One of the things I love to do in the winter months when the weather is crappy is try out new classes at some of the fitness studios in the city. It gives me a chance to mix up my routine, plus sometimes it's way more fun than running in cold and miserable weather.

On Friday, I had plans to try the "No Shower Happy Hour" spin class at Off Road DC, a spin studio on U Street.



Now I'm not one who normally works out after work on Friday evenings. I usually like to spend my Fridays relaxing or at happy hour unwinding with friends, but after a crazy week, a spin class sounded like the perfect way to blow off some steam.

So I headed downtown to check out the class.

I figured I wouldn't know anyone, but then I saw on Twitter that Emily was going to be there celebrating Jess' birthday! Yay for fitness friends!

We grabbed bikes in the second row and started warming up.

When the music started, I was enjoying rocking out to some of the pop songs. I love spinning to music I can sing along with in my head.

But then the instructor said there wouldn't be anymore pop on the playlist for the rest of the class.

Ugh, bummer. I hate spinning to just music with a beat. It makes it harder for me to get into a groove in the class.



Other than the music, the class was a solid workout. We did sprints on a flat road, we climbed long hills and did shorter speedier climbs. We were in the saddle and out of the saddle, so there was definitely a good amount of variety in the class.

Oh and the bikes were really nice and came equipped with computers that told you your RPM and your watts and lots of other info. That was the first time I'd done a spin class on bikes with computers, and it was pretty cool.



I finished the class drenched in sweat and on a nice endorphin high -- pretty much everything I want out of good workout.

I'm looking forward to trying lots of other classes at other fitness studios this winter.