Katie.

My dearest Katie...You are amazing to me!

Who is Katie, you may ask?  (No, that isn't her in the pic.  However, this girl could pass for her sister!)

Katie is a Spin class instructor who I had previously taken for granted, but will NOT make the mistake of underappreciating again!

I drug my fat butt into my first Spin class at LA Fitness back in December. 

Good ol' Katie was the instructor, and she was hardcore!  I made it through the class, but got QUITE the workout! At one point, I had to backoff for a second or I thought FOR SURE I would've passed out!

And this is coming from someone who runs marathons! 

I hadn't taken a spin class before this in years!  And it was at the local YMCA where I used to live, with a bunch of really old people...so the class naturally wasn't that difficult.

But Katie!  You rocked my world!

She isn't the friendliest person, and hardly ever smiles, but she will make you work off that Chipotle burrito you had for lunch! 

When you walk into her class, you don't get warm fuzzies and a kind hello.  You instantly feel a "Get on a bike and let's go!" attitude.

At first, this was a little offputting to me.

I even told my buddy Matt (who also spins at my gym) that I didn't really like Katie, and wanted to try out some of the other instructors.

However, it seemed like everytime I was able to attend a spin class, she was the instructor.  I guess I was stuck with her.

But last Thursday night, I was at the gym doing a little weight-training.  Then, when I was about to start doing some cardio, I looked into the Spin studio and saw some people getting ready for a class.

Hmmm...weird.  My gym never had a Thursday night spin class.  This must be new. And look, there is a different instructor!

Awesome!  So, I walked into the studio, plopped onto a bike and was ready to go!

Ok, the new instructor looked like she was in her 40s, and was the stereotypical workout instructor from the 80s, with the track jacket and the headband (think Sue Sylvester from Glee!)

But here's where the class went wrong:  With Katie I am used to starting the resistance on my bike around gear 7, and work up to gear 20.  This lady wanted us to start off at 1 and we never got over gear 12!

Oh, I get it...this must be a beginner class that I stumbled into.

That's fine. I'll get a small workout.  Well...then about 10 minutes in, I hadn't even worked up the smallest bead of sweat yet, and she stopped on her bike, frantically was toweling off and drinking ferociously from her water bottle.

I guess the class was too difficult for her.

I looked around to make sure I wasn't the only one who noticed, and everyone else also looked befuddled, like they were in the wrong class!

Here's another funny...This lady talked so fast!  I mean REALLY fast, that I could hardly understand anything she was saying, or what we were doing next.  And she was from the 'old school fitness' era where the instructor felt like she had to talk through every second of the entire class:  "Ok, breathe through your nose, inhale, don't stiffen your knees, go hard, you can do it, don't forget to exhale, a little farther now, you got it, let your body speak to you, drink water if you need it, you can do it..."

Hey lady, shut the f*ck up for a moment, would you?

And she would say, "Ok, we are going to sprint this out for 20 seconds.  Ready? Go," and then would proceed to count it down.  EXCEPT, that 20 seconds would turn into about 6 seconds.  "20....10-9-8-you got it....3-2-1...ok, back to flat road..."

Huh?  I just got up to maximum sprinting speed.  Whatever...

At the end of the class, I looked down at the stats on the bike, and I ended up burning under 400 calories, in an hour!  Usually, in Katie's class I burn close to 700!

So Katie, I am sorry that I ever doubted you!  Having gone back to your class yesterday, and being able to challenge myself like I enjoy, was excellent!  Thank you!

It is SO worth it to almost kill myself in your class.

You never have to smile at me.  You never even have to say hello or acknowledge that I'm there.  Just keep working me hard, and I will continue to love you.