I’ve been feeling a bit bored with the walking, feeling like I am not pushing hard enough. So when an opportunity falls in your lap, you take it right?
At work last week I opened up an e-mail from Cindy, our awesome super hero rock star IT girl that also understands accounting. Cindy has an alter ego – she teaches a lot of fitness classes. When I say a lot - I mean 13 a week on top of working her day job and having 2 little ones 3 and under.
Anyway, Cindy invited me to her new RPM Spin class. My only knowledge of spin classes was seeing people come out dripping wet when they were done. That was the closest I had ever been to a spin class. I got no promises from Cindy that she wouldn’t kick my butt; I still told her to sign me up.
I showed up bright and early Saturday morning to an almost full class (including a few other co-workers). We got set up and we were ready to roll. After seeing Cindy in her fitness world I now understand how she stays so calm at work. Her office is about 4 feet away from mine, and I know there are times she should lose it, but she never does. All that exercise must get out any and all aggressions. She is incredible.
The class started and the first 10 minutes were not too bad; then it got harder. When the first song ended and she said we had 9 more to go, I was praying I could pull this off. I slowed down or backed off the resistance when I needed to. The hardest part wasn’t the pedaling it was the seat. I was worried when I was looking at the clock only 15 minutes in but I kept pushing.
There was a point about 25 minutes in I didn’t know if I would make it through the hour, it already hurt to sit. It was as if Cindy was reading my mind; she told us to picture something else. I don’t know why, but my mind immediately went to a vision of me crossing a race finish line.
Recently I have been thinking more and more about wanting to run a race. I have thought about eventually doing a triathlon. This is what I started to visualize every time it got hard. I was doing a lot of visualizing over the remaining 35 minutes. It made me push harder and not give up. I did not get off the bike until the class was over. I kept pedaling until we were done. I had to slow down at times but I kept going.
When the class ended I was sweaty, my butt hurt from the seat, and I was full of so much energy. When it was all over, I realized the seat was the hardest part about the class. I would have thought with my “extra padding” in that area it wouldn’t be so bad, but that wasn’t the case.
(How is Cindy so cute after working out? I’m a big sweaty mess. )
After class I thanked Cindy for inviting me and told her I had fun. If you would have told me 6 weeks ago that I would think a spin class was fun, I would have wondered if my brain had been invaded by aliens. If I didn’t just join the other gym I would probably sign up at Cindy’s gym, because I would love to take more of her classes.
When exactly did working out become fun? Oh yeah, it was when I actually experienced myself doing things that I could never have imagined.
