Fitness Challenge: Cycle Bar

Although real estate prices in Park Slope, Brooklyn, have almost reached Manhattan levels, many Slope residents are still reluctant to pay Manhattan prices at restaurants, bars and boutiques.

I had avoided Cycle Bar, a Soul Cycle type boutique spin studio basically because I'm cheap, but I jumped all over a Living Social deal that offered 5 spin classes for $25.

Cycle Bar has one spin studio, with Schwinn AC Sport bikes. You have to add resistance by feel, not a number, which can be frustrating or liberating, depending on how OCD you are.

Shoe rental is included in the class price, and an instructor helps you set up your bike the first time. Like Soul Cycle, rides are full body work outs, with small hand weights used for about 10 minutes of a 45 minute class.

The studio is fairly bare bones; there is a water cooler, a bathroom and lavender face wipes for freshening up for the walk home, but that's pretty much it. Forget a hair tie at your own peril.

The 25 bikes have a good amount of space between them, so there is little danger of your neighbor's flying sweat hitting you, and you can move your arms without smacking another bike.

Now if only they charged lower prices..

Vegetarian Reuben Love: a lifetime in the making

In the 1970s, when I shopped in Manhattan with my mother, we always had lunch at Lord & Taylor or B Altman’s.

I remember once ordering a Reuben sandwich. It sounded really cool to me.  Trouble was, I hated pumpernickel bread, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese.

Then there was the thousand island dressing.  This is essentially mayonnaise and ketchup, both of which I’ve always despised.

So I customized. I asked for a Reuben on rye, with no dressing, sauerkraut or cheese. The waitress said, 

‘So you want a corned beef sandwich.’

‘No,' I insisted. 'A Reuben.’

Flash forward a few years.  Ok, decades.

As a vegetarian, I will never order corned beef. But I love sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and pumpernickel bread.

So I just had to get the veggie Reuben at Thistle Hill Tavern. This sandwich is made with beets, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and excellent Orwashers rye bread.

I still hate mayo and ketchup, and I’m not sure what condiments were on the sandwich, but it was a glorious, messy delight. And if that waitress from long ago want to claim it’s not really a Reuben, so be it.

Fitness Challenge: M Gym

M Gym on the Upper East Side offers a great way for Manhattanites to work out for less. The gym has almost everything you need at a reduced rate. The 2 floor gym (you have to use external stairs to get between the floors) has an array of cardio equipment and free weights, and classes ranging from boot camp to yoga. You pay for what you use here; a month at the gym, a pack of classes, personal training. There are community classes at a reduced rate, and personal training for 2 that lets you and a buddy work out for less. The small gym has limited hours; you can only work out till 5 on weekends, and there is just one shower in each tiny locker room. But everything at the gym is clean and functional and if you don’t need all the bells and whistles, you can stay fit for less. The one thing it doesn’t offer is spin, though right downstairs, the boutique spin studio Flywheel has its intense classes. The 2 places have a relationship; Flywheel customers can shower at M gym, so gym members might be able to cut a deal on the occasional spin class.

Fitness Challenge: JCC in Manhattan

The JCC on the Upper West Side has facilities for the whole family, from a nursery school to programs for seniors. While this all in one approach can sometimes shortchange areas, the fitness center is state of the art. There is a huge pool, two gyms, and classes galore. About the only negative is the slow elevator, so if you use the locker rooms, on the 5th floor, you might need to run up and down the stairs. But think of it as the start of your aerobic workout. The locker rooms are spotless and loaded with thick, soft towels, lotions and soaps, and cotton balls and Q-tips (though why do you have to ask for a tampon?). I took a spin class, which comes with free cycling shoes, and nice bikes where you can keep track of your calories and RPMs. There are also classes in yoga, martial arts, strength and conditioning and Zumba. Pre and post natal classes, teen fitness classes and senior classes address the needs of the whole family: a rooftop playground helps kids keep active.

Baseball v Football, NYC Style

Baseball is back in NYC, but football hasn’t gone away.

The NFL Shop at Draft is open in midtown Manhattan through April 30, and on Thursday, April 12, the pop-up store hosts a Ladies Shopping Night.

This is the NFL with manicures and designer bags, the way football is meant to be. You can also get official NFL gear and clothes from Nike and Under Armour.

The store is at 1095 Avenue of the Americas, between 41st and 42nd Streets.

You can meet NFL Players and Fashion Stylist Renee Reese, buy the latest Cuce Shoes, and get a free manicure and massage with a $50 purchase.

Designer bags from Anastasio Moda will be 25% off Thursday only. Get one to carry to Citi Field, where the NY Mets are currently in first place.

