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Tropical Depression: Indoor cycling in the armpit of New England
For trademark reasons, the indoor cycling workout at my gym is called Cycle 60 instead of Spinning. It’s hard to not like the workout since it is basically riding a bike while listening to music without the hassle of potholes and traffic. Since I really miss riding a bike, it's a fair substitute for the winter. One thing that interests me is that in a class of about 18 people only two or three wear what I guess I would call “gym shoes”. The rest of them wear shoes with built-in cleats that attach to the pedals. I have owned a few pairs of these shoes but it did not occur to me to wear them for stationary biking. These people take their indoor stationary cycling very seriously. I am clearly out of my league.
The variability of the instructors was initially jarring and disconcerting. In my first class the instructor was so good at her “bike ride” instructions that in the second class, when the teacher yelled “yeeeeeeah” into her headset microphone every minute and a half or so, I considered leaving. The musical variety is also a roll of the dice- will tonight be Britney Spears and the Jonas Brothers or The Decemberists and Joe Pernice? Will it be the woman who likes to talk about sports and her kids or the one who leads us on the long kick ass rides with the lights off?
Of course it is the personalities in the group that help me pass the time. There is Ernie in the front row…he talks a LOT. To the instructor. All through the work out. I also think he is some kind of black market cd peddler…he’s always got some cd or another he’s shilling to some of his “regular” customers before the class. One woman in particular looks very sorry that she ever entertained his hard sell. Personally, I am glad to be off his radar (it must be my gym shoes). There are two girls who never stop talking to each other and pedal at only the most leisurely pace no matter what the workout is. I would not be surprised if they showed up with snacks.
While I do enjoy the workout sometimes I get frustrated and distracted by the other riders. Mostly it is the constant talking of some folks that I have a hard time tuning out. I don’t know why people feel like they HAVE GOT to get the last word, the sassy final comment. On bad days it infuriates me. To channel my irritation I put together a list of rules for my ideal indoor cycling class but when I looked at it I realized that it came down to two basic rules:
No Talking
No Singing Along
Which can be further distilled to "No Making Unnecessary Noise", which actually covers a few other things that weren’t on my list. Winner.