some stuff i forgot...

I literally type this post two weekends ago and......never posted it. Please, explain how I survive daily.

ANYWAY I have things to talk about like school and malthouses & brewery tours but if I let this post never see the light of day I don't get to show off my barrel, SO.

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After two straight holiday weeks and two straight 4-day holiday weekends, only having two days off last week was an incredibly cruel jolt back in to the reality of the 5-day work week.  Also for the first time in a while I didn’t have much in the way of actual plans, which meant almost the whole weekend was devoted to working out and brewing beer…….could be worse.

Friday night was the annual Men of Zumba event at CC+ - when I first started really hitting the gym hard about 5 years ago, after I made the switch from my small local gym with not much more than a smattering of cardio machines & a weight room to the grand (and pricey) wonderland of Life Time, it was dance cardio classes that really hooked me.  I still enjoy them (I’ve migrated from straight up ‘zumba’ style classes to more hip hop type classes, which if you would have told me I’d be doing about 10 years ago I would have laughed in your face), even though I’ve mostly moved on, but a lot of my favorite instructors participate in this every year, so it’s fun to support.  Unfortunately the more I get out of the scene, the less familiar I am with the local instructors, and the more time I spent desperately trying to catch on to their routines while only being able to see about 50% of what was going on on the stage…but it was still a good, sweaty time.  Props to CC+ for managing the insane amount of people, too – at one point I turned around and the place was packed to the gills, all the way back on to the carpet behind the dance floor!

I also got a surprise delivery from my friend Kirsten in Minnesota – fresh, pesticide-free black spruce tips to add to my next brew, and (almost even more exciting), some Caribou beans!

Saturday I crawled out of bed, hit a boot camp class at my gym, came home to shower & headed back out almost immediately to White Lotus Yoga Studio for their new location’s grand opening.  I was really hoping to check out an aerial yoga class, but unfortunately they were all full, so I popped in to a vinyasa flow since I was already there, & signed up to do some flying next Sunday.  I’d been to the studio for Friday community classes at the old location, but the new one is soooooooo nice and bright and airy!  Solid job, ladies.

Next up: barrel curing!  Back in November a friend picked up a discarded Journeyman Distillery whiskey barrel for me from his homebrew shop (after doing a little investigating – it used to house Silver Cross whiskey, which sounds delightful).  I’ve been scheming a brew to put in it for quite a while now, and finally settled on an eggnog porter that I’ll be brewing next weekend, but it’s been sitting empty for so long that I wanted to go through the curing/sanitizing process even though it’s only held liquor so far.  Luckily my parents’ house, with its much larger laundry room and unused bathtub, was on the way home.

My darling <3

Curing away in a strange environment...

I can’t believe how much char came out of this thing – or how good EVERYTHING smelled. Damn, son.  A week of curing + some sanitizing and she’ll be ready to go!

Prepping for a new batch meant I also had to move along some of my current fermentation projects, so Sunday was a beer transfer day – I have two batches going right now, a Belgian golden strong that I racked over a slurry of almond extract & brandy-soaked dried fruits (blueberries, apricots & golden raisins) to try and conjure up a stollen bread flavor (fruitcake beer is SO last Christmas!), and a standard American IPA that I wanted to pull off a couple gallons to play with (I ended up adding a juniper berry tea).  Both of them came along nicely throughout primary fermentation – the Belgian has a perfect yeasty golden ale flavor and it hit all my projected numbers almost perfectly.  I was shooting for an 8.4% ABV, nailed my original gravity, and after primary it was sitting around 8.9% - bonus!

Beer ingredients looking pretty vile.

Amidst all the transferring I also took down all my Christmas decorations and got in a little extra fitness aka, “I bet you I can totally squat this tree.” (Spoiler alert: it was actually really light and I was kind of disappointed by how easily the whole thing went down).  Apparently the fitness theme of the day was “cold,” though – I tried to meet some bootcamp friends for a nice hour of hot vinyasa in the morning, but the heat at the gym was busted so it was a little more like slightly chilly vinyasa. Still managed to work up a sweat by the end, but hooooooly wow was it hard to find some zen for those first few minutes.

Disappointingly easy, but don't ask me how the attempts at pistols went.

Luckily I warmed up with some Paleomg spaghetti squash pizza casserole once all was said and done – an extra big batch with heaps of ground beef, spinach and mushrooms.  It might only look pretty when it’s fresh out of the oven, but damn is it good (and thank god for that, because with this big of a batch I’m going to be eating it all week long).

cardio blast & my weekly workouts

I admit:  I'm a cardio junkie.  When I first started working out & switching over to a healthy lifestyle, it was all cardio all the time - and it did wonders for me, too.  I know there are a lot of people who knock it, but I've always enjoyed cardio 400% more than any other kind of workout (except running - ohhhhh do I hate running).

