Stepping it up a Notch

Week 2 is off to a great start, this morning we met with Marcy for our 2nd 6 AM bootcamp session. After a rainy stormy night surprisingly EVERYONE made it in. Jessica and Janine had been battling some colds and felt under the weather this week but they pulled through like rock stars!

We did a quick warm up and then started a cycle of some intense cardio rounds, hello my evil nemesis burpees, then plenty of dumb bell moves. Nothing like sprinting back and forth in the studio in a squat then jumping down into triceps dips. I look straight ahead and Mina's pushing through those triceps dips! Way to challenge yourself ladies!

If we weren't awake before that we most certainly were after that. I made the comment last week to Marcy that we were ready to step it up a notch, oops. Sorry team - Marcy took that to heart and gave us a major butt kicking! So worth it, I'm feeling great, ok maybe my muscles are exhausted but feeling good.

We ended class doing another timed wall squat. Marcy says, "No ones allowed to drop until the clock hits one minute", OK! Everyone did it, everyone beat their times from last week. Great job team!

It's Friday ladies, what more could we want. Some team members are headed to the slopes this weekend others already have signed up for classes and burn sessions this weekend. Some are even coming back tonight for round 2.

Go Team Alibi!

Just Beat It, No One Wants to Be Defeated!

Last night the rain was miserable, it was cold and gloomy . . any other night I probably would have curled up on the couch in my sweat pants and let my Tivo hold me captive. But wait, its only rain, I told my team I'd be there for double spin sessions, I had to get over it. I wasn't going to melt.

So at 5:30 PM I set myself up on that spin bike to prepare for 90 minutes of spinning classes with Tara. She's so high energy, I knew she'd keep me entertained and I wanted the personal challenge.

During the first class there were lots of hills, lots of jumps, particularly difficult was jumping to Michael Jackson's song Beat It. Think about how many times it says Beat It in there - oh yeah the game we played was to jump at every instance of the word. My legs were burning and my mind was turning.

The 90 minutes gave me time to reflect on the challenge and after week one we really were beating our alibis and our bad routines. For the first time this year I found myself at the gym for the sixth day in a row, still working strong and thinking what will I try this weekend? Out of the corner of my eye I saw Julia sprinting on the treadmill outside the studio. She looked like she was in the zone. Hmm, I think I'll go for a run tomorrow!

Our group has set up a private discussion forum so every day I've been hearing about what my team is up to. Sarah shoots me a message about how she tried Burn on Monday then Tuesday morning was there for 6 AM Spin followed by an hour of Body Pump. Amazing! Janine's been hitting up the boxing classes trying to recruit for the next week. Mina and some other girls are setting up a group swim clinic next week to finally check out the Kennedy School pool. Some of the girls have some great experience swimming and want to teach us some techniques. How fun!

Just Beat It, No One Wants To Be Defeated
Showin' How Funky Strong Is Your Fight, It Doesn't Matter Who's Wrong Or Right
Team Alibi is all in for the fight!

Week 1 - we beat you, bring on Week 2. We are ready to push it to the next level. Can't wait to meet with Marcy tomorrow morning!

BURN-ing, BOSU-ing and Buddying Up!

The women of Team Alibi continue to hit the various Healthworks locations in full force. It's taken a bit to figure out reservation systems and share our thoughts to each on the most popular classes and the toughest instructors, but overall, each of us is feeling pretty dedicated to our gym routines for the month of Fiona's Challenge.

In keeping with our Team Alibi name and commitment to making it to the gym, we've set up a BUDDY system on our team, so you gotta show up for that BURN, bosu, strength or Spin session or your buddy will be looking for you...and definitely giving you a ring if you are not there...

This past weekend, my buddy Julia and I (Nina) booked in for a double session--Spin at 9am with Kathryn L. followed by Build & BURN with Regan C. at 10am. Here's us before the class (already a bit sweaty from Spinning!) at the Group Training Studio/Heathworks Cambridge. We also kind of liked that there is acupuncture next door in case our muscles get too sore from our workouts! ;).

