Day 26: It’s Spin Class Y’all, First Class

This morning, in order to change up the routine a little, we decided to do a Spin Class.  For those of you who may be wondering what that is, it’s where you go into a hot room with a bunch of stationary bicycles and you ride while someone in the front of the room screams at you sayings like “turn it up” or “let’s go” or “faster, faster, faster” for an hour. While I have gone to several of these classes this is the first time with this particular instructor.  She was a small middle aged Asian lady and I thought, how tough could she be?

She started by basically telling us the songs she would use were for tempo and we needed to keep up.  Instead of song names she identified the songs according to beat.  You know, “130 beats per minute” or “150 beats per minute” and so on. Each bike is equipped with a knob where you have the option of turning the resistance up so as to make it harder to peddle. She made it clear that in her class there was no option in fact her exact words were: “You have no choice.”

The best part about this little Asian lady was she had a southern accent and kept yelling, “We’re going up that hill y’all,” and “Now we’re racing y’all,” or my personal favorite “No slacking cause your only cheating yourself, y’all.”  If I learned anything in this “class” was the instructor loves the word y’all.

For an hour she encouraged us to “push yourself” through the pain.  Did I mention she was wearing a shirt that had the slogan “No Pain, No Gain.”  “If y’all ain’t breathing hard, y’all ain’t working hard enough.”  You could use this lady to torture prisoners, seriously.  Five minutes into her screaming “turn that knob up, y’all” you could probably get anyone to tell you anything just to make it stop.

What does it mean when the pain you feel spreads across your chest and down your left arm? Could this little Asian lady is giving me a heart attack? I will not lie, it was brutal.  She was ruthless and made you feel like you had to keep up.  What reward would I get for enduring this kind of hell I wondered?

I didn’t have to wonder long.  At noon Kelly and I boarded a plane for Boston.  Since she flies a lot she got upgraded.  There was no upgrade for me.  When we separated the lady behind us insisted I take her first class seat so we Kelly and I could fly together. It’s people like that who renew your faith in humanity. 

When you go from being brutalized early in the morning by a sadistic spin instructor who only wants to see you in pain to someone handing you their first class seat you really have to stop and think. You know what? Life is really pretty good.

Daily Recap:

Matt & Kelly: 1 hour of spin class, y’all!