Happy Sunday. It is POURING and I just want to hole up on my couch and hide.

Yesterday, I tried out a new-to-me class/studio, Barre3. The New York Junior League is doing a new initiative called NYJL Moves, which is partnering with area studios as a fundraiser to support the hard work we do in the community to help women and children.

Shameless plug: I am also raising money for the NYJL through my marathon fundraiser, if you’d like to support less fortunate women and children in NYC: http://crowdrise.com/juniorleaguenyc2015/fundraiser/Theodora

Yesterday’s studio was Barre3, a barre (duh) studio in the West Village. It’s been open for a little over a year, but I hadn’t been in to try it, mostly because barre isn’t so much my thing. (Yet I’ve done it twice in the past week?)

Our instructor was Tori Gregson, and she was GREAT. She was very attentive at giving modifications to those who needed them, and often, she would tell us exercises she had issues with, which was super relatable.

To be honest, sometimes working out with a whole bunch of people I know makes me a little nervous. What if I look like a total ass? But then I always remember that just as I’m not looking at/judging anyone else, nobody’s probably looking at me and judging me either. Plus, it’s always fun to catch your friend’s eye just as something is really starting to burn and knowing you’re in it together.

The class itself was TOUGH. I don’t sweat a ton, and I was drenched within the first 10 minutes. We started off with legs, moved into arm work, then “seat” (butt) work, and ended on the floor with core work.

For some of the core work, we had to lean back on this ball, and I was terrified I was going to pop it. The move that stands out to me as the burniest (new word!) was looping one foot through the resistance band and doing 14 million leg lifts. OW.

As someone who prefers heavy weights and running, classes like these definitely take me out of my comfort zone and remind me you can still get a great burn in with your bodyweight and three-pound weights.

Speaking of comfort zones, I’m off to a DANCE class now. All the LOLs.

I mentioned the other day that I was trying Live to Fail with my coworkers.

I’ve tried half a gazillion different kinds of workouts since I started working out, but it has been a long time since I’ve focused on just heavy, work-your-muscles-to-fatigue lifting. It’s what I did with my trainer when I initially lost weight and what I did with Leanne when I was prepping for a photoshoot last year. And that shit is humbling.

But that’s the premise of the program— breaking the muscles down to rebuild them stronger. 

I’m two sessions in, and DAMN. I’m proud of myself and the other women who are showing up at 8am.

*That “never had” would be muscles here.

Last night, I went to a class at Mile High with Oakley. I’m running the Mini 10K with them, so they had a training class for us.

And they gave us THE BEST PANTS EVER.

Oh, but back to the comfort zone stuff. The workout was a really fun one. The entire run was 28 minutes, and the speed intervals consisted of: 4 minutes at 10K pace, 3 minutes at 5K pace, 2 minutes at one-mile pace, and 1 minute at one-minute pace. I broke those down to 8:00, 7:35, 7:00 and 6:19. According to the Jack Daniels calculator, with my new shiny half PR, I can do a 10K at a 7:52 pace, so I probably could have pushed myself a bit more there, but I still left shweaty and feeling like I challenged myself.

Speaking of challenges, Ashley and I are talking about doing a joint challenge on our blogs, mostly for accountability purposes, in the month of June. What would you want to see from us, both in terms of check-ins and food?