Chinese Torture

Last evening I took two spinning classes and both made me realize how much I’m going to miss the classes at Queen City. When I walked in the 6 pm class, the first thing I noticed was the teacher: a Rambo-looking guy who is build more like a body-builder than a cyclist. He gave me that alpha-male, testosterone-loaded look and had a haircut that would make any US marine proud. I tried to shrug it off but he kept eyeing me during the warm-up and started to freak me out. The class started soon and from the first song he tried to challenge me to stay with him. We started in the second position out of the saddle and stayed there for the rest of the 45 min class (yes, the whole time). People were dropping back in the saddle left and right of me, some were staying with us for the first 20 min, some for the first 30 min but after the first half hour, there was only Rambo and me. By now I started calling myself mentally Eddy (yes, the Eddy like in Eddy Merckx) and there was no way I would surrender to Rambo. Message to all the spinning teachers reading this blog: please, please don’t teach a class for 45 min in second position and out of the saddle. I call that now Chinese torture. Still fired up from the first class, I decided to hang around and take the 7 pm class as well. A different experience all together. The teacher dimmed all the ceiling lights and turned on those disco-type of lights (flashing balls and so) and blasted beat music through the speakers. On top of that he screamed his lungs out. My ears are still hurting from the deafening noise. Before I realized what happened he had turned the place in an instant rave. Maybe very hip and underground but for me it turned into another very long 45 min and another form of Chinese torture. Anyhow, I'm going back tonight for some more. Real cyclists love some pain, don’t they?
Maybe I need to seriously consider teaching some classes myself (in English of course).