Kettlebells kicked our butts!

On Sunday we took dessert over to a new couple in our ward at church to get to know them a little better. She is super adorable and so nice so I decided we needed to be friends :) We had a great time chatting with them over cheesecake, yum!
At one point we were talking about hobbies and mentioned that we like to run and use the climbing wall. She chimed in that she really likes to exercise and as she is super tiny and fit I fully believe that!
Then yesterday I got an email from her inviting us to come to a Kettlebell class at the fitness center she attends. What is a kettlebell you ask? Well here is a picture for you:

So imagine alternating exercises with 1 and 2 of these, swinging them around, doing arm lifts, doing squats and lunges while passing them between your legs... yes, lots of craziness! Now throw in there jumping jacks, jackknives, flutter kicks, pushups and all other sorts of torture and that basically describes the 45 min class we took with her lol. Honestly it was a lot of fun and a great workout - inspite of the fact that I was one of the few people using a 5lb bell haha... Luke had 15lbs and our friend had 20lbs... so I'm a wuss, it is really ok with me :)

I am REALLY uncoordinated and Luke and I definitely ran into eachother a few times - awesome couple that we are haha.  If she isn't too embarassed by us hopefully we can go back again sometime, hehe. I really need an iphone to be able to document with pictures these silly things that we get ourselves into!

After that awesome class we decided we REALLY like classes and want to do more. That gym might be a little out of our price range but the YMCA by us is a little more reasonable and has lots of classes so we are going to go take a tour and try one out next week if it works out. They don't have a kettlebell class there, nor do they have our friend, which makes her gym much better... but I'll take what I can get.

Another awesome thing about this class and others like it is the cross-training opportunity that I've been wanting and really needing! My thighs are SO sore today but I can tell that all of the sore muscles are ones that I've been needing to strengthen for running - fantastic! If I could do classes like that for a couple months I really think our Spring half-marathon training would be a lot more successful. We'll see in the new year... maybe a gym membership can weasel its way into our budget :)

Until then, Luke is taking a rest day and I am off to decide if I want to attempt a jog or just go for the elliptical. I am on day 4 of gym days for the week and feeling good about getting a full 6 days in this week! 5 more full weeks to lose those last 5lbs I've been carrying around since Winter 2007... I can do it!! And my running rehab is going ok... I overdid it on Tuesday and had sore knees yesterday so I'll have to scale back if I do run today (or tomorrow which is more likely after that butt-kicking class yesterday haha).

Yay for progress, yay for new friends, and yay for butt-kicking classes! :)