Tag / spinning

by jamiewheels

Triple turbo tremble

Map reference: home and hereabouts

Carbs and caffeine: lemon drizzle cake a la maison, and reheated suppers

Three days of freezing weather with flurries of snow have kept me inside. To shake it up a bit I have hosted a couple of spin sessions with friends and laboured through one session by myself. Beastly Beasleys turbo printouts are beginning to look a bit ragged.

On Tuesday, Jacqui and I set ourselves up here, with Radio 6 to distract us. We elected to do some classic intervals, 4 minutes on, one minute off. It was tough, with Jacqui gasping the time in ever smaller degrees. Sometimes 5 seconds can seems a long time.

On Wednesday I pedalled away by myself, so when it became obvious we weren’t going to get out today for our normal ride, I invited myself round to Jen’s. We were going to just pedal like mad, but I have got used to timing myself and setting challenges, so I ended up bossily instructing three minute sessions of various things with one minute active recovery. It was a sort of hybrid session of climbing and cadence. The dog was very excited by two lots of spinning legs at first, but fell asleep after a while. We were passing out in a different way… but there you go, job done.

Note to Husband: take it easy coming home, red wine and Osso Bucco tonight.

by jamiewheels

Back to the Nest

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Map reference: Walk in the frost at Ripley, followed by spin at home

Carbs and Caffeine: The Nest, Ripley

Above you see a picture of Newark Priory in the frost. It was -3 degrees and that is why I was not out riding. I don’t know whether you can see the frost, but I promise you the air was crisp and the puddles were frozen. My friend’s dogs skittered across the icy patches and we three muffled humans picked our way round them, with the air freezing our faces. Apparently there is a 6am service held in the ruins of the priory at Easter every year. I do hope, for the parishioners’ sake, it warms up by then.

Anyway, thank heavens for the excellent coffee and cake options of the Nest. Having indulged in these options, I then fled home for a guilty spin to work off the ginger cake. I didn’t follow a set programme but spent most of an hour standing, and that will have to do for today.
Note to self: You are going to have to be very organised to squeeze in a one-hour turbo session tomorrow morning

by jamiewheels

People watching as my world spins by

Map reference: Bank of England sports Club

Carbs and caffeine: made myself a nice smoothy when I got home

Tuesday is my Jacqui day but unfortunately her boiler has blown and she had to wait for the gas man. Shame really, as there was briefly a lot of blue sky. Anyway, I settled for a spin session with Mark http://www.markreynoldsfitness.com/. The class was packed, I’ve no idea why. There was a couple I haven’t seen before, who seemed to be having a row. Her arms were crossed and she was clearly fuming and not really joining in. He was glancing sideways at her and then moved to another bike, ostensibly to let someone else have his front row seat… but I wondered. About half way through the woman suddenly perked up, took off her sweatshirt and started pedalling like mad. Maybe the endorphins kicked in.

I forgot to look at the stats on my bike, which is unlike me, but the class was the usual mix of climbing, racing; sitting and standing, followed by the dreaded abs. I was my standard beetroot colour, so perhaps that’s as good a measure as any.

The second half of my kid-free window was spent ironing, as the ironing lady was marooned by the bus strike. I drew a line at Husband’s work shirts as I can’t do them properly. I can only just manage fitted sheets and that’s because the difficult bit is tucked out of sight. I counted his shirts and I think he can get through to next Tuesday.

I also did some research on the Etape Du Tour. Last year 275 women finished, 41 in my 45-49 age group. In fact, only 81 finished in my age group or above, including one remarkable woman in the 65-69 age group. This is making me nervous. I would love to know how many started. I read somewhere that it was around 600 which, if true, means half didn’t make it. Oh dear. I suppose a challenge isn’t a challenge unless… well… it’s a challenge.

Note to self: Maybe stay away from the science bit and just keep pedalling

by jamiewheels

Top spin

Map reference: Bank of England Sports Club
Carbs and Caffeine: none, a mouthful of nuts on my return home
Back into my sans-children groove, I want to my normal Friday spin class with Mark Reynolds (info@markreynoldsfitness.co.uk). It’s another sweat dripping off the ponytail vibe, followed by abs (how I hate abs, I bet there’s a hateabs hashtag out there).
Mark’s speciality (I’ve spun, or should that be spinned – as in hung and hanged – with many trainers. They all have their special ways) is an upper body work out where you sort of do pressups over the bars, while still pedalling and keeping your hips up. Although quite painful, this has actually transferred to proper cycling as I am now much more comfortable on the drops.
Husband disapproved at first, thinking I should stay upright in order to keep the chest open, but he’s now found it’s quite a good position for himself too. On a long ride, I figure the ability to change positions has got to be a good thing.
So thanks, Mark, another minor victory over my resident expert.
Note to self: you know you work harder in class, less spinning at home while watching the iPad, I think.