You spin me right 'round...

Lately, I've given the spinning classes at my gym, called RPM, a shot. My weekly fitness routine has been getting a bit stale and in an effort to change it up and confuse/trick my body into burning more calories, I hopped into the saddle.

I walked in to my first class and quickly realized I had no idea how to adjust the bike for my particular body. I fiddled with raising the seat, moving the handlebars back and forth, and shifting my weight in the seat. I pedaled a little. My first though, OUCH. Fucking OUCH. My ass...or more specifically, my Sits bones! Oddly though, as I continued on in my first class, the ass pain became less and less of an issue. But perhaps that's because I was close to death for most of the time.

"Your RPMs should be at about 130-140 right now!", Amelia belted out over the pulsating techno music. I looked down to see if I was within the range, because I felt like I was really giving it my all. 97. Really?! Only 97!?! Holy shit, how would I ever get my RPMs up to 130, I silently asked myself as I fought off another wave of nausea. Clearly, I'm not really cut out for this spinning thing, I thought. I should just stick to dance. So easy that would have been. But my competitive side will never let me give up that easily.

I gave it another chance the next week, this time with Michele teaching. I adjusted the bike as best I could and then climbed on. Immediately, I was reminded of the first ten minutes of my first class with a jolt of Sits bones pain. But thankfully, Michele's teaching style differs greatly from Amelia's, and I made it through without seeing black at the edges of my vision.

I spoke to Michele after class about the pain in the general nether-region and how best to deal with it, and here's what she had to offer, verbatim: "After a while, you build up a tolerance. You sort of...go numb down there." Now, I'm no expert or anything, but I'm guessing "down there" is not really somewhere you want to go numb. I'm just sayin'...

Anyways, I've kept up with RPM for several weeks now, and I have to admit, I'm really starting to like it. It's a HELL of a workout. I always end up totally drenched and breathless afterwards. I took class from Bryce tonight, and it was the best one yet. I actually managed to get my RPMs up to 128! Almost within the target range for one tiny part of the class! LOL! I'm making progress! Woot!