Sunday

A little bit of excitement at spin class this AM.  I had missed the Friday and Saturday classes so I had not talked to anyone about the weekend's guest instructor who was in town on an unannounced promotional thing with Gold's and Star Trac spin cycles.  Melissa Larson is some kind of a spin-instructor-guru with her own line of books/CD's/videos, clothing and hosted spin camps.  Never heard of her.

She took the spin-Nazi position (I know that title is not politically correct, but it's my blog; get over it) in our 1000 class and proceeded to gas the entire group, especially the resolutioners.  She really didn't do a lot differently than the better instructors at our Gold's, but there wasn't much recovery time between drills, and if you stayed on her pace, it was definitely a Top Ten workout.  For a Left Coast dweller, her music wasn't all that bad either.  Not that I was looking to get on her mailing list.

After class, I went back upstairs and took my normal seat at one of the tables near the gym's entrance so that I could swap out my drenched t-shirt and cool down a little before going outside.  I was chatting up one of the other older guys (like me!) who had been in the class, and we both figured that we had been over-matched by the half way point of class.  As he was leaving and I opened my phone to post to Twitter, Melissa walks up and sits in an adjacent chair at the table to change her shoes. An unexpected conversation ensued:

ML:  Hi! I'm Melissa.  I saw you in my class.  What'd you think?

LTPC:  Not too bad.  That donut that I had with my second grande Americano beforehand probably wasn't my best move.

ML: It looked like you pushed pretty hard.  Do you always sweat that much?

LTPC:  I was just trying to keep up.  They always hand out an extra wiping towel too me when I walk in. So are you here to sell new bikes to the gym?  They could use 'em.  Half the ones down there are junk.

ML:  Actually, I'm in town primarily to promote my products to fitness instructors (I've known Cathy for years), and I was just here this morning for my own workout.   They let me do a little wine and cheese thing here last night in the group room downstairs for a presentation on my stuff., and I volunteered to run a couple of classes in exchange.  It's been fun.  Too hard?

LTPC:  I'll let you know tomorrow.  What about our bikes?

ML:  Well, your's are junk, for sure.  But new ones run around $1250 per bike on orders of 25 or more units. With tax, delivery and a maintenance contract, it'll run $35,000 to replace all of your equipment. That's a lot of money for a smaller place like this one.

LTPC:  Hmmmm.  Whatever.  So how'd you end up as a spin guru?  Were you a competitive cyclist?

ML:  Heck, no!  I got an undergraduate degree in ElemEd from UNLV, couldn't find a job, and was dancing in a lounge act at Caesar's Tahoe, when the Tour of California came through town and I met George Hincapie. We dated for a few months, he introduced me to the cycling crowd, and I made the connection with a sales rep with Star Trac bikes.  It just worked.  The boob job didn't hurt. 

LTPC:  Hmmmm.  Again.  I hadn't noticed.  If you know George, did you ever hang out with Lance?

ML:  Actually, I only met Lance once.  One of those years when he won the Espy for Athlete of the Year in Vegas, George took me to the program as his date and we sat at one of the back tables.  That was when Lance was dating Cheryl Crow.  Lance was very cool and came back and sat with us during intermission.  Cheryl Crow didn't give me the time of day.  (Then again, I had a Dubya pin in my collar.)


LTPC:  Hmmmm.  Again.  Again.  So, where's your home gym?  And do you still regularly lead classes?

ML:  I've been living in Chicago the last couple of years.  Star Trac set up their first, own-label fitness center in the Near North district and they have used me in their marketing plan.  I get good publicity, like a billboard on the Kennedy every few weeks, don't have to do classes if I don't want to, and O"Hare allows me to pretty easily get to other destinations in the country.  My contract is up next Fall and I'm looking at my options.  I wouldn't mind going back to Tahoe if the the numbers would work.

LTPC:  Well, I'm connected at Tahoe myself.  And I did numbers in a former life.  I could be a resource for you.

ML:   Hmmmm.  Sure, LTPC.  Have your people call my people. Uh,  where's the door?

LTPC:  Hey, no problem.  I'll walk out with you.  Thanks for the chat. 

Parts of the above exchange are absolutely true.  Spin class is almost never dull. 

The tool who wears his cycling gloves to spin class was there again this morning.  I mean, the key benefit of gloves is the coverage from road rash when you go down.  Not a lot of that happening in spin.  And the other point of softening your grip is equally bogus.  All of the instructors (Melissa included) harp on you to balance on, not lean on the handle bars. Yeah, tool;  make a statement about your cycling bona fides.  We're all impressed.

Hope everyone has a great week.

BCOT