The Nancy

When I was younger, my three brothers and I spent our summers entertaining ourselves. Summer mornings my mom would say, "inside or out?" and we would pick if we wanted to play inside or outside. (Running in and out of the house wasn't allowed!). Most of the time, we played outside, making tree forts or riding our bikes. But sometimes we played inside.

One of the inside-games was called "the floor is lava." It's what you would think: you can't touch the floor because it's a bubbling pool of molten volcano lava. We would all climb on a couch or other piece of furniture and pretend that if we touched the floor we would burn to death. It was a blast.

Little did I know this childhood game would prepare me for spin class with Nancy in my adult life. There's no couch, there's a stationary bike. And there's no carpet, there's the handle bars of the bike.

This morning's smoothie! Plain, nonfat
greek yogurt, blueberries, a banana,
some milk, vanilla, and Truvia. It broke
the blender but it was delicious!

And you're not allowed to touch them. The handles must be lava. Nancy doesn't like when you touch them, unless it's a finger for balance. I get that you're not supposed to lean on them so you can work your core, but a fingertip doesn't provide much balance.

I'm not sure if I've ever introduced you all to Nancy. We've talked about Alyssa and how I adore her. Her classes are always packed (I've actually wasn't able to get into one b/c it was at capacity), her music is loud and her "woo"s are cheery.

If Alyssa is the Disney princess, Nancy is the villain. Think Ursula, Maleficent, or the queen with the mirror.

She's small in stature, but packed with muscle. And she wields class like a drill sergeant. She will mock your form, harp on you for resting, and is generally a bugger.

I called early to reserve a seat in Nancy's class and was put on the list. When I stopped by the front desk to get my pass, which usually says a number around 12, I was handed pass #1.

"Am I the only one?"

"No, there are three people signed up. But there will probably be walk-ins."

"No there won't. It's Nancy."

Don't get me wrong, I've taken a spin class with Nancy before. I knew what I was getting into. I just didn't know I'd be one of three people getting into it.


I tried my best to do exactly what Nancy was asking. I didn't touch the handlebars, except for a finger. I kept my back straight, I tried to do the impossible "triple time" while standing. (I'm convinced "triple time" is the Sasquatch of spin. People know a person who knows a person who's done it.)

Overall it was a good class. I left sweating with no water left in my bottle. But I think maybe I'll just stick with Monday and Friday spin with Alyssa. I went to spin on Monday, I just forgot to blog about it. My bad!