October Goal: 20 ClassPass Gym Classes

We’re already a third of the way into October, but it took me till now to commit to a goal for the month. Things in my life just feel so strange and up in the air that I’ve been reluctant to commit to anything!

Last weekend, Adam and I went to Atlanta for a long weekend visiting some friends. Last week, I slept in my own bed on weeknights for a change while helping out with a pro bono project at work. And this weekend, Adam and I took his son to Disneyland in California! We had an amazing time, but none of that was my usual routine. And at Disneyland, I didn’t work out once the whole weekend.

Last week as a whole, I did a pretty poor job of working out. In one week, I only managed one pilates class, a six mile run, and three stints of 10-20 minutes each on the stationary bike. (And I decided that wasn’t worthy of my usual Saturday workout roundup, so I didn’t write that.) A lot of this failure to execute was because I failed to plan my workouts. I felt like a complete sloth as a result – I don’t like myself when I don’t exercise!

In Dallas, I was obsessed with ClassPass, the gym program that gives you access to classes at boutique studios in most major cities. I tried a ton of different studios in Dallas, and ended up with about a dozen that I truly loved – making it easy to always find a class I was pumped to take. In Denver, though, the backbone of my workouts isn’t classes but time outdoors running, hiking, or skiing. I haven’t tried a ton of studios in Colorado, and most of the classes I have tried haven’t really stuck with me as true favorites.

But I love the accountability that signing up for a class provides! With ClassPass, if you don’t show up for a class, you have to pay a steep $25 fine. I’ve only incurred that fine once, when I had a last minute work event pop up just before an evening class, but I’m very afraid of incurring it. As a result, I tend to be pretty conservative in only signing up for a class when I’m sure I can attend. With my week of working from home, I’ve been trying to catch up on sleep, and haven’t wanted to set an alarm when my day is reasonably flexible (as long as I’m willing to work late if I don’t get enough done during the day). So I haven’t been signing up for my usual early morning classes, telling myself I’ll see what’s still available whenever I wake up and get ready to go. However, I’ve discovered that in Denver/Boulder, a lot of studios seem to close registration the night before, and so I can’t sign up for same day classes at those studios. Big bummer!

That’s a dumb excuse to skip workouts, though, so I’m getting back in the game. For the 20 days left in this month, I’m setting a goal of taking 20 classes via ClassPass. It will be a fun way to force accountability for my workouts, and while I’m not explicitly saying that all the classes have to be at new-to-me studios, I’m hoping it will help me branch out and find some classes I really love here at home. I don’t know yet where my next project will take me, but odds are good that it will be in a big city where ClassPass has options. And if I end up somewhere without ClassPass, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it – better to have to change goals in the middle than not have a goal at all.

Tomorrow morning: spin class at Beat Cycle!