Spinning! (POTD 5/20)

No, you're right. I am not in that picture. That's mostly because of the following reasons:
1) the class takes place at 7:45 in the morning - neither I, nor any of the other peeps in that class, want to have their picture taken at that time of day.
2) the people in the above picture aren't really in a spinning class, or trust me, they would be WAY sweatier, WAY more red-faced and looking way less excited about life - nobody wants to have their picture taken in that condition.
3) the class that I attend doesn't use the overhead lights - its lit by a christmas light strand going aroud the room and one big window - thus rendering photo-taking difficult.
and finally
4) Trust me that sometimes its all I can do to stay on the bike and keep breathing, let alone try to also take a photo.

As I mentioned a while (weeks!) ago, I have started taking a "Spinning" class at the UCLA Wooden Center.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, Spinning is a class that takes place on a stationary bike. There are 20+ stationary bikes and an instructor facing the riders (also on a bike). For the length of the class, you bicycle through a number of different "types" of terrain or workouts, using increased/decreased resistance to simulate hills and flats. You often alternate between sitting on the seat and standing in the pedals to change which muscle groups you are using.

I decided to go to spinning class because there were no other classes offered early in the mornings (e.g. before school). This disappoints me, as there were some AWESOME aerobics classes at Baylor that started at 6am, kicked your butt good and still left you with time to get showered and to class. But, after being encouraged by some friends, I made it to the spinning class and was pleasantly surprised.

First, spinning is really hard work, especially if you do it right. Aside from my marathon training, I have never sweat this much in a workout in my life. Literally, some people have puddles under their bikes (I don't, because I'm glistening not dripping.... :)). Second, it is actually kind of fun - even though in real life I would never go up hills like the ones we have to simulate in spin class, and even though I hate racing, when the instructor gets you going up a steep hill at 80% of your max ability, or when you are in an all-out sprint, its actually kind of fun (miserable, yes, but also fun).


Some of my friends have been doing Zumba, and I think I'd like that also, but for the rest of this quarter, Spinning is the deal (and I think it has been additionally responsible for helping me meet my weight-loss goals/pace - to date 15lbs lost!).