good sweating = good sleeping

I have found a class that I like to go to at the gym. It's a cycling class. We ride bikes, all together, but don't go anywhere. It feels like real biking though, except that there's no sun on your skin, wind in your hair, scenery changing around you, cars to hit you, gravel to slide on or train tracks to get caught in.

Tommy teaches the class. He provides the pumping 80's or 90's pop music remixes to get us pedaling to a rhythm. He wears a little microphone and shouts out the intervals that he wants us to follow. 30 seconds here, 60 seconds there, speed up or rest. He walks around the class and gives everyone a fist handshake before we start and talks about this being our workout so we should challenge ourselves to get our own results.

The other people in the class seem to vary quite a bit. Some young hot shot people, and some older, nicer people that help cheer you on. There is one girl that must arrive an hour early to reserve her bike location closest to Tommy. She stands when others sit and adds resistance to her pedals when others are taking it off. She takes off her shirt consistently after the first round of intervals. She has a new friend too, who also takes her shirt off at the same time. I usually try to bike faster than the people around me. The big mirror provides a great sense of competition.

At the end of this week's class, I was woozy from working so hard. I haven't worked so hard since high school track practice. We were stretching and Tommy started carrying on about workouts building confidence and contributing to a positive sense of self. He said that no situation in life can be controlled, but that our selves are the only consistent factor in each situation and that we control how we conduct ourselves in those situations. He lost me somewhere around positive sense of self. I am never a consistent factor in my own life... Quite inconsistent, I would say. Well, all I know is that I love listening to Britney Spears, really loud, when I am exercising and that it will feel great someday when I can bike harder than the shirtless woman, even with my shirt on.