How Many Calories in a Slice of Humble Pie?

This week I accomplished a LOT in the gym!  Since Monday, I've done:

• 3 strength workouts
• 1 yoga class
• 3 treadmill workouts (days 1-3 of the Couch-to-5K program)
• 1 spin class
• 1 900-yard-long swim (that's a half-mile!)

This is a vast improvement over past weeks where I've really slacked off on the cardio on weekends.  This week seemed a bit easier - even with a lot of social and work commitments I managed to get all my planned workouts in by telling myself to stop whining about a lack of motivation and JUST DO IT already!  Turns out I can go a bit Jillian on myself if I need to.  This week included two work-related dinners out as well as a group lunch so I didn't lose any weight, but at least my workouts kept things from getting out of hand.  

My calories might have been a bit lower this week if I hadn't helped myself to a huge slice of humble pie yesterday.  Right before spin class my husband suggested I try his cycling shoes: 

Some of you might remember my opinion of cycling shoes - I believe my exact words were "I'm not wearing those stupid shoes until Kate Spade comes out with a line of cycling gear."  Normally I wouldn't have agreed to try them - I'm usually as stubborn as a mule when someone offers me unsolicited advice - but he asked me before I'd had any caffeine and I decided to give them a try.   They were a couple sizes too big but I thought I could still make them work for one class.

OMG, what a difference a pair of shoes can make!  It was so much easier to ride - no more adjusting my foot position, no more numb toes, and I got much more power out of each stroke.  Ugly or not, the shoes were a godsend and I decided within about 15 minutes that I needed my own pair.  Immediately.  I washed my humble pie down with a cup of coffee and admitted that I was wrong - now where can I get some of those shoes? 

We had a busy afternoon planned but tacked on a visit to Performance Bike in North Wales at the end of the day.  Ken was more than happy to tag along so he could shop for gadgets while I tried on  shoes.  After arriving at the store he gave me a quick orientation and some suggestions on things to look for and I started pulling boxes off the shelves.  The store was having a huge clearance event and ugly or not, I love shopping for shoes on sale so I soon had a huge pile to try on.  

After a few minutes I figured out my size (42 - sounds huge but basically it's the European equivalent of 9.5) and narrowed it down to a couple choices that fit my requirements: mountain bike shoes (easier to walk in), ski-boot-style buckle on the top strap (instead of velcro), and most importantly, less ugly than the other shoes.  Unfortunately, my first choice was out of stock in my size, and I didn't want to buy my second choice without seeing if the first one was a better fit.  We asked the front desk if they could call the other stores in the area - lo and behold, the Paoli store had one last pair in my size!  They put the shoes on hold for me and we headed off to get them before the store closed for the night.  Paoli is a 25-mile drive from North Wales so we hopped on the turnpike and turned on a Jillian Michaels podcast for entertainment.  This sparked a discussion about shoulder position during plank pose and next thing I knew we were driving past our exit...at which time the GPS informed us that we had just added 30 miles onto our drive.  Grrrr.  Stupid ugly half-price shoes.  

We eventually got there, and I tried on the shoes and decided to buy them.  Honestly, they're not THAT bad:

 

At least they are a pretty color.  I can't wait to try them out - Ken is teaching a spin class at Twisters on Tuesday night and I'm planning to go - I'll report back and let you know how it went!