Hey!
I did it!
Ironically, substituted for my favorite cycle instructor while she's out post surgery She was super supportive when I told her I wanted to try to become an instructor and helped me along the way.
I taught a class I normally go to and surprisingly, was not as weird or intimidating as I thought - maybe because i used to have a job at a zoo working on stage with wild animals ( yes, I know, my career path has been an odd one)- and probably in general, daily life I'm used to people staring at me with questionable or confused looks on their faces
The class was super nice and supportive. A couple knew I was new, I think, while others I think just thought I'd been an instructor all along- one that just happened to sub this particular night.
I think it went well but I need to add some variety- some of the stuff I enjoy doing in class (when forced to) is not something that comes naturally to me (sprints, progressions , etc) so I will need to work on that, I think.
Overall for first class, it went as well as I could have hoped! That said, who knows what the rest of the class was thinking as they walked out of class...We'll see how many return as I will be subbing the same class next week.

Do keep all the advice coming- particularly what you like/dislike as far as variety- my default is to alternate hard climbs with fast paced, out of the saddle or jumps but I know I need to mix in some other stuff. Hard to find music to do progressions to (30 seconds at 70%, 30 sec @ 80%, 30 sec @ 90%, recover x 30 seconds, then 20 seconds each, recover 30 seconds, then 20 seconds, etc...)

Appreciate all the words of advice and encouragement here- nice group of people
Cheers!
Susan