This has started to get a little out of hand since I got back. Before I left I was starting to get up at 7:00. If you know me that's a huge deal. I'm used to waking up at the crack of noon. I've been doing it for almost ten years. Late nights, late mornings. The only time I saw the morning sun was if I was up from the night before. I was waking up at 7:00, but still hibernating on the couch checking email and blogs until 9:00. Then I'd either go spinning or do something else for an hour or so. But the past couple days I've been waking up at 6:00, and I think I really like it.

Yesterday I did it because I had a lot of work to finish the magazine. I wanted to do my regular 9:30 spin class, but I figured by the time I was done with that it would be too late. I didn't want to spend all day working on the magazine. So I got up at 6:00 to get to the 6:30 class. Yeah, I actually made it, and was in reasonably high spirits.

The class was pretty good. I wasn't the biggest fan of this whole "stand up, sit down" thing, but the music was much better than the other classes. I actually liked some of the songs, although more often than not she'd play the bad remix of a good song. Still, a world better than It's Raining Men. I took off my pants in the middle of the class, and she asked if I was going to shake my hips while I stripped. I was caught completely off guard! I just laughed. It was weird being in a different group with different people. It was kinda fun being the new guy.

Today I got up at 6:00 again. I got to bed by 12:00 last night, and I don't know if six hours is enough. It took me a little while to get out of bed and get ready this time. I didn't make it to the gym until 7:00. I did a tanning session (long story why I'm doing that), and went for my second run. It was actually much easier this time. I'm still panting and probably making groaning and squealing noises that I can't hear over my iPod, but my HR dropped by 2-3 bpm overall! Sweet! I kept the speed at 6.2 mph for the run, but in the first walk I did lower my walking speed to 3.5. I'm not sure if that made a difference, so I'll have to wait until Friday to see if things keep up with this trend.

I was bloody sore today though. From the first minute I started walking I was really sore. I know it's something that I'm going to get over, just like when I started cycling more often. Just right now it seems pretty rough. I'm looking forward to my spin class tomorrow. I think if there is one day where I go in late it would be on Thursday. If I switch to the 6:30 Thursday class I'm really going to miss Faith and her instruction. She definitely helps with my actual cycling training instead of the more generalized spinning. Maybe one late day a week isn't so bad...

As a side note, I had 500-600 calories extra I needed to eat last night. Kim was going by Burger King, so I asked her to pick me up a BK Broiler (their non-fried chicken burger). It might be called Tendergrill now. Instead she went to McDonald's and grabbed a Chicken McGrill. I figured it must be close enough. 410 calories, with a crapload of it from saturated fat. It was smothered in McChicken sauce. In fact the McChicken is only 430 calories. What's the point? Don't get me wrong, I'm not bitching about the 60 calorie difference between that and a Tendergrill... okay, maybe I am. That's ridiculous. If I would have known that I would only have had one beer with it instead of two. Oh dog, I can't believe what I'm complaining about these days.