Mara Gordon | Keep on spinning

There was a minor crisis on Friday.

It was 12:05 p.m., and my spinning instructor was nowhere to be found.

Class was supposed to start at noon, and the girls waiting in line at Pottruck were wasting precious time. In those five minutes, we could have burned about 60 calories.

"I really, really hope she shows up," one girl said to me. "I just can't get as good of a workout on the ellipticals. I didn't even bring my iPod to the gym."

We were starting to panic. We had filled our water bottles, strapped on our sports bras - and for nothing!

Then I caught sight of her. The teacher, usually punctual and tough, was walking down the stairs from the fourth floor, laughing with a friend. How could she be so cavalier about our workout needs?

As soon as she flipped the blacklight on and the techno started pounding, we started to relax.

Then she barked: "Let's move it, ladies! Make it hurt!"

I grinned at the other people around me. At Penn, we take our spinning very seriously.

For those of you who have never heard the intense dance music coming from the third floor of Pottruck, spinning is a group cycling class that I've had a bittersweet relationship with since my freshman year.

We've gone through our ups and downs over the years, but before I graduate, I wanted to publicly declare my love for spinning.

A friend dragged me to my first spinning class almost four years ago during "Stress Relief Week" at the gym. I had walked past the classes before, and I was terrified.

I imagined a burly instructor, clad entirely in spandex, yelling at the class for being slow and obese.

I'm pretty unathletic - I didn't have much in common with the amazons I saw emerging, sweaty and exhausted, from the spinning studio. The ellipticals seemed more my speed.

But the instructor - whose class I still love - was nice and encouraging, and her Michael Jackson mix was fun to bike to. Something about the whole group, cycling in unison, just made me work harder. I was hooked.

Going to class over the past couple of years has introduced me to the sub-culture of spinning addicts, most of whom are much more dedicated - and in much better shape - than I.

We all have our favorite types of music: some of my friends love Jock Jams, others are motivated by Britney remixes. Personally, I like the kind of techno that makes me feel like I'm in a club in Eastern Europe instead of Pottruck.

And then there are the different kinds of teachers.

There isn't much to teaching spinning, you'd think, since it is just stationary biking. But the instructor makes or breaks the class.

There are the tough love types, who warn us that we're looking a little chubby right before spring break.

There are the guys from the Penn Cycling team, who turn on a 45-minute Eurotrash rave song, tell us how far they biked this past weekend and then leave us alone for the rest of the class.

There was one instructor who once told the class to "feel the bike seat moving gently between our thighs."

Spinning attracts all sorts of people, from grandmothers to sorority girls to hardcore cyclists. The throbbing techno and aggressive instructors might put you off.

But give it a try - you might become one of us.

Mara Gordon is a College senior from Washington, D.C. Her e-mail is gordon@dailypennsylvanian.com. Flash Gordon appears on Wednesdays.

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