the last spin class i did was in 1998. I made it 11 years without spinning, and this was a good thing for me. i was happy with that. spin class just seemed so utterly pointless. 

last night i settled onto the bike at the gym and hunkered down for a 1.5 hour ride. i’ve done a few of these over the winter and it’s a total mind suck, but i had podcasts and music and was ready to go.

i see a friend and as we’re chatting she starts to pressure me to join the hour long spin class about to start. eventually i give in. after all, i’ve already done 10 minutes on the bike and after the class i won’t have long to finish up.

spinning_classit was as i remembered. fairly tedious. at one point the instructor, who is a super nice guy and a supporter of the bike community, was encouraging folks by yelling ‘this is living!’. I’m sorry. spinning is not living. not even close. i guess what bothers me, is that for a lot of people they feel like spinning is living, but they will not get on a bike outdoors. and that’s just wrong.