At 3:31 my alarm went off this morning. Yes, that is 3:31 AM. Spin class on Wednesday mornings with Joanne is sold out, sometime before 3:45 am. I think this morning it was 3:38.

When that alarm goes off, I jump up and grab my phone to log into the Best Fitness App to secure a bike in this class.  (We don’t need to expand now on my obsession with ‘my bike’.) The display on the app shows you how close it is to the class getting full in what looks like a sideways thermometer.  It was almost to the end! My heart is now beating as if I am on a 7 minute hill 35 minutes into class.  The ‘daisy wheel’ on my phone is spinning and spinning and I am almost apoplectic.  Finally, it displays the word I long to see at 3:35 am:  ENROLLED!

Now I am up and awake for the day.

I am listening to the rain on the roof, stressing about what I have to do today and lamenting over tonight’s dinner- what to make?  Finally, I can sit in silence no longer and I get dressed and get ready to leave for class.  Now it is 4:40am. I pack my yogurt and my trusty Clementine.  The rain is pouring down like you read about.

The drive over is about 10 minutes.  As I pull into the parking lot I see familiar cars sitting in the dark, probably feeling like I am.  Energized and sleepy at the same time.  When the doors open at 5am, we exchange pleasantries with each other and we are off and running.

The ritual is the same.  I swipe in at the desk and again at the spin room terminal proving my 3:31 efforts paid off and in return, I get my spin ticket. I wipe up the bike from the previous night’s riders (ewww).  As I am setting up my water and towel, familiar faces begin to file in and the buzz slowly builds.  A few are yawning, a few are moving slow and so many of us truly believe we are crazy to do it.  We fight it, we say we are not going to do it but in the end, here we sit.

Joanne is our instructor and is the perfect combination of intensity and support needed to manage this group of rebels in the Wednesday 5:30 am Class. We do not gradually ramp up, we do not gradually climb, and we go all out, for all 50 minutes.  I think I actually saw an angel circling the fan somewhere into that second round of climbs. Might have been lack of oxygen.

Once the class is over and the heavy breathing and ‘spin moans’ are done, we pack up and return to our cars to begin our day.  How lucky am I that I get to share these wee small hours of the morning with such a great group of individuals who for in that moment in time become one? It is sooo worth that buzzing alarm clock in the middle of the night.

Wednesday is indeed my heaviest coffee consumption day and after three cups of Death Wish this morning, I began to come alive.  Still needed that Starbucks Non-Fat latte mid-morning.

Thank you Joanne and my fellow riders for making my hump day the best day.