squeaky wheels

a fitness miracle! 

i went to spin class last night and we got new bikes. now, the gym i go to is called the 'lance armstrong 24 hour fitness', so you would expect the spin studio to be pretty high class, but in reality, i think we're the last 24hr in the area to get the new bikes, which they've been talking about for almost a year. so, when i saw the new bikes, i was super pumped- it was like a fitness christmas present to myself!

if you're not a spin kind of person, let me clue you in real quick: spin bikes are stationary, and have a few adjustments to make the ride comfortable (seat height, handlebar height, and seat position, either forward or backward). and, they have this knob that turns to the right to add more gear (aka make it hard) right in the middle, and this is the crux of the whole workout.

there were a few new things to get used to, from the old to the new bikes, but mostly they both have all the same stuff, just different colors, shapes, sizes. the new bikes have this pretty red plastic everywhere, making the adjustments easier to make and turning easier. the old bikes measured seat height in letters and handlebar height in numbers (my perfectly fitted ride was a J3) but the new bikes measure in all numbers and halves, so now my ride is a 6.5/3.5 (i am recording them here to help me remember so i don't have to try it out every time).

the biggest adjustment was the gear knob (remember, the crux of the workout?)... the old bikes had this small, black textured knobs that squeaked every time you turned them, and some worked more than others- for instance, a half turn on one bike could be nothing, while a half turn on another bike could mean so much gear you can't pedal. the black knobs had a picture on them so i could always tell how much i'd turned (a quarter, half, whole) and could then pace out my turns through the class, based on the position of the picture.  i have been spinning at this gym for over five years, so i totally have a system down that works for me. and i love spinning, so i've learned to love this lil bikes. the new bikes, however, have this big read plastic knob that just as the word 'stop' on it- no picture, no texture to tell how far or how many turns you've just added. they don't squeak either- they just turn, effortlessly.

i realized in my first class, with these new bikes, that these knobs were the biggest change of the whole thing- the silent knobs with no picture gauge add gear so sneakily! with the old bikes, the gear could be felt instantly, and the ride got more or less hard instantaneously. these new red knobs are able to magically add gear on gradually, and with no sound to measure my turns, i had no idea what was going on. the whole class, my bike just kept surprising me every time i changed the gear (which is like, literally every 30-60 seconds for an hour).

as i rode on, i realized how similar to life this whole spin class was: we are just riding through our lives, going about our business, then some gear- something tough, something challenging, something that makes us think or get off our routine- comes along, and we adjust our ride to accommodate the gear we've just switched into. sometimes it's a tough, sneaky gear- loosing a pregnancy, finding out you have cancer, having your heart broken. sometimes it's an easy gear, maybe even taking gear off- falling in love, getting a new job, going home  for the holidays. inevitably, our gear will switch and we won't be at the same gear forever. our ride through life can be hard, easy, flat... but it's never going to stay that way for long. and that's one of the reasons i love spin class: as hard as it gets, it only lasts for 30-60 minutes at a time! we can do anything for a minute, if you think about it.

and life is like that, i suppose- things just come at us, and we get to ride along and adjust as we go. and at first glance, i feel like i'd prefer my life gear-knob to be an old, black squeaky knob, rather than a shiny, new red one, so i could tell what was coming. the hardest part of spin yesterday was the sneaky gear changes that i didn't see coming (even when i was the one switching the gear!). i missed the squeaks, the immediate strain, the obvious new change in pace. why? because it was easier to anticipate. the red, sneaky knobs left me no indication of how much pressure i had just added to my ride.

however, there's some beauty in these sneaky gears: the mental shift from easy to hard was much smoother when i didn't know what was coming. i worked a lot harder when i wasn't aware of how much gear i had actually put on- perhaps it's all a mental game, perception of easy and hard, but without the squeaking sounds and rotating picture on the knob, i just kept spinning, and didn't think about how hard the ride was getting.

i would guess that the black, squeaky knob seems much more appealing, at first glance: a way to tell warn us,a sort of preparation for the stuff that's to come. however, life is just a big red, sneaky silent gear shift that adds pressure to our ride without even a warning. and i think, after last night, i can appreciate that.

especially because she played 'moves like jagger', and that made the hard ride even easier...