I first tried Soul Cycle about three years ago. (Read my review of my first time here!)

I enjoyed it but didn’t think it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Because duh, everyone knows that the greatest thing since sliced bread is a bagel.

Since then, I’ve gone several more times, but either for a special event or with a big group of people, like for Kristine’s birthday.

Or that time I worked out with Olivia and Hannah from The Biggest Loser?

Over the past year or two, Soul Cycle’s gotten infinitely more popular…and I wondered why. Had they changed something about since the classes I’d taken? Because…it was fun, but I just didn’t see the hype.

I started realizing that almost everyone I knew in NYC that was into fitness was hooked on Soul Cycle. And then I started realizing that within Junior League, there was another little sect of Soul Cycle-obsessed people.

Was I missing something?! Since I needed another pricey hobby like I needed a hole in the head, I decided that if I perhaps was missing the gene that literally everyone else in NYC seemed to have that made them like Soul Cycle, it wasn’t such a bad thing. I was happy to go on with this existence.

I did the Sports Bra Challenge, which was a SoulCycle class–and which I really liked–but I chalked that up to the craziness of the event, not the actual class.

And then I saw this post on Mary’s blog. She was training to become a SoulCycle instructor and had several community rides (which serve as their auditions.) I very tentatively signed up for one…and it was AMAZING. She’s a fabulous instructor, and it turns out that Taylor Swift songs are really fun to rock out to on a bike. I took one of her classes…

…and I got it.

I got why everyone else and their mothers were hooked. I understood the energy and the community aspect of the classes. Everyone is there to have fun and get an awesome workout in, and that energy is freaking contagious, especially when you have an awesome instructor. I took two more of Mary’s community rides, but I’m sad to say (for New Yorkers) that she moved back out to L.A. last week.

I knew she was leaving, so I asked my Facebook friends for recommendations of instructors: Charlee, Danny, Jolie, Ben T, Marvin, Lauren, Stevie, Laurie, Lori A, and Isbael all came highly recommended.

They have an FAQ on their site for first-timers/beginners, but I’d add just a few things from my limited experience: ask for help setting up your bike the first time or two (and/or clipping in – I am clumsy as all hell and it took me forever to master this.) Part of the class is about the energy and riding to the music, so if you’re new, you probably don’t want to ride in the first row right away. I did it for one ride last week and felt like an idiot. HOWEVER, I usually hide in the back in spin classes and when I moved up a bit, I realized how much more awesome it was to be up close.

So, consider the Kool-Aid officially sipped. Thankfully, I started marathon training today, so I can’t gulp it too hard for the next four months.

Do you sip the Soul Cycle Kool-Aid? Who’s your favorite instructor? Any advice for newbies? (If you’re a marathoner, how do you include it in your training/balance it with your training?)