Fitness Friday: Spin Class with Olympian Dara Torres

I had this awesome opportunity to take a Spin Class that was led by 5-time Olympian (winning 12 olympic medals) Dara Torres. This opportunity was presented to me by the Koss Corporation as a chance to try out and review their new Fitbuds and Fitclips, so please come back tomorrow and read about my review of the Fitbuds, today's post is about meeting Dara and taking the spin class.

The spin class was held at The Shed Fitness studio in Minneapolis. I had never been there before, but it was pretty easy to find right on Lyndale in Minneapolis.

The picture to the right show the spinning studio. All of the bikes were equipped with a plug to insert our Fitbuds in to so that we could have music and the instructor pumped right in to our ears (thus being able to use the Fitbuds.) This was something that was provide by Koss and are not normally on the bikes (so the lines in the picture are the wires that are taped down that go to each bike.)

I asked to sit in on the interview that Dara was doing with health and fitness writer Malia Frey and I am so glad that I did because I learned so much more about her from listening to the interview, but more importantly I learned what a real person she is, what a real mom she is. As a SAHM who has a Master's Degree in Counseling Psychology collecting dust (completely by choice! I love being home for my kids), I have a tendency to want to see what is below the surface and what makes them tick. What I look for is whether someone is kind and genuine and I found that in Dara. She's a mom who is concerned about not over scheduling her daughter (she has a 7 year old daughter like I do) and figuring out ways towards encouraging healthy food options to her children (she is also a step mom to 13 year olds) when they might not want to eat healthy and tries to be a positive role model for them.

It was so fun to have her as our leader for this spin class (which I haven't done a spin class in a couple year, but I'm in pretty good shape with everything else I do have time to do). She was super motivating and kept telling us how good of a job we were doing and how good we looked. I love that she was honest with us about her knee injury and the limitations it has on her now as an athlete. She also shared with us about how she just wants to be a real person exercising, maybe with a little competitiveness, but not to be timed or race.

It was a full class and a sweaty one! I was there quite early due to being prepared for the 3 spots where I-35 goes down to one lane on my 60 mile drive, but that granted me the opportunity to listen on the interview and get a bike front and center. I like to be up front as I find it motivating and I pay better attention and if I pay better attention I perform better plus I am closer to a fan. :) If you find me not in the front it either means I was running late to class or I want to chit chat with a friend not up there. But I digress......It was a great class that she planned out (she had a hand written piece of paper in front of her), she created the playlist and our course for each song. It made me use different muscles groups that I have not been using with all the running I have been doing.

I did get a chance to ask a couple questions of my own and through that she had her own question for me, "Where are you from?" She thought I had a foreign accent, which is something I have heard before but only from people not from around here. I don't have the "Fargo" accent that people associate with Minnesota, but a yooper accent from growing up in Wisconsin NE of Green Bay close to Upper Michigan (that's where the yoopers are). Not sure most people know about the yooper accent as they think I sound Canadian. So, my impression that I left on Dara is that I am a young (she didn't think I was old enough to know what a Walkman was) Canadian. LOL! Hopefully my participation in the front row of her class left a good impression.