Adventures in Spinning and the Nasty Gnomes

There is that saying that you have to hit rock bottom to want to climb back up.  I am currently standing at the bottom of a sheer rock wall with no chinks I can see for hand or foot holds, no ropes to climb, no elevators or escalators.  the only way I can climb this wall is with sheer guts, hard work, sacrifice, commitment and determination. 

I will share, I am 5'3, 38 years old and I weigh a whopping 234!  Gasp!  Awful, terrible, but I am putting it out there for anyone who might be reading this that feels like they have let themselves go to the point that there is no hope left even trying.  I am going to try.  Watch me!  I am so upset and disgusted!  I want that scale to say 134.

SO, I have heard that spinning is a great workout and burns calories.  I need both.  I tried spinning on Tuesday, and OMG talk about humiliation!

The pros:
Fantatic loud music
Dark room
No one looks at me this get Many points
Everyone is sweaty and smelly just like me
I can go at my own pace
Nice intructors that tell you to go at your own pace

The cons:
The Gnomes
It kills
It is so hard you want to cry
The humiliation

Ok so the Pros outweigh the cons because the cons as you can see is just me whining.  There is no whining at rock bottom allowed if you want to climb that wall. 

The Gnomes you might ask what are they?  Well, you may have experienced this, when you try to do a lift on the bike you suddenly feel, or I do, a sharp stabbing pain in your quads as if someone has stabbed a knife into them.  It is the Gnomes, the spinning Gnomes!  They live in the spin room and torture all people that come in there and stab their quads with Gnome knifes when they do a lift.  Ok, maybe not, maybe the Gnomes are just a story, I created to make myself feel better about my pathetic quads.

The short of it, is that there are more pros than cons.  Now I am a pathetic spinner, it is humiliating, but if I want to get out of lumpy state, I have to let myself feel humiliated or I won't try.  I love that it is in a dark room, it really allows you to focus on yourself and get in a sort of spinning zen.  I love that you can do it at your own pace.  Everyone else is doing all the lifts, but I do what I can and it is OK and no one is looking at me, it is in the dark and they are all in too much pain too.  I can adjust my tension my way.  There are no numbers, so you don't feel badly about yourself if your cranking it up is different that the perfect skinny person next to you. 

Does it hurt, yep.  After both classes have I felt like I might puke, collapse and have my legs not be able to walk.  But, it feels good, because it is a workout.  A workout I need.

I highly recommend spinning and I am going to continue it Tuesday and Thursday at 9:30am at the Y.  Come join me!!

Watch out for those Gnomes though, they are nasty and mean!