Zumba Night - 2 guys, 947 girls

After the Boot Camp, several of my friends in Rob's Big Losers had stated that they were going to the Zumba class at GHS YMCA on Monday evening, and had invited me to come along.  Now, knowing that I'm so into music that I've been known to be cutting a rug at 3am, I figured this would be easy.  Truth be told, I don't go dancing, and the idea was slightly frightening to me.  Monday nights is Zumba for All, though.  Thus we packed up the girls and we ALL went to Zumba.  

As a very brief summary of the event follows, along with what I learned about Zumba as vehicle for my personal fitness.  I have nothing against Zumba itself, there were a lot of folks that were having a lot of fun dancing around to the routines.  That said, the music definitely wasn't in my range of acceptable.  It was alright, but it wasn't anything I was going to go make a mix tape of or anything.  There was a definitely salsa-esq rhythmic beat to it, though, which I would assume makes following the routine easier if you can keep up with the routine in the first place.

Most of the routines looked so simple when I saw that little skinny thing doing them up on the stage.  Amazingly, though, during the course of the last 10 weeks on this journey God has not mystically replaced the feet I was born with with those of Fred Astaire (or even Jerry the Mouse!).  Also, after attempting to go through the routines, I realized I am not a rear-engine body type, and certain things cannot move in that fashion!  Lastly, I realized I was sorely needing different workout clothes to the ones that I came in.  I say this because I felt very "uncontained" at times jumping around.  This is just not a feeling that anyone really wants to have.

All said and done, I had an okay time, although I was more than slightly self conscious in the class.  Not having "the moves", or even really understanding the routines, puts me into an uncomfortable state of feeling like a dork while waving my arms around being an idiot.  I did take several positives away from the experience.  

First is that I tried something outside of my "norm".  In general I'm a "bike 3-5 times a week" type of person.  Heck, I can easily get into ruts where I eat the same thing and even start wearing similar clothes throughout the week because it's comfortable.  Changing my workout routine I know will help stave off  the evil "p" word, which I'm already starting to battle.  Second, which is a lot like the first, I learned more about what vehicles I want to take in my fitness journey.  While I don't think a steady dose of Zumba is really the thing for me to move myself towards God's image of me, it's definitely something different and something the whole family can do together.  Third, it's a strong reminder that I cannot just do something new and expect to be good at it.  I know this already, but getting a healthy dose of reality is always a little bitter to take.  Lastly it has made me think more about what I need to be doing during my "rest days" on the bike.  I need to figure out how to get the other things I want and need to do into the program, so I do not neglect anything.  I have the 5k coming up in a few weeks, I need to do more strength training, and I want to spend more time in the pool.  All of that won't fit into my current cycling schedule at the same time, but I'm thinking maybe I can rotate through them in such a way as to make it all work.