I think a lot about stuff before I do it. I read about it. I talk to other people who’ve done what I’m thinking about doing. I Google it. I ask friends about their experiences. I write about it with my Cyber Girls. I think about it while I’m driving home from work, cooking dinner, and when I’m showering. I consider it from multiple angles. Weigh the pros and cons, and then and only then do I decide whether or not to do it myself.

So when one of my Cyber Girls recently fought back her fears of public humiliation and set her booty in the spin saddle for the first time, and then afterward told me she was going TWICE a week even with the added expense of child care, I had to ask myself, “Why haven’t I done this yet?”

Well, the first reason I’d not spun, or gone to Spin, or done spinning, was that I didn’t belong to a gym that offered fitness classes. I know, right? Like what’s the point of a gym membership if they don’t offer classes? Inspired by my Cyber Girl I researched local gyms, visited them and ultimately joined the Rulon Gardner Elite Training Center (ETC). Sounds so fancy and athletic-ey, doesn’t it? (For those who don’t follow wrestling, Rulon Gardner is a two-time Olympic medal winner [Gold in 2000, Bronze in 2004] and he is from this area.)

Now with the first reason I’d not tried a Spin class resolved, I considered my options. One, use this gym just as I had the one I previously belonged to which meant rarely. Two, immerse myself into group fitness classes, including Spin, and get all that I could from my membership. Three, workout at home, which sadly has become a bit of a sore spot with FitHub because my super-cool and well-fitting, black-soled Asics running shoes have done great damage to the wall-to-wall carpet in the room I use to exercise. I know. Buy new shoes. But do you know how many YEARS it took me to find a pair of shoes that don’t pinch my toes, make tender the tops of my feet, or send searing pain into my heels? I thought a perfectly reasonable option was to rip out the carpet but FitHub said no. Go figure.

Anyhow, so I have three options for using this new gym and I’m guessing it’s fairly obvious which one I picked since this post is called “The Great Spin Experiment of 2010” and I couldn’t really have a Great Spin Experiment if I kept working out at home. So yes. I committed to myself, FitHub and my Cyber Girls to embark on The Great Spin Experiment of 2010. (I like to name stuff. Makes it all seem so much more momentous.) This great experiment would entail me taking a Spin class, and if I survived it, committing to partaking in a minimum of one Spin class a week until I either 1) lose 50 pounds or 2) can no longer use my legs due to the pain inflicted during Spin class.

Confident that spinning would be easy-peasy for me because I occasionally hop on my mountain bike for an 8-12 mile road ride, I was confident I could meet the demands of The Great Spin Experiment and so I entered my first class with a bit of spinning-directed joie de vivre. For those of you that have been to a Spin class I’m thinking you’re guessing that I crashed and burned on my Spin bike. Well, you’re wrong. But I didn’t exactly whip any Spin booty either.

In my typical music-video-Brittany Spears-esque approach to group fitness classes, I introduced myself to my fellow Spinners and asked them for pointers on setting up my bike. We were all sharing tales of our exercise regimens and bonding in a we’re-all-here-to-get-fit way when in walked our instructor, Keiko. She is a petite, Japanese woman who looks about as tough as a beautiful, fluttery butterfly. Silly me. What she lacks in girth she makes up for in brutal push intervals.

Keiko started the music, hopped on her bike and started pedaling. We all did the same. During the ten-minute warm-up she introduced herself, and us newbies introduced ourselves to her. Then she and another student chit-chatted about their local road biking crew/group/gang. (Help me out here, what is the correct term for people who regularly road ride in packs?)

After the warm-up we started cranking the brake to increase the resistance on the bike and then came the sprints. This is where I knew I had met my match and where my inner Brittany abandoned me and left me alone with scared-I’ll-brake-a-pedal Fat Girl. So I didn’t stand up. I just kept pedaling and when instructed to: turning the brake.

Sweat dripping from my head to the handlebars, heart rate comfily posited in my 85%-of-max range I just kept pedaling. For 65 minutes I pedaled. I smiled. I audibly grunted. (I know, kinda embarrassing, right?) I ignored the cramp in my upper right calf and the soreness that was emanating from my now-numb butt to my hamstring and down to my feet that were also falling asleep. No bother. This was my Great Spin Experiment of 2010 and I was not about to stop pedaling or wuss out because I was a little uncomfortable.

So to endure the pain and make it to the end of the class, I pictured myself in the mountains riding my gorgeous lime-green mountain bike and pedaling with determined fury alongside FitHub. That is what I’m striving for after all: becoming more outdoorsy and getting fit enough to hang with FitHub in his outdoor environs doing his outdoorsy things. And so with the inhalation of a long breath: Keiko, the music, my classmates, the walls, it all melted away. It was just me, my bike, FitHub, and the mountain we were on pedaling uphill to reach the summit. And that got me to the finish. Well, the finish of my first Spin class. That mountain will have to wait until the Great Mountain Bike Experiment of 2011.

When the music finally stopped and my classmates started hopping off their bikes, I did the same. And I immediately bent over to stretch out my calf muscles. That felt good. Really, really good. Like I simply didn’t want to stand back up again because the stretching out of the calf muscles was making me feel all happy. But I did stand back up because I would have looked even sillier than I already did (red-faced, sweaty fat girl) if I had stayed down there for too long with my booty in the air. So I thanked Keiko, said farewell to my classmates, and walked out of class.

I survived and The Great Spin Experiment of 2010 will continue with at least one Spin class a week until I lose 50 pounds. And I’m happy to say that since that first class, I have repeatedly stood up out of the saddle for sprints and have NOT broken the pedals off the bike. Yay!

Do you ever zone out while you’re running/walking/biking/working? If so, what do you picture yourself doing and whom are you doing it with? (Keep it G rated people.) Do you Spin? Do you think I’m a wimp because I bought a gel seat cover for Spin class?