The New Face of Spinning?!

It has been a very traumatic week for me.

On Sunday (on a whim and feeling regret at how much junk I ate on Friday night), I started considering a bit of old-fashioned workout punishment for myself. I thought, “Hmmmm….maybe I should do a spinning class with Ms. X at 5:15 a.m. and start the week off right…” (Ms. X is not her real name. Obviously.)

So I pop on the computer and visit my gym’s website, bringing up the month’s schedule and I see that Ms. X is not teaching at 5:15 a.m. but some completely random name is there instead. I found this to be a bit startling and then when I realized that Ms. X’s name (which, again, is not Ms. X) was nowhere to be found on the schedule, I started to freak. I mean, FREAK.

You see, Ms. X is the most hardcore, craziest, most motivating spinning instructor ever. She makes my Thursday evenings both horrible (as I almost puke into my towel) and amazing (as I leave in triumph after surviving). She is the reason that I have to get dressed at work for class, drive like a lunatic and run in to claim a bike. She is one popular lady.

I was hoping against hope that she just decided to take the rest of the month off because her daughter is returning from the Peace Corps.

There were whispers at the gym and I kept trying to find out what exactly happened on Monday. And then yesterday the ax fell. A letter explaining that Ms. X has taken a different career path and they tried to retain her. (Doubtful.)

And now we’re stuck with mediocre instructors who smile during spinning and who think it’s really fun to know everyone’s names and keep saying, “You can do it! Don’t quit on me!” when the reason I want to quit is because I’m bored and not being challenged.

It has been a sad week. The question is… do I stalk Ms. X and switch gyms if I find her somewhere else?!

In other gym news, I have taken up Zumba which is a mixture of Latin dance (salsa, cha cha, etc.) and hip hop. It’s not the best workout and I look the fool, but they dim the lights and everyone looks just as white as me out there on the floor. It’s a mood-lifter and I’m starting to look forward to my Wednesday evening release through dance moves and Shakira music.

But it’s still not Ms. X.