It was late in the evening on a Friday night and the stress of the week before was lingering on my shoulders. I was in pretty good spirits to be headed home from my off-campus apartment to celebrate my birthday weekend with my family. My birthday gift, an original Peloton bike, was there waiting and I was beyond excited to take my first ride.
My journey with Peloton classes started in November with their strength classes and yoga classes using their app, so I was pretty familiar with their instructors. Because of this, I thought I would have a good grip on the cycling classes. After all, I had over 100 strength classes under my belt and felt stronger than I ever had been. My cardio and endurance improved since taking their strength classes. However, I was not familiar with anything about cycling.
I slid on their very secure cycling shoes and tried to “clip in” to the pedals. To clip into the bike, you have to generate a good amount of force to secure the cleats into the pedal. I used most of my leg muscle just trying to push my foot into the pedal to be secure for the class to no avail. After a few moments of recruiting the help of my grandfather to use a wrench to loosen the pedal, I was able to secure my shoe to the pedal.
I was ready to ride.
Before getting the bike, I did a lot of research into the various class types and the instructors that I had yet to take. Even though they had beginner classes, I saw that the “Low Impact” category was the way to go for first-time riders. I started up a 20-minute class with an instructor named Hannah Corbin, whose energy I heard was perfect and encouraging for new riders.
She greeted riders with vibrant energy and a bright smile on her face in a room with deep blue lighting behind the illuminated bike setup. No one else other than the instructor and the camera crew appeared to be in the studio. She specifically mentioned being kind to your body during the class and I made a mental note to remember that in the next 20 minutes.
Terms like resistance and cadence were so unfamiliar to me, but I quickly caught on to the numbers displayed on the screen. She cued resistance levels in the 40% range and cadence going up to 70, promising that we will never go above 50% resistance and 100 in cadence. Those numbers alone sounded a little intimidating as my legs felt the heavy force of the resistance already. I thought my squats and deadlifts prepared me for that level of resistance and movement, but cycling brings on a different kind of burn.
The warmup was only four minutes long, but I knew then it was going to be a long 20 minutes ahead. I did my best to focus on my form and the classic rock music playing underneath Hannah’s cues. She frequently cued notes on keeping your elbows slightly bent but light on the handlebars as if she was seeing my grip tighten as my legs began to burn even more.
It was not a live ride, but I could not help but take notice of the leaderboard on the side of the screen. My own stats were moving me ahead of other people who had taken the ride in the past and I could see the exact numbers I needed to climb further up the leaderboard. Given that it was my first ride, my numbers were not anything too crazy. I did not move up a crazy amount on the leaderboard. A part of me was surprised, I expected my endurance and strength to carry me through without too many issues.
I remembered what the instructor said at the beginning of the workout: be kind to yourself. Be proud that you showed up in the first place. It was that mindset that made me forget the other riders on the leaderboard and focus on my own efforts.
I walked away sweating more than I have in any other workout and a sense of pride in trying something new in the first place. I already looked forward to planning out my next few classes for the next day. The only place you can go is up when you’re competing against yourself on your own leaderboard.