Gotta love New York, man…so much energy…so many wierd pockets of this and that. This morning Hilary and I toddled off to an all-spin place she’d heard about. Amazing.
It’s a small space on the third floor of an east side business building, there are 40 spin bikes and the place is packed. We are lucky to get in – some people did not show up because it’s so cold this morning.
The owner and best teacher, MIRIAN (or Marion, maybe) comes over and explains that these bikes are a little different. They sure are: they are on some wild platform so that they tip and bank and bob all over the place. They don’t actually fall over but they feel as if they could. “Tighted up your abs,” Miriam says…”you’ll be more stable.” It takes a long time to get the hang of it but it sort of works.

Miriam has lots of energy and this is one of the toughtest spin classes i’ve been to in a while. And almost everyone in the room is in better shape than Hilly and me. VEry impressive. And guess what: there is absolutely nothing like working out in a group to get a great workout. You work SO much harder. And it is so much more fun.

The crowd was mostly very fit women in their 30’s and 40’s…and a couple of men. Including one extremely fit old gentleman named Hoyt Ammidon with whom I went to school about a hundred years ago. He has been a serious athlete all his life: If he’s here this is the right place.

It was hard. For the first time in a lot of years of spinning, I stay seated for one brief “interval” to catch my breath. These people are HOT.

At the end, Hilly and I go off to a neat coffee shop (Pain Quotidien) nearby and eat healthy. We are blooming. There is absolutely nothing like a great aerobic workout to make you feel great.

I am off to Toronto for a talk tomorrow. Wonder if I can sneak in an early spin class before going to the airport.