Cross Promotion

I really was not in the mood to do interval runs yesterday so I decided to check out this fairly new class at Crunch Firness - Accerlation Powered by Fitbit. 

Basically, the class is chopped full of cardio units or segments that focus on you taking as many "steps" as possible. I type "steps" because we all know that Fitbit  (Fitbit Surge, in my case) uses arm movements as steps, and the class has a lot of punching and jabs. 

Steps or "steps" aside, this class was pretty fun. The instructor totally was energetic and super engaging. Also, her music choices really suited the class. 

For most of the class, I stayed within my peak cardio range and my Fitbit Surge say that I took 2,513 "steps" during the class. It seems that 4,000 "steps" may be a bit of a stretch. 

 I guess my goal for next week is to beat 2,513. However, I think that my real goal will be to stay in my peak cardio range longer than 17-18 minutes. 

A critique or two

1. I think that the class may have too many people in it. I say this because there are a lot of jumping forward, skipping, shuffling side to side, and running back and forth movements, which can lead to potential collisions. These can happen when as person next to you does not have a lot of physical stamina and have to stop during an exercise like suicides. 
2. I do not really see too much of the cross promotion. Crunch fitness (at least the one on 59th Street) started selling Fitbit Charges a few month ago. However, most of the people in the class did not have fitbit (perhaps they are fancy and own apple watches) or any type of tracker. To me, it does not make sense to say the class is powered by Fitbit. I think if fitbit and Crunch fitness (to some extent) should have some type of incentive for people to attend this class and buy Fitbits. Perhaps, making specific online Fitbit community group for the class at one or multiple Crunch fitness locations would get more people involved. I know that I am somewhat competitive and like to benchmarch my fitness progress with myself and others, so one could see how well he/she stacks up with other Crunch Fitness members. Just a thought. 

Postworkout

Since I was already trying new things, I decided to eat a Muscle Making Grill instead of the healthy Mexican grill, which usually sscrews up my orders, that I normally go to after the gym. This place prides itself on low carb, low fat, and high protein food options. I ordered the Arizona, which had grilled chicken, some chipoltle like sauce, brown rice, chives and tomato. I wonder if Arizona tastes like the plate? 

NYC HALF MARATHON TRAINING RUN 12 OUT OF 45

7.01 miles; Duration: 58:59; Average Pace: 8:24min/mi; Average BPM: 139; Steps: 9, 204

For my weekly longer run, I wanted to try something a  little different because life is all about mixing things up. Normally, for my long runs I like to do an 'in and out' from Crunch Gym on Flushing Avenue in Brooklyn to the Lower East Side and back via the Williamsburg Bridge. Although the views are beautiful from the bridge, I have been getting a little bored with this route. I opted to do the long run in Central Park. I cannot remember the last time I ran in the park . . . aside from running NYRR races. 

I will say that I had a pretty nice run and the Park was not too crowded so most of the trails were relatively free with little to no annoyances aka tourist with selfie sticks. The run itself was pretty nice, I feel like I am making decent progress with my pacing, but I have a long way to go if I am going to complete my half marathon in 1 hour and 45 minutes. Actually, I do not know if I am going to make it because I have to run an average pace of 8:00 min/mi and I am still at 8:24 min/mi. I do find that I do a little better during races because my 'competitive" nature kicks in a bit.  Maybe I will register for a race this week. 

For the most part, this run was more of an easy tempo run. However, I did try to incorporate some quick sprints during the last 800 meters of each mile. I did not feel too tired doing these and actually, these quick sprints made the run a little more interesting, especially when a good up tempo song came on. 

My route. Some people on Facebook think that my route may be sexually explicit. 

Song of the Run.