Provo Canyon and an Empty Lane

Mondays and Wednesdays are cross training days for me. In my 18th year of school (my final year of grad school) I finally figured out just how awesome university PE classes are.  I took a couple of yoga classes during my undergrad, but this semester I have a spin class and a swim class, and let me tell you that I am in love! I used to shy away from classes because of my fear that I couldn't keep up, but I finally decided that I will never be able to keep up if I don't learn how! (Well, that and a couple of pre-class months of swimming and biking on my own didn't hurt).  But it still took a lot of courage to get there!

Anyway, today in spin we took a virtual ride up Provo Canyon. Our teacher just shouted out instructions and described where we were going. "Turn left to head up past Vivian Park."  If you weren't familiar with the canyon, it might not have meant much to you, but I have recently spent a lot of time up there and this mornings ride was especially vivid for me. It is amazing how much easier it is to climb when you are imagining that you are heading up to Squaw Peak instead of just staring at a blank wall.

Imagine with me! This:

Or this:

Even though I felt like I had been hit by a semi-truck when I woke up this morning, I am so glad that I pushed through it and went to class.

I spin at 7:00am. Yikes. That means that I am pretty janky most of the day, but I know that I am just going to get in the pool at 1:00pm, so it isn't a big deal. Did I mention how much I LOVE university PE classes? Seriously, everything I need is built right into my class schedule! Anyway, I am top lane in my beginners swim class, thanks to some epic time on the community swim team about 17 years ago, and usually my lanemates are pretty serious about showing off their swimming prowess. Because of this, we often have pileups at the end of the lane because everyone is busy showing off how fast they are instead of just pacing and focusing on the work out. (I was one of these showoffs for a bit p.s., but it didn't take me long to figure out what was going on) Well, dream of all dreams, two of our lanemates were gone today! That left just 2 of us in the lane and we could spread out all we wanted! It is amazing how excited I get about the little things.

What is your favorite cross training activity?