Saturday Night Fever

Many of you know that since I've returned to Kuwait, I have become a fitness instructor. Spin class (see http://www.spinning.com/) has been a great source of exercise for me three nights a week since April last year, and in November I was asked to lead the Saturday evening class.

For the uninitiated, spinning in and of itself sounds dull, maybe even a little effeminate. I was once in that camp, until I tried it -- then I got instantly hooked. It's an hour (or so) of intense cardio exercise, using the tension knob on the cycle machines to simulate sprints or hills, coupled with standing and sitting for various degrees of difficulty.

As with most instructor-led cardio classes, music is of utmost importance. Some use typical aerobics-caliber songs, while others pick what they like. Our main instructor here uses a lot of R&B, soul, and rap -- baby-makin' music, or as one fellow spinner puts it, "makin' love by the fire music." I prefer straight-up, fast-beat rock, and am always looking for new and obscure stuff. For my playlists, I pick stuff that I like and let the music kind of lead me.

For instance, one playlist I use has nothing but 80's remakes. Some of the songs are remixes (honest-to-goodness remakes are hard to come by, even on iTunes), but there is some pretty good stuff out there. I included "I Love Rock n' Roll" by Britney Spears, "It's My Life" by No Doubt, and "Holy Diver" by Killswitch Engage -- that one was given to me by my older son, so you can figure out how hard it is. This week's list is all genuine 80's songs, and I'm working on one playlist using nothing but Foo Fighters songs.

My personal training invovles running before and after spin class. I'm up to a total of 5.25 miles in less than 40 mintues. I usually run only on the treadmill, to save my knees, and I do 2 miles fast before spinning, then the rest after.

I've found that I get a huge rush out of leading the classes. It kind of reminds me of when I used to be a commander and I could lead the company on 4-mile runs on Fridays, setting the pace up front with my guidon-bearer right behind me. My first sergeant used to make me slow down for the weaker runners, but every once in a while I'd take off and see how I could challenge the stronger ones. Leading spin class, I set the pace -- but I don't have to slow down.