Take RL out for a Spin…

For over a year and a half, Priscilla has been taking spin classes. Sometimes she’ll go as many as 2 times a week and do her own spin session at home. So after many months of false promises that I’ve made telling her I would go, I finally did.

Our local gym has a Monday night Spin Class and the instructor that teaches on that day is supposed to be the best there is. We arrived at the gym, at least 10 mins before the class just to make sure we picked out our bikes. Priscilla pretty much held my hand through the processes of picking out a bike and rolling it over to the area where we’d be having the class.

Class starts and our instructor, Gilbert has us do some warm ups. The first 5 minutes of the class was torture! His idea of a warm up was an all out sprint! Anyhow, this class was going to be 60 minutes long and all I could think about was having some french fries at the local Hat restaurant (meeting a friend after class).

Gilbert had us alternate between tensions, position and effort, mind you he was having us do all this with the beat of the music he was playing. I also have to say that his choice of music was pretty cool.
Anyhow, 15 minutes of the class, I was broken. Yup much like how Dog Whisperer, Cesar Milan likes to do…exercise a dog until they are so worn out they become submissive…well Gilbert was the spin class equivalent of Cesar and I was some puffy Chihuahua with a bad attitude. By 20 minutes into it, I started to appreciate the class. I then thought about how this would be so practical for me on the trail.

While I was spinning, I was imagining certain parts of trails I ride and a certain tension represented a hill or a single track. What was cool about it was the fact that the spin bike is basically a single speed bike. Which meant, if he had us add tension, it was like climbing a hill on the SS.

45 minutes into it, my legs are burning, but I was having a great time! Just think of it as a kid that didn’t want to try an activity, but ended up loving it…ya that was me.

Priscilla stated before the class that it was going to be tough, but it was also rewarding at the end. I have to tell you, she was absolutely right. As much as I hated the idea, I can really see and appreciate how this class would make me a better rider. It also made more sense to me how Priscilla became such a good rider…it was the spin class! I’m actually looking forward to the next class and have been asking her when the next one is.