not my idea of an interval! I wish I could take actual spin classes, but the schedules at both my gyms always have them super early in the am when I don’t have any childcare options.

Day 5 Ironman Prep

I am tired. I had five or so more interesting things to ramble about earlier in the day, but I’ve forgotten what they were, haha. You probably believe me about being tired now =)

The usual took place this morning: 30 min of elliptical plus some abs (3 sets each shoulder crunches and medicine ball side twists). I hit The Rec at 2 pm for a full chest session with a splash of shoulders and 5 sets of weighted crunches to failure at the end. I wasn’t sure what specific weighted crunch I was supposed to be doing as there are about bazillion variations on that one, so I went with weighted decline bench crunches with a 10 lb plate. I’ve been a fan of these for a while now; they’re tough, but you get results. I had sore abs this morning already from my daily 10 minute morning sessions so I expect it will feel more pronounced tomorrow. My calves are doing that thing where you walk and they sort of tighten, almost like a cramp, with each step, especially downstairs. I even have lines of muscle soreness running down my forearms which is not typical for me. I’m pleased with all this; it means progress =)

My favorite abs:



I was supposed to do 20 minutes of cardio on a bike after my weights so I chose this snazzy teched out spinning bike. It had a cool feature where you can plug in your iPod and it will create a workout to the rhythm of your music. I tried, but the plug in for my headphones wasn’t producing sound (or likely I just didn’t know what I was doing ;) I went with an interval program on it instead. I’m really not a bike fan, but by the end I was entertained enough that I’ll try it again. My top 3 preferred cardio machines are ellipticals, AMTs, and stepmills. I think I’m going to have my 6th mini meal and go to bed. I’ve been not getting to sleep till 11:30ish the last few nights, but still getting up by 6:15 for am cardio and it’s catching up to me. I really need a solid 8 hours when I’m training. Night!