...because sometimes something as simple as an '80s birthday mix request becomes a full-blown '80s core production!Background - today was Coach Chrissie's 30th birthday! Woo-hoo...she's finally joined the rest of us 30 year-olds. Welcome to your 30s, Chrissie- it's actually a really good place to be! Anyway, she mentioned to Laura that it would be fun to have an '80s mix at core today. I'm pretty sure she might have suspected that we'd also bake cookies or a cake or something to celebrate her because we're like that at T3. We love celebrating one another!
I'm also pretty sure that what she encountered this morning was beyond her wildest imagination of anything we might do!
We figured, "Why stop at '80s music?" Let's transform the PTC into an '80s aerobic studio for the morning for our incredible coach. Richard Simmons...Jane Fonda...Larry Bird and Magic Johnson...Olivia Newton John...we were trying to be you! Or dress like you? Or something?!
And we were pretty darn good. It was hysterical...tri-athletes ditching the spandex and tech shirts and opting for leotards...short shorts...off the shoulder OP shirts...leg warmers...sweatbands...side ponytails...sunglasses...lace tights...Reeboks...fluorescent tights...jelly bracelets...tube socks... Doing our core routine to Footloose, Madonna, Toto, Chaka Kahn, Michael Jackson, etc...Truly a sight to behold. Or something?!
I am not sure any of us quite knows whether our abs are more sore from laughing or from all of the crunches or from holding our legs 6 inches off the ground. Whatever the case, it's a good sore. And a different sore from a really good workout sore (although it probably is that, too) so I think it's all the laughter. You know that sore that you feel when you've had a really authentic laugh with good friends? The kind of laugh that makes you grab your stomach and take an extra breath now and then because you just can't stop. Yeah. That kind of laughter. For an entire hour - except for when we were focusing too hard on our exercises...and even then, you'd catch a glimpse of someone's outfit and start giggling. Or at least I did.
But the very best part of the day was seeing Chrissie smiling the entire time. You have to understand that I think we give Chrissie reason to shake her head and smile at us on most Wednesday mornings. There is a pretty solid crew of about 40 of us who show up for morning core each week and Chrissie (a.k.a. Coach Pain) leads us through awesome workouts. We're forever trying to negotiate fewer death lunges or a different song to finish off our hamstring curls to. We rarely win...you'd think we'd learn. But we keep coming back for more because we love it...and we love Chrissie! She's an incredible athlete but more than that she's just a wonderful person. I can't think of a time when I haven't been glad to see her, and she's one of those people who you feel like you have so much to learn from (about triathlons and life...even if I'm older than she is!). A model of humility, kindness, and stability with a good sense of humor, incredible devotion to her athletes, and a generous spirit...yeah, we'd dress up in '80s attire and embarrass ourselves for Chrissie!
Anyway, I hope she had a great day...we certainly had a blast planning the morning for her. About 5-10 of us have been scheming for a while now - passing '80s exercise pictures back and forth, organizing food (thanks to everyone who baked and/or brought food and drink...especially the yummy giant cupcake from Jess, the T30 cake from Lisa, cookies from Laura, and the cookie cake from Yvonne...and everything else - juice, coffee, fruit...the makings for a yummy sugar rush at 6:00 a.m.), gathering '80s music (Laura!), and getting our outfits together. I think we worried that this morning would be anti-climatic. No chance. It was great! The only problem is that the rest of the day was rather mundane after starting in such an outrageous way!
What are we going to do with ourselves now that April 1 has come and gone?
(P.S. Night off from running...took some good advice there...felt good to go see the girls lax game at school and rest my legs some...I am racing this weekend, even if I keep forgetting about it!)
2 comments:
Yea for 80's core! Did Blythe tell you she wore her hot pink tights to track practice? :D
I was definitely pretty tired, run down the rest of the day. I think it was the way too early morning sugar rush!
What a great "tribute" to a great coach! I'm just sorely disappointed that Debbie Gibson was not on the "Core Mix Tape!!" I'm so glad I went to core yesterday instead of Cross Fit to celebate Pain's B-day!!
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