Conditioning, killer crunches, high bars and more!

This is a post about Meridian Gymnastics!!

First of all, a HUGE thank you to the levels 4 through 8 girls and to Jess, Christine and the staff of Meridian for welcoming me into your gym and making me feel right at home.  Most of all, thank you all for your patience for this post.  My delay in posting in no way reflects the great times I had with all of you!!

As part of my week off from work in December (and again in January), I set out to shadow a gymnastics class at Meridian Gymnastics, where my friend Jessica teaches.  I didn't just attend any "class" but rather a level 4 through 8 team class.  These girls compete once to twice per month, year round!  They are no joke.  They train for three hours a night, nine hours a week!  I had a blast, visiting with them.  And if once wasn't enough, I went back a second time to really have some fun with the girls! 

Below are some photos from my time at Meridian but here is a "stock" photo of Jess (right) courtesy of facebook from the 2010 Visa Championships:

Go Meridian coaches!

Here is the schedule for the class I shadowed-- Levels 4 through 8:

Class begins at 5:45 and ends at 8:45, but Jess arrives well before then to prep for class (or should I say, think of ways to torture them ;)

Here are photos of some of the little gymnastics monkeys that I shared the floor with:

Okay, on to my time there!  The class starts with over an hour of warm up and stretching.  Who knew you needed that much stretching and warm up?  You don't have time to be bored because Jess makes sure you are gasping in discomfort the whole time.  I asked the team if they had any affectionate nicknames for Jess (such as "gymnastics Nazi") but they don't.  I on the other hand, dubbed her "evil stretch queen" for her inhuman like-ways of forcing splits, killer crunches and hamstring-stretching h-e-double hockey sticks.

My first time there was about observing what the team does, learning about them, their training and gymnastics generally.  For my next visit, Jess and the girls put together a list of things they wanted me to try (thankfully they were all achievable, AKA level 1--things a 4 year old could do--- easy.  I am grateful!! :)  I tried to be a good sport but of course I couldn't suppress my typical whining for the entire 3 hour class-- some of it was a bit scary! :)  Here is the list of some of the things I tried:

Cartwheels on the floor, floor beam and air trak
Back Handspring down the hill (a triangle-shaped foam "mat" used for training)
Handstands
Walking forward and backward on the high beam

Scale on the high beam (which is this:)

Swinging and casts on the high bar (both of which do this to your hands):

Tuck jumps, straddle jumps and forward rolls on the air trak

Back flips in the belt on the trampoline  (video here:)

 

back "flips" into the pit. As an aside, another kudos to Jess to forcing me to roll backwards into the pit and for calling it a back flip, hee hee. And to top the night off, we played a fun game called bear hug.  It's a fun version of duck duck goose, using wrestling moves (and some ultimate fighting moves if you ask me). You team up with another gymnast and sit in a straddle.  When a person points at your team, the front girl in the straddle needs to get to the "pointer" as quickly as possible, while the gymnast behind her tries to keep her in place.  Here I am schooling one of the older girls (guilt-free):

 
After spending six hours with these girls, it is easy to see why they are some of the best.  I am blessed and grateful to have met them and to have spent two wonderful Friday evenings doing their thing.  Thank you Jess, and thank you Meridian family.   hope to be back soon!

Best of luck on your future meets!!

Fun with running, guns and balance beams

I have been a bit busy since my last post have not gotten my blog on to fill you in.  Here it goes in chrono order:

Fun with Running: On September 11, 2011, I was honored to be a part of a memorial 5K run for those who lost their lives on September 11.  This run has taken place over the last few years in my hometown of Reading.  The weather was beautiful and the other runners were very inspirational.  Alongside me for the race were firefighters in full gear, policeman, the national guard, and many supporters, family and friends.  I also ran with my girlfriends Danielle and Sara (it was Sara's first road race and she did great!)  And my neighbors Mark and Melissa were out in full Reading regalia running too!

September 11, 2011 was also the day that Reading held it's annual fall faire.  Of course no road race would be complete without fried dough at the finish line :) Here are some shots from our 5K:

The National Guard ran and sang the whole time.  It was great!

Hitting the finish line

Me and the girls pre-race

Danielle and Cole!

This race was a great experience for me physically and emotionally.  The love, dedication and determination of those around me carried me through this race all the way to the finish line.  I look forward to running this memorial 5K every year to remember those that lost their lives to make my home a better and safer place.   

Thanks to Danielle and Sara for coming up to run with me!

Okay, on to the GUNS part!

For the first time in my working life, I took the week off between Christmas and New Years and I am extremely happy that I did.  I was able to relax, enjoy my family, and focus a bit on some of my list items.  Of course the kids' daycare was still open so I fully capitalized on that and shipped their butts off to school!  So, with my kids in school, I did what any mom with free time would do.  I went to the shooting range with my husband and shot skeet!

For those of you that haven't read some of my early posts from last year, let me quickly get you up to speed.  Eric likes shooting guns.  Up until last November, I had never shot or held a gun.  I went duck hunting with him and quickly learned that not all guns are created equal and one simply cannot pick up any ol' weapon and shoot it off into the sky (without ear protection to top it off!)   So, this year, it was try, try again for me.  Last year, left duck hunting feeling nervous about guns and this year I set out to change my perspective.  To do that, as I am fully realizing with each "thing" I do, I needed to start with the basics.  With guns, it starts with gun safety, basic handling and of course, shooting.

Eric's friend Charlie was nice enough to open up the shooting range just for us.  Charlie lent me his 20 gauge shotgun (the very gun his daughter learned to shoot with at age 14), and gave me one-on-one, hands on instructions on how to shoot skeet.  He also taught me the basics of loading the gun and handling it after shooting.  Here's a down and dirty explanation of skeet shooting from what I understand (I equate my version of events to the average girl explaining how to play football, but this is the best I can do!) You stand on various yellow squares, which act as shooting stations, and shoot at clay disks which fly out of the "high box" and the "low box".   The disks are called "birds."  The stations are set up in a half-circle shape across the firing field so that you can shoot the clays from all angles.

With memories of my last gun "experience", I reluctantly put the butt of the gun up against my shoulder, put my face on the stock of the gun, and looked down the barrel.  After I made sure my noise-cancelling headphones were securely on, I gave shooting a try.  I was nervous about the gun's kickback at first but after a few shots I learned that the 20 gauge was the gun for me. The gun handled great and fit me much better than Eric's 12 gauge.  With new confidence in my shooting capabilities, I relaxed, focused on the task at hand and started to have some fun.  I actually hit some clay "birds" too, including a double! (A double is when the clay birds come out from both "houses" simultaneously, in two different directions, one from the high and one from the low.  Here are two videos Eric took of me at the range.  One is me shooting at a high house clay bird and the other is a double. (this double I didn't hit though :)

A huge thank you to Charlie for opening the range for us, for his wonderful guidance, and for trusting me with his 20 gauge!  A thank you also to my husband for taking me up on my requests to go skeet shooting, for putting up with my trash talk at the range, and for listening to me talk incessantly about this wonderful experience with everyone we know (and over-using the term "boom goes the dynamite" :)  I am hooked and will be back!

On to balance beams!  I want to dedicate a separate post to this topic so keep reading- my next post is on gymnastics with Jess!