Having spent the past two weeks in midterm hell, trudging from library to library and then once again back to the library, I decided it was time to do something that was not sitting on the 4th floor hunched over my laptop. I needed a mood and spine shifter, so in one of those strange 2 a.m. moods one gets in after staring at an anthropology essay for two days, I booked a Pleasance spin class.
Having been a Pleasance member for two years, I felt somewhat ashamed that I had never tried one of their classes. But at the same time, there is something off-putting about booking on the user-unfriendly website and then contemplating who you might bump into in a sweaty, compromised position.
In fact, on this particular Thursday, I was all set on not going; maybe I thought I could just walk on the Stairmaster for a bit and call it a day. But by a stroke of wonder, a girl in front of me was holding a pair of spin shoes. After explaining my predicament to her as a virgin of the spin class, she took me under her wing.
I was pleasantly surprised to find the room darkly lit, with a good ‘spin vibe’ (if that’s a thing), and an extremely enthusiastic French instructor ready and waiting.
I can say without a doubt that I hadn’t sweat that much since the realisation two days earlier that I had extended the wrong essay! The music was good: an eclectic mix of ‘80s house and Fred again. The class was 45 minutes, high intensity, and I left feeling elated! Perhaps the best thing was that by some stroke of luck, I didn’t see anyone I knew. I can only hope for the same experience next time.
Image by Harry Sharma