A few days ago one of the personal trainers at our gym (the one from the meeting about my goals) handed us some slips of paper.

“You guys need to try spin class. Here’s a coupon for a free one.”

We didn’t think much of it and didn’t plan to go. Kepa and I both love to bike but we like to bike outside on actual bikes. Spinning around and around in a room with an instructor shouting at us as we go nowhere doesn’t sound like fun. We threw away the slips of paper and forgot about it.

The next day.

Trainer: “Have you signed up for a spin class yet? It’s a great workout. I lost 18kg doing 2 classes a week.”

Us: “Um, well no. We are busy weeknights doing dance classes, we are learning to salsa. That goes through March.”

Trainer: “What about Friday? What are you doing Friday?”

Us: “Ummmm, well, nothing really. I guess we could do it.”

Trainer: “Great! Let’s get you signed up for Friday! I promise you one class and you will be hooked and want to do it every week!”

While I understand his goal as a gym owner is to earn more money from these classes that normally cost extra, I highly doubted that this would actually be the case. But I’m always, always up for trying something new. Spin classes have always intimidated me a bit so I’ve avoided them in the past. But I’m embracing my new attitude of I can do anything! and figured I would give it a try.

Last night was the class. It was pretty confusing in the beginning since we couldn’t hear or understand our instructor when she was explaining how the class works and she never explained how to set up the bikes properly. Because of that we fumbled through the class trying to adjust and work through it as best as we could.

I’ll be honest – I didn’t really like it.

The bike was majorly uncomfortable to me and that’s coming from someone who has spent plenty of time on bicycles. I thought I had set my bike up right but maybe I didn’t. No one corrected me or helped me so I’m not sure if that was a problem or not. Almost immediately after the workout started my lady bits were killing me. It was uncomfortable and I tried to remember what advice I had gotten on my Facebook page to avoid that exact situation. I couldn’t remember so I suffered through the 45 minutes. I was so happy for the hills because they gave my parts a small break from the torture device.

About halfway through the workout my right foot fell asleep. I shook it off and kept going but it made the workout even less pleasant than it already was. Add to that the fact that even though I had secured it my handlebars moved out of my reach each time we stood to go up a hill.

Besides the uncomfortable equipment, I didn’t enjoy the class in general. It’s much, much less fun to pretend you are going up a hill in the wind than to actually do it. It’s much, much less fun to cycle hard and go nowhere. The class made me want to be outside on my bike exploring the world instead of listening to pop music under a disco ball. I promise, the disco ball does not make the workout “fun.” Side note: Zumba doesn’t need disco balls to be fun. But they are fun when Zumba is involved.

Some bright points of the spin class: it was a killer workout. I burned 600 calories in 45 minutes. My legs were completely feeling it when I left. I sweated a lot and probably lost five pounds in water weight. I felt great afterwards even if I didn’t love the workout while I was doing it. I was unsure of myself before I tried the class but afterwards I once again remembered that I can do anything. I’m awesome. That’s always a great feeling to have after trying something new or post workout.

We saw the trainer again after the class and he asked how we liked it. We were polite and all but I doubt we will be doing it again any time soon. But long bike rides like this one ? Definitely.