Monday, December 29, 2014

Feeling old.

The other night at spin class, it seemed like the denizens of the studio were noticeably younger than usual. I normally suck at guesstimating peoples ages but it seemed a bunch of little girls crashed the class. The leader asked how old they were. They giggled an answer of thirteen all at the same time. Then they giggled about answering at the same time.

The leader said that she was twenty two and she remembered how it was to be thirteen. She was proud of them for trying a spin class. I don't remember what it was like being thirteen. I know, though,  that I would not have been in a spin class (I would have been "outside"). In contrast,  I can remember fifty three like it was today. Maybe because I'm currently fifty three. And I was in a spin class with thirteen year olds.

Sometimes I get the mind set to do an exercise class just to get it done. This class was one of those classes for me. To motivate the "kids" the instructor kept telling them they were doing great and encouraging them to keep it up. This encouragement seemed to be mostly at the time where the class would veer into the land of suck for me (most often high cadence standing up stuff).

At the end of these spin classes, the instructor leads an optional 3 minute or so stretching session. They don't like when people leave in the middle of the stretch since opening the door changes the lighting and ruins the stretching mood. I wasn't feeling the need to stretch that day so I followed the stretch-optional folks leaving out the open door. As I approached the door to leave, the instructor yelled "Sir, can you close the door behind you?"

Sir? She called me Sir?

Only then I felt old. I closed the door. And felt old for the rest of the night.

Sigh.

4 comments:

Teamarcia said...

Wow 13. I'm 52 so right there with you. How the hell did we get here?? I still say old is a state of mind and I won't live there.

Pahla said...

I probably would have considered the whole class "optional" with a group of teenage girls in it. Yikes!

Ransick said...

The worst is checking out at the grocery store when they say "Sir, would you like help out to your car?". He'll no I don't need help :-).

Al's CL Reviews said...

I, too, would have made the class optional. You got it done. You weren't old before the class. You aren't old now.

As for the "sir," eh...pretend the instructor was from the south. I noticed over the past 20 years, I've changed from calling men, "Hey you" to "Sir" regardless of their age.