Follow @officialnflshop to get more information on the pop-up shop.

Fitness Challenge: Day 38

New York Health & Racquet Club offers squash and racquetball at many of its Manhattan gyms. You can also stay fit through swimming, or one of the aqua exercise classes.

The gym on East 50th St has a pool, hot tub, and eucalyptus shower. Not usual amenities at NY gyms.

The gym feels a bit claustrophobic, with spiral staircases in the locker rooms leading to the shower and pool.

And the workout spaces are hardly state of the art. No bosu balls or rows of free weights here. The cardio machines don't have individual screens, nor do they connect to the large hanging TVs. If you want to watch TV, you just read the captions.

Staffed locker rooms offer deodorant, mouthwash and both tampons and pads.

But the clean, serene, and empty pool make this a worthy mid-town gym.

Fitness Challenge: Day 34

Private Benjamin was one of my favorite movies; I love Goldie Hawn, her name was Judy, and she was whipped into shape at boot camp.

You can live out your Marine Corps fantasies in midtown Manhattan and get into amazing shape at Warrior Fitness Boot Camp.

A loft has been converted into an adult playground, or torture chamber, depending on your point of view. An obstacle course has progressively higher walls to scramble over, a rope to climb and a short tunnel that you crawl through on your belly.

Surrounding this is a track where you run, lunge or side shuffle, sometimes carrying weights. An actual Marine, in camo, exhorts you to run faster, hold your arms higher.

But all in the name of fun. These are nice guy Marines (we are, of course, paying for the privilege to be motivated by them).

And there is great camaraderie in the group. I am introduced to the 'squad' and every grunts their name.

The hour-long workout kicks my butt.

Fitness Challenge: Day 32

Gold's Gym has a very user-friendly website, where you can see at a glance the day's classes for a particular gym. The midtown Manhattan gym has a bare-bones locker room, more like a Y, with several floors of weight, machines, cardio equipment and exercise studios.

They have a trademarked Bodypump class, using barbells and a set playlist. Two instructors run the class, one demonstrating moves and the other controlling the playlist. But neither seems all that concerned with form. Maybe the class works better for those who already know what's going on; I seem to be the only newbie.

That being said, we go for the full, intense hour, with no pause to get a sip of water.

Fitness Challenge: Day 31

Manhattan Plaza Health Club has it all: a huge pool, a climbing gym, several studios for classes, and separate floors for weight training and cardio.

What it doesn't have is towels.

That is, free towels. You have to rent one. This ordinarily wouldn't be a problem, but my daughter lost her lock and took mine, so I ran to the gym with a credit card, a Metrocard, and a change of clothes, which I left unlocked. No towel.

And the amazing class I took, where we used gliders to increase the intensity of the core work, left me dripping with sweat.

No one in the class had a towel to mop up his sweat, so the floor was a puddle and pretty gross.

I had to shower, so I shivered while I air dried and used my credit card to buy a new lock on the way home.

Fitness Challenge: Day 24

The Fitness Collective in Cobble Hill is a tiny gym with one studio and space for personal training. The Zumba class here is packed with women from their 20s to 60s, all moving to salsa, tango and club music.

A couple of friends from my walking group accompany me to the class, where we spin and step and carefully avoid our fellow Zumba enthusiasts. One woman consistently spins in the opposite direction and knocks into others.

But the class is a full cardio workout, with no stops for a sip of water or towel wipe. The energetic instructor has several pounds of jewelry on, on his wrists, in his ears, around his neck, but he never seems to break a sweat.

We power walk over from Park Slope; in Brooklyn, a lot of people never think to walk from neighborhood to neighborhood, as you do in Manhattan, but it is only a 15 minute walk.

Fitness Challenge: Day 18

One of the perks of travel is staying in a hotel with a fitness center. Some hotels have tiny dark gyms but the Omni Berkshire Place in midtown Manhattan has a bright sunny gym with a couple of cool touches.

The gym is on the 17th floor, accessible by only some elevators (I thought there was a cruel joke when I got into an elevator that stopped before floor 17). But once I got there, I was taken with the bright, sunny space and my favorite elliptical machine, ready to go with a towel and its own TV.

If you forgot your headphones, you can use one of the pairs there. And for a post-workout snack, there was a bowl of fruit, with bananas, apples and oranges.

Best of all, there is a balcony across the hall with lounge chairs. On summer days, it is a huge draw. But even in a NYC winter, hit by global warming, the balcony was ideal for a cool-down.

The gym also has weights, stability balls, treadmills and mats.