Wait and See!

Video is uploaded and submitted.   I taught today and it felt REALLY good- I was totally on with choreography, coaching, technique.  I felt super strong, I felt "in the zone" and even after class Gediz came to me and said "wow- what a difference from the first time we team taught"...he said it was so natural, I was confident and focused.  That made me feel really great.  I know that Gediz has only been teaching Combat for about 6 months- but he's just so much the pro and very good at what he does, I truly value his opinion.

I did have some mic issues 1/2 way through the warm up- terrible feedback and then no sound emitting, so I took the mic off and taught with a loud voice the entire class.  I am seriously DONE with technology issues and I swear if/when I take on another format and I need to video, I'm just going to go buy something that is not going to give me grief!!

I just finished watching the taping from today and while I felt good, and I know I delivered a great class covering all the points that I needed to in order to pass- the quality of the video was blurry- just like attempt #3.  Not sure what is going on with this- unless it just didn't know what to focus on since there were participants in the class.  It focused on me Friday night just fine.   So I was really tempted to submit this one -but I feel that the visual is not clear enough and there are some points where it is hard to hear me with the music/fan, etc.  I had did my sound check before recording and that was all dependent upon using the mic!   So I went with Friday night's "no participant" video.  Kimi emailed me back last night and said that we can upload without participants, but that it's easier to coach with participants- which is very true.

So we wait and see where the chips fall.  A fellow instructor from training module submitted hers last weekend and found out Friday that she passed...so hopefully I find out very quickly also.  Biting nails!

Going on #5...

Yep, going on my taping attempt #5 tomorrow morning at Gold's Mt View.  It has been a challenging few weeks- mostly with technology.   Taping #1 went well- I was not perfect, the mistakes I made were minor- but my phone camera app somehow had these 10 second blips of silence.  Could not figure it out for the life of me- we thought maybe a notification was coming through or something.

So Taping #2- Santa Clara Gold's while I was subbing for Nicole, I put the phone in "airplane mode" and still had these 10 seconds blips of silence.  It's really quite odd and after doing research I can only conclude that it's a quirk with my stock phone camera app that has been a known bug since the last upgrade.

Taping #3 - Gold's Mt View again last weekend- Gediz was busy getting GRITty, in a two day training for GRIT, High Intensity Interval Training class, so I was teaching all on my own.  I had downloaded another camera app on my phone and determined that there was no moments of silence issues.  However, the phone was not properly propped up and ended up slipping during the first 10 minutes of class- there was about 10 minutes of not seeing 100% of me teaching- my niece Morgan noticed and put the camera back in place, but the video quality was very blurry, so I think it just could not focus on me at that point.  Again, it was a great class- I know I did well with technique and choreography and coaching- but no way this is submit-table.

Taping #4 - tonight I was subbing for Nicole again at Santa Clara Gold's- actually truth be told this is officially my class because Nicole got a new job and will be working Fridays.  I don't plan to keep this class long term because getting to Santa Clara on a Friday evening is a nightmare from Redwood City- but I told Robin I would hang with it until our cruise at the end of October.  Honestly, I don't think this class is going to survive.  It's not a good time slot- tonight nobody showed up and previous weeks, Nicole was getting 2-3 people tops.   So I decided I would still tape without people..get all set up and the microphone is all messed up- someone jacked up the pins in the transmitter, so it's basically toast.   In any case, I taught and taped the entire class and it went very well- I really nailed it - choreo, coaching, technique and I did not have any tech issues!! YAY!   Granted this camera app is lower resolution, so it's a bit grainy- but you can still see me, see what I am doing and the audio was perfect.  However, not sure I can submit a video without participants- Oh GEEZ!!!  I've sent out messages to see if I can get an answer- but so far, nothing.

So in order to be safe vs, sorry- Gediz has once again offered his class for me to teach tomorrow morning and I'm going to do it so that I can get this done once and for all, I hope.   I really can't even express what a God send Gediz has been, he really has stepped up to the plate to help me out and to help out other instructors who were in my training- he is the epitome of "one tribe"!  Wendy has also offered me to teach her Sunday 7am class at the Y and although the offer is wonderful- I'm just not sure I can do a 7am class...but suppose if push comes to shove I would.  Fingers crossed that tomorrow's is great and/or I find out I can submit tonight's taping.

I am LOVING Body Combat- it's so much fun and I still am not sick of my music from release 56!  Although I am getting anxious to start learning release 57- we will be launching in a few weeks and I need to learn!!!  I also need to learn the new Body Pump- welcome to the world of dual releases- I truly do not know how the superstars do it that teach 5+ formats!!

What's next?  Well, I am looking ahead and am pretty sure that I will be doing something in December- it will either be AIM 2 for Body Pump  OR possibly Body Flow training- they are both the same weekend and I'm torn between the two options.  The Y in Mt View will be getting Body Flow, but the director said that existing instructors are taking the training and will have classes- basically there won't be any room for me to have a class..but she is bringing on Body Combat in January and will need instructors- so thinking of getting my foot in that door and maybe it will work into a Body Flow class- at least subbing!  I'm excited - really feeling the fitness and loving it!

Today, I taught 4 classes:  2 spin classes, 1 Body Pump and 1 Body Combat.  The Body Pump class was at the PAFY and I always get such a warm welcome from the 1040am crew.  I had multiple people say "we just love when you come sub"  "we just love when you teach"- GOSH, talk about making my day.  Then after class, one member told me that I inspired her to add a bit more weight to her bar and she felt the difference in a good way- she was excited!   I had a relatively new pumper come up to me afterwards to go over some moves and get feedback- she said that although she's only taken 3-4 classes, I'm the first instructor that she's taken Pump from where she felt she could approach me afterwards.   Such awesome feedback, really made me happy.    The members at PAFY really are special people, I'm growing to love this facility more and more.  I'm also loving the team spirit among the instructors here.

