Is "group workout" a dirty word?

The e-mail last Monday from Kara, one of the trainers at Life Time Fitness, was cheery:

Hello Ladies!!

I hope all is going well so far in your challenge! I wanted to offer you an additional session this Saturday. I am going to be in the gym between 8am-2pm Saturday and I would like to put together a 1-hour workout for the five of you (group training).

My first thought was how fun it was going to be that the five us would have a chance to work out together. As the week went on, my enthusiasm waned a little. I don't enjoy aerobics/jazzercise classes. I have no sense of rhythm and I get mixed up looking at the instructor, trying to sort out my right and left from her right and left. But it was so cool of Kara to offer, I wasn't about to pass up the opportunity.

When I got upstairs at Life Time, I looked into the glass-walled room, expecting to see our small band of challengers gearing up for the workout. But it was full of other women, sweating in unison. At almost the same time, I heard Kara call my name. I looked and there she was with Dee and Ruth at the treadmills.

Relief! A treadmill workout, not an aerobics class. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. (I shouldn't be so naive...)

I hopped up on the treadmill and Kara told me to choose 3 speeds -- Ruth explained them here, so I'll just call them "reasonable," "tough" and "rough." Kara said that we'd be doing them in intervals of 3 minutes, 2 minutes and 1 minute. "Puh-leaze," I thought to myself. "I've been doing intervals like that of 4 minutes, 4 minutes and 2 minutes all week."

Did I mention that I was a little naive?

• Bicep curls while walking at the "reasonable" speed. Not too bad.
• Stretching with the resistance bands while clipping along at the "tough" speed. Challenging.
• Running at a 5% incline at the speed formerly known as "rough." Yeah, let's just call that "you've got to be kidding me!"

It did occur to me that if my trainer Kyle is priest-like, then in contrast Kara might have been channeling Lucifer.

I'm ashamed to admit that I considered cheating, stopping the incline at 3 or 4%. But I could hear Kara in my head saying "you only get out of it what you put into it." So I jacked the incline to 5% and hoped that Kara's CPR certification was current.

By the end of the 45-minute workout, I was sweaty, out of breath and insanely considering taking Kara's Team Weight Loss class that offers a similar workout 3 times a week. Hmm...have I just sold my soul to the devil?