All winter long I subjected myself to strength & resistance training - and I'm not going to say I didn't get anything out of it, because I love love love my back/shoulder muscles, toned arms, & the way I am finally able to look in a mirror and appreciate that my ass isn't COMPLETELY flat - but as soon as the weather starts getting warmer, all I want to do is jump around and sweat...which is exactly what I did all week long:

Selfies on the beautiful CTC campus.

Monday - I spent the work day at the Chrysler Tech Center, which has a beautiful campus, so I took advantage of my longer than average lunch break between classes (after scarfing down an amazing free salad) to do a few laps of the property, which was blissful.  After my seminar was over, I had a couple hours to kill, so I changed, headed out to Mae Stecker park to do some more walking (now that it's beautiful outside, I can't stop!) and then shot down to Lifetime to take a Zumba class with my friend Emily & one of my favorite instructors. Monday/Wednesday the class I take is super dance-oriented, so I feel like it not only works my body, but also my brain - I was never a dancer as a child so I can only hope to look even remotely as good as the instructor!!

Tuesday - After a looooooooong day at my actual job, I took a hot vinyasa yoga class with my favorite yoga instructor.  She strays from the typical Lifetime Yoga format of sun salutation A, Sun Salutation B, a longer flow, and then some stretching & a cooldown & instead adds a lot more longer, more challenging flows, complete with oodles of balancing work (which is one of my favorite things about yoga!) and a horrible (but awesome) core section in the middle. I never knew boat pose variations could hurt so good.  Then I came home and did a nice few laps around my condo complex while listening to a couple podcasts (the newest episodes of Barbell Shrugged & Strange Brews)!

Wednesday - Met my friend for another Zumba class with the same instructor as Monday.

Thursday - Normally every Thursday I take a Dance Jams class with my all time favorite instructor, but she was having a sub I don't care for as much this week, so instead I swapped Lifetimes & tried a new instructor at the Shelby gym, and he was WONDERFUL!  A friend of mine who had gotten there early graciously swapped spots with me so I could get close to the stage & actually see what moves I was supposed to be imititating which was sooooooo helpful.  The guy who was teaching had lost 100+ lbs doing Zumba, which is what made him want to be a teacher, and he was GREAT. The class was hot hot hot, everybody was yelling and dancing and interacting, which made it a million times more fun than the usual Zumba class - plus he was super interactive with the crowd & got up in your face a lot, which isn't something everyone likes, but it's something I LOVE.  Considering I passed up free beer to go, I'm glad it was so perfect!!

Friday - This morning I got up and went to yet ANOTHER Dance Jams class - I had the day off because of the holiday, and a friend of mine teaches only morning classes, so I never get to go, and therefore I justified yet another bout of cardio ;)  Later I plan on biking over to my parents' house to do some pre-brew shopping & then hit up a homebrewer meeting!!

Saturday - The instructor I normally take on Thursday nights is going to be back, so yes.....I'll be doing Dance Jams yet again.  The more I type, the more I'm starting to feel ridiculous...  (On a sidenote - I forgot my FitBit this morning & I got so upset that none of my steps were going to count.....and then, like a genius, I read the help forums and found that you could manually update your steps in!!  I guess that might just tempt some people to cheat, but I was sooooooo glad my hour long efforts were recorded after all - when I got home and saw I only had 184 steps, I wanted to cry!)

Sunday - AT LAST! Sunday is my big brew day (we're making two batches in one day - never before attempted!) so I need to be up & at 'em earlier than normal, which means I'm taking a super early morning hot vinyasa yoga class. Hopefully it'll stimulate those creative juices & help me make some tasty beer.

And finally, the holiday Monday - A special 1:15 long Dance Jams + Strength class with my favorite instructor and another who I've never had before - I can't WAIT for this class!!

A little ridiculous on the amped up cardio, I know - but I feel great!!  I'm getting my high-impact endurance back, and I've been really rocking out the past few classes, sweating and getting my jams on.  I'm trying to find a new strength class I enjoy to work into my routine, but in the meantime, I love what I'm doing & I'm seeing results, so I'm not going to let anybody tell me too much cardio is all bad!!

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What do your weekly workouts look like?  Are you a cardio junkie or a strength training buff?  Does the weather impact your workout regime?