Very exciting- I taught a line dance class this week across the Dumbarton Bridge at FIT@PRC- I've taught here before, they are managed by Mobius Fit (used to be managed by Fitness 101) and the class was such a success that they are going to have me do an 8 class series in October and then finish it off with a field trip to the Saddle Rack.  HOW. EXCITING!  

So things are coming together in the fitness arena.  I am still working on weight loss plan and logging my points, trying to eat right- I'm not perfect, but I'm a work in progress.

Feeling Ready...

I find this so very strange that I am NOT freaking out about taping my Body Combat assessment tomorrow.   How is that possible that I'm not a crazy case- of course I still have to get a good night's sleep, so hopefully that happens and I'm not plagued by nightmares of everything that can go wrong.  But seriously, I feel ready- I'm not expecting perfection, I'm not even expecting a good enough video to submit- if I get one tomorrow, great but I still plan to tape two more times.  I supposed I don't feel the urgency in tomorrow's taping.  I know what I need to do.  I know the choreography, that I don't even have to second guess - the dear Lord has blessed me with musicality and a memory to remember moves that go to beats.   Thankfully too because it would be so tragic to love music and dance as much as I do and then not be able to put the two together in harmony.

I am taping at my home club- Gold's Mt. View, so I know that some regular members who take my Body Pump class will be there, I have already team taught twice with Gediz.  He has been AMAZING and such a great supporter and so giving of his time and of his class- he's letting me teach his class so that I can tape, that's just so awesome.   He's given me great feedback each week and has complimented me on the improvements week to week.   I've already tested my phone and know what setting it needs to be so that it doesn't stop taping and/or the battery goes kaput.   I figured out why my "dry run" taping had some silent sections (very brief)- concluded that it must have been an email notification coming in or something like that- so my friend Butch suggested that I put the phone in airplane mode - brilliant! 

I pretty much went through the music everyday in Hawaii, mentally going through the choreography, I even caught myself going to sleep at night doing the choreography to the music, but the music was just in my head.  It brought back a memory from my 24 hour fitness days teaching Body Pump 10 years ago- one member Kevin always took my class in San Carlos and there was this one time I showed up at the gym- no power in the Group X room- which meant no music, no microphone..but it didn't mean no class.  I wasn't going to turn away a room full of eager Body Pumpers, so I taught the complete class without the music and Kevin came up to me afterwards and said that he heard the music and he felt the music with the way that I had taught class.  He said that everything was right on the beat...crazy, but that was a serious WOW moment for me in my teaching career.  I feel that way now with the Body Combat music- I do feel it, I know when moves are changing and I know when the music is changing.  

So here we go..915am Body Combat Gold's Mt View-  "take one" of my video assessment and I'm not worried, I am a perfectionist and I have three attempts to get this as "perfect" as I can for submission.  Take Two will be Friday at 530pm at Gold's Santa Clara and then Saturday at 915am again at Gold's Mt View and both of those I will be flying solo as I am subbing those for Gediz and Nicole. Although, I do hope to see some instructor friends and one or both tapings.

Off to bed and I'm going to dream Body Combat- I'm sure.  Two awesome classes to start the day and then I get to play the rest of the weekend- Yippee-kai-ay! 

Not what we necessary wanted..but exactly what we needed!

This vacation has been great- not necessarily what we thought it would be initially.  I think we both had the plans that we would spend each day poolside enjoying the warmth of the sun and then spend each evening dancing the night away at Nashville Waikiki.  Not a bad plan and it does combine the best of our two favorite vacation past times.   But as we often find out, things don't always go the way we plan them to go.   And honestly, that is really OK.

Day one, hubby's sunscreen didn't do its job- I think we have determined that it was his older bottle of sunscreen and was probably expired- he has two newer bottles that expire in 2015- so we're guessing they have a shelf life of 2 years and his first bottle was definitely older than that.  As a result, day two by the pool could not happen and day three was a partial day in the sun and then we moved to an area where he could be in the shade and I still had sun.  It worked and it's all good.  Tomorrow is day four and we have our all day tour to Pearl Harbor- well not all day, but 7am until 2pm roughly.  We might even then do a segway tour in the late afternoon.  I'm a bit nervous about doing this because I am not that coordinated- but we'll see.  I would like to try it!

Yesterday we met another Les Mills instructor for lunch with his wife- completely impromptu thanks to Facebook and seeing who else is on Oahu at the same time.  Butch was part of my AIM 1 training in Vegas, so it was nice to meet up for lunch with his wife.  We had a lovely time at Duke's on the beach and finished off the fabulous meal with a shared Hula Pie.  Then last night we met up with one of my Mercy classmates, Lani and her husband Joey at the Moana Surfrider's Beach Bar and had a very nice visit.  It just amazes me at how you can meet up with someone you spent 4 years of High School with- you were friendly to each other over those 4 years, but weren't necessarily "friends"...however, now 30 years later we are all the same- we are all equals- we have all lived life and have our stories, our battles and our battle scars of life.  We have all had life events impact us for good and for bad and it's all of those experience that bring us all together.  I love it!   It was a lovely night.

We have attempted to go dancing twice at Nashville Waikiki and both nights were bust.  The first night we did get some dancing in and we were the only ones dancing for a bit and seems that some locals had issues with us being the spotlight- it got oddly competitive and uncomfortable, so we left.  Last night, the place was just entirely too redneck and not very dance friendly- the floor is small to begin with and some locals were dancing wrecklessly.  Its ok...we left and came back to the hotel.  We didn't even try tonight since we have an early morning tomorrow. 

One more full day and one more night, then it's home and 56 days until the next vacation...a cruise which is our most favorite type of vacation!! Can't wait!