The Goal – Week 14

Have you ever heard one of those inspirational stories about couples who have been married for like 70 years?  A surprising number of them start out with the phrase “We didn’t even like each other when we met!”

That’s kinda the story of me and the spin bike too.

When I began working out with Jen, we met at a community center.  It was treadmills and other assorted torture.  When talk of the new studio began, spin bikes may have been mentioned but I dismissed the idea entirely.  Spinning was for skinny, athletic people, right? I mean, despite my appearance, I am quite well learned about diet and exercise.  And I thought I knew a lot about spinning.  And everything I knew led me to a simple answer.

“I ain’t spinning.”

There would be lots of classes at the new studio.  I would do circuit training.  I would do yoga.  I might even dabble in Pilates. But I would not do spinning.  I assumed this would be easy to achieve.

You see, when I thought of spinning, I could only visualize what I had seen on TV.  Huge rooms full of ridiculously sweaty women with a ‘screamy’ trainer.  Hundreds of bikes and not one rider looked happy.  Also none of them were past 30 or overweight.  And they were all wearing seriously the nicest workout clothes. Ya’ll… I still workout in my pajamas.   The message I took from this was that spinning was only accessible to attractive young  women who were already in great shape and spent lots of time shopping at a Nike apparel outlet.

We moved our class from the community center to the new studio right around Thanksgving.  For some reason, I missed the first class. When I arrived for the second, the first instruction I received was “Let me get you set up on this bike”.

“What. The.  ?”

Word of advice here.  Do not argue with your trainer.

I figured that protesting the bike would just earn me more time on the thing so I got fitted and saddled up.  As part of our normal circuit, we rode the bike for 10 minutes.  10 minutes people.

I spent that ten minutes plotting my escape.  We would move.  Perhaps change our names.

Riding the bike was not that big a deal.  But the seat…

The pain in my butt was inescapable.  I could think or talk of nothing else.  It consumed me.

When I mentioned this to Jen (perhaps in a loud screechy voice – the details are fuzzy) she responded ” Oh don’t worry!  The pain goes away after a few classes.”  Obviously I assumed she was lying.  I’m not proud of this.  Jen has never lied to me.  But the pain in my posterior made rational thought impossible.  And even if she was telling the truth, HOW WAS I GOING TO SURVIVE A FEW CLASSES?!?!

It was clear I had to find a solution.  I could not quit my circuit training and the spin bike was going to be part of that training whether I liked it or not.

I did not like it.

So I turned to the only source of help I could think of.  Amazon.com   I ordered a cushy seat cover and hoped for the best.  It helped a bit but I was still sore after every class.

I started taking classes that required 20 minutes on the bike.  And honestly if I had stayed with those classes, I don’t think I would have ever really fallen in love with spinning.  But I decided to just try a 40 minute class.  I have no idea why I did this.  As we rode through the first 20 minutes of that class I was regretting the decision.  That little timer on the bike was mocking me.  How in the world was I going to ride for 20 MORE minutes?

And then I passed minute # 26 and something changed.  My mind was clear for the first time in…I cannot even remember how long.  I was just pedaling past all my nonsense.  All my excuses.  And for the next 14 minutes I loved exercising for the first time in my whole life.

Despite the pain, something was happening on the bike that kept me coming back.  Every time I got on that hateful thing, I felt stronger. You see when you are overweight, almost all exercise reminds you of that excess.  When I was on a treadmill, I felt every extra pound with every step I took.  But on the spin bike, I felt like an athlete.  My weight had no effect on how far or how long I could ride .  That feeling was like a drug.

And after a few more classes, guess what happened?

Yep, the seat stopped hurting me.  Just as Jen said it would.  I even stopped using my seat cover.

It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t instant and,for the most part, it wasn’t much fun.  But here I am four months after my first introduction to that bike.  I’m not anywhere near my goal weight or desired fitness level.  But I can hold my own with anyone who walks into class with me.  And I have never been able to say that about ANYTHING before.