Yesterday, being a furlough day, I thought I would get in a little extra 30 minute run at the gym, before my regularly scheduled “Hard Core” group exercise class.

Three miles later I drag myself up the stairs into the workout room. The first thing I notice, “hey- there are a bunch of hot new female faces in here!”  The second thing I notice is that the instructor is not my instructor, but one of the group exercise instructors I really don’t like. (nothing personal, I just think she’s a terrible instructor. But I won’t get into it.)

Already disappointed, I decide not to turn around and leave, because, well, this is my class. It is a

not *my* abs, of course

part of my new healthy lifestyle, right? Yeah, that and a room full of hotties I havent met yet.  I’ll skip the part about the non-supportive instructor who doesn’t give any feedback and has terrible taste in music. My point is, it was until about 15 minutes into the session that I realized I had come to the WRONG SESSION!!  I apparently got my days mixed up and showed up an hour early!! (damn you furloughs!!!)

Despite the terrible instructor and terrible music, I decided to stick around anyway because a) who wants to be the one who gets up and leaves in the middle of class; and b) Pilates- can’t be too hard, right? Insert ominous musical flourish…

For someone used to a 30-minute circuit-style nonstop back and abs session twice a week, the class wasn’t difficult at all. The music? mmm, not so much (Pilates + Steppenwolf? Really?).  After an hour of musical torture,  I stuck around for the right class. One of the girls in the Hard Core class laughed at me for coming to the wrong session, since she feels the same way about the instructor as I do.   After 90 minutes of core exercises (not recommended btw), i went to my two-hour night class and finally home for dinner.

I was quite tired for obvious reasons and went to bed earlier than usual. Not a bad day.

I woke up this morning to a reality check:  My abs feel like I’ve been run over by the Ninja bike gang from Akira! My obliques feel like that scene out of every boxing movie where the antagonist gets pummeled with a barrage of kidney punches until he falls on his face. The rest of my body is still sore from two days ago when the (much better) instructor decided to surprise us with a three station 60-minute circuit for abs and quads!

But I’m not dead, and as they say, that’s half the battle. Despite the pain and suffering and other sacrifices I’ve had to make *cough*pizza*cough toward my goal of a healthier new me, it’s a great experience for a former chairbound geek.