Five Wrong Things That Happened in Spin Class

At the risk of sounding like the Princess and the Pea, this week in cycle class was sub-optimal.

1) On Monday the air conditioner was broken in the cycle studio. I had never realized that the room was being cooled artificially--I just thought, you know, it's winter. But coming into the room was like entering a sauna. And after the workout got going. . .oh my. I almost slid off the bike. I was very close to pulling off my tee shirt and letting everyone admire my new sports bra. It is dark in there, after all.

2) Except when it isn't dark. On Wednesday, the teacher kept the lights on. Apparently someone at LA Fitness passed out and fell off her bike during class. I was like, "That's a whole different gym!" It's hard for me to imagine that I'm leading the peloton when I can clearly see all the people in the rows ahead of me. Wah! Turns out we're all just riding and riding and not going anywhere.

3) On two big screens at the front of the room, they show videos of bike races to get us in the mood. On Monday, the teacher accidentally queued up the "Breakaways and Crashes" episode. Yikes! Piles and piles of bikes and French and Italian men. And road rash. We watched it anyway.

4) The back of the t-shirt of the woman in front of me said, "If you can read this, the Bitch just passed you." I basically hate clothing with actual words on it, but this was even worse. Vulgar without even being a tiny bit clever. Dumb. Dude, some of us have delicate sensibilities. Am I a fussbudget here? (Probably.)

5) While riding, I did a quick mental calculation. Three days a week, I take Hank with me to Lifetime Fitness, and then afterwards, I get him a kiddie smoothie or milkshake in the cafe there. It started as a reward/bribe for going to the gym childcare. Now it's just a pleasant routine. So that costs $2.68 a pop, or roughly $8 a week. That's $32 a month for a 4-week month, or $416 a year, if we keep it up. For child smoothies. I almost fell off my bike and skidded into the huge pile of French and Italian men.

I guess this is what that guy who wrote The Automatic Millionaire calls "the latte factor." Those little expenditures do add up. It just started so innocently, our gym milkshake habit. But maybe I need to cut back. It is a nice time for the two of us. I'm still cooling down, and he's been liberated from childcare, and we sit at a little cafe table and chat. Maybe I could skip a day here and there?

The moral is, if there's a tiny thing you spend money on on a regular basis, don't ever pause and add up how much it all costs over time. Because you'll just freak yourself out. No doubt I'll be getting a contract to write a book on personal finance soon.