Nothing better

Let me begin by saying that, despite my late work hours, I really do love being woken up by the sun at 5:40.

It helped me today.

Now let me back up.

Five years ago, when I was a much thinner little lady, I loved, loved, loved my gym: the WAC, or Wilmington Athletic Club. It was so awesome, and my favorite thing was the kickboxing class. I wasn't any good at it, but it gave me a great workout.

When I moved to South Hampton Roads, one of the first things I did was look for a gym that had kickboxing (with, ahem, bags; none of this kicking the air stuff). I couldn't find one at all. I even called personal boxing gyms but what they offered wasn't what I was looking for.

So I was thrilled when I discovered that The Gym Downtown (less than a block away from my new apartment) had actual punching bags and a boxing class. I decided to give it a whirl this morning. The class started at 6:30. I set my alarm for 6.

But the glorious sun woke me up at 5:40 and so I was able to arrive nice and early. Max (truly, it seems, one of the coolest personal trainers - though I will always love the YMCA's Carol Ann) put me on the treadmill since I was there early. Then the class, which was brutal and awesome. There were only three of us, which seems to be the norm, and we started by jumping rope, then did circuits of different jabs for a half hour. Then we did circuits of other brutal exercises (you should have seen me look at Max with wide eyes as he demonstrated stepping up on a bench that came to my upper, upper thigh and then demonstrated the modified pull-ups). But I succeeded, and he seemed impressed that this big girl could work out. He was extremely encouraging and the other two folks in the class were great, too.

So I signed up for this great (and relatively cheap, compared to the Y) gym. Though if this 6:30 schedule continues (and I actually really liked it), I foresee many afternoon naps in my future.