Spinning

Ben had this deal at work where they would pay for part of a gym membership, if he kept a log of when he worked out. So he got a membership maybe a year ago. And he went....oh...roughly... twice. In like nine months. What can I say? The man loves to veg on the couch.

I was really jealous of his membership, and I was busting my butt on my rapidly deteriorating treadmill at home every day. So I finally asked him if I could have his membership. He readily agreed, so I went in and switched it from him to me. This was in November or so, I think.

Anyways, normal treadmills are so EASY compared to my crappy one. (I hauled the crappy one to the dumpster. Much to the chagrin of my kids' Judgmental OT. She used to have Micah walk backwards on it. But I can't stand having stuff in my house that I don't use. I have to get it out, ASAP. It's a bit of an obsession with me.) I feel like I'm jogging on a cloud when I'm on a nice treadmill.

For a really long time, I just went in and jogged six days a week, and it was all good. Then I went to a spinning class with my dad, and I was HOOKED. I've gone to spinning before, and I liked it, but I wasn't in love with it. For some reason, this time, it stuck. Actually, I think I know the reason, now that I think of it. I think, when my dad showed me the part of the monitor that shows how many calories you burn, that's when it hit me how much I love spinning. I burn between 450 and 500 calories in just an hour. I only burn 150 calories when I jog for half an hour. If I jogged for an hour (which would be SO HARD), I would still not burn as many calories as I do in an hour of sitting on my butt and pedaling. Sitting on my butt? Yes, please. Mind you, it's not easy butt-sitting, but like I said, way easier than jogging for an hour.

I'm so obsessed. My heart is bound to beat right out my untrimmed chest, as Train would say. I get sooooo excited when it's Spinning Day. I go Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. I actually WAKE UP EARLY on Saturdays so that I can get to spinning class. That's saying something. Because I REALLY love sleeping in. And then I jog on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Just because I don't want to lose where I've come in my jogging, you know? It's taken me so long to feel comfortable jogging, that I don't want to lose it. It's like if someone asked me to change from skiing to snowboarding. No thanks - I spent way too many years perfecting my skiing technique. I'm not throwing that away. You know what I mean? I was worried that cutting into my jogging by half would make jogging more difficult for me, but the strengthening of my legs through spinning has actually improved my jogging, which is nice.

Spinning is a blast. They turn on black lights in the spinning room, so you don't have to see peoples' nasty sweat flowing off of them (spinning is a sweaty business). I look really tan, and my teeth look really white. So I like those black lights. :) And there's such a sense of camraderie within the class. People yell and whistle and bellow smart-aleck remarks to the teacher. When we complete a particularly hard hill (heck, all hills are hard; let's face the truth here), you hear everyone yelping in relief and see everyone sitting up in their "saddle," wiping the sweat off their face with their towels, gulping gallons of water, and "jogging" (standing up and pedaling) to give their legs a break.

I've never drunk so much water in my life. You just can't get enough of it in spinning class. I usually go through two bottles of water in one class. When I come out of the room, you can see where my fat rolls are on my stomach, because my sweat has made lines above and below each roll. Sad. :) But that's why I'm there, right? To hopefully make those rolls get smaller. But if they don't, oh well. One of our instructors isn't a perfect size 3, but she's strong. And she's really funny. Which is all that matters, right?

Each teacher has a different taste in music. I often sit there and make a list of what I would play if I was a spinning teacher. It would be so awesome. Well, I might be the only one who thinks it's awesome. Not many people like Prince. Whose real, given first name is Prince. I just found that out today.