The best news of Saturday was the Alibi Buddy system was working! When leaving the gym, Julia and I saw another Alibi duo in line for 10am Spin. When we came back to log our workouts in the all important Blue Binder, team member Mina was hitting a Bosu class with Sean...

Keep watching this space for more Team Alibi news. You know where we are! At the gym, of course...

Alibi BURNS!

Greetings Blogworld!

Well, Jessie, Sarah and I had a great session of Build and BURN last night. These intense 50 minute classes take about 50 minutes (+10 minute stretch) and will really test your physical limits! We had a fantastic time with our instructor: Andrea. The class is fun and intense partly because there are ONLY 5 students per class! Here is the basic format for the Build and Burn session:

10 minute treadmill sprints
10 minute Strength train
10 minute treadmill hills
10 minute circuit strength training
10 minute rolling hill sprints!
10 minute stretch.
This was a great setup because on the treadmill we could each pick speeds and %incline that were our OWN degrees of difficulty. Andrea simply said, "pick a speed you can stay at for X amount of time because "then it's going to get harder!" So needless to say, we Alibi women weren't looking for excuses. We know we want to win the challenge and that takes hard work!

This is our before pic:

Sarah, Jessie, Julia

Oh, I'm sorry, did you think there was going to be an "after" pic too? Absolutely not! Let's just say, we were drenched and beet red! We had a fantastic challenge and are so grateful that Healthworks is providing these classes to the Fiona's Fit Challenge Teams! What a great bonus for our health!

BURNing It Up!

I'm the type of person who really likes my sleep, so starting off my weekend with a 6am training session on Friday made me more than a little nervous - seriously, who gets up at 5:30? On a Friday? To go to the...gym? Well, we did! And believe it or not, after the session was over I was super happy about accomplishing that much that early!

My good feelings from Friday spurred me into an impulsive decision to hit up the 9am BURN Bootcamp class today. While 9am doesn't exactly classify as early, I treasure my weekends and my sleep-in time. To top it off, one of my best friends' birthday was yesterday so we were celebrating last night.

A few months ago I would've complained about having to call it an early night and get up the next morning to go to the gym (many of my friends are still in disbelief that I'd pay money to work out), but I have a confession: I was happy about my early Sunday plans! I was able to decline a second glass of wine, moderate my snacking on delicious goodies that were provided, and I was in bed by midnight. WIN.

I met Sharon at 8:45 this morning and we worked out super hard in bootcamp. After we finished, I had an overwhelming sense of accomplishment that I'm still enjoying, hours later! If this is what hard-core working out creates, I think I may become addicted.

Then again, it's still early on in the challenge. I just hope I can keep up the motivation!

Ready, Set, Gooooo and we're off!

Starting with a 5 AM alarm wake up, a little get psyched music on the trek in, Team Alibi gathered from all parts of Cambridge, Brighton, Somerville and even Methuen to meet up at Healthworks Cambridge for our first training session with Marcy. We all did our weigh ins (ugh), BMI tests and had our wall squats (surprisingly difficult), planks and pushups measured. There are definitely some rock stars emerging for different measurements and lots of improvement overall as a team we will make. Practice makes perfect and we are determined to not only beat our times but double or triple them by the end!

Once we finished our testing it was time for the show. Marcy had us doing plenty of weight combo moves, burpees, jumping squats, etc, that got our energy rising and finally so was the sun.



Everyone is ready to rock this challenge and teammates have already booked their burn sessions and have scheduled buddy outings to try new classes.

Stayed tuned to hear about our adventures in exercise and discovery of all that Healthworks has to offer!

welcome!

Welcome to the soon-to-be amazing blog for Team Alibi. We're all looking forward to starting, and hopefully winning, Fiona's Challenge. Check back to stay updated on our progress, look at pictures, and laugh along at our gym mishaps. Thanks for coming!