My First Spin Class

Last Friday, some colleagues and I gave up our lunch break to attend a spinning class at a gym near our work. I'd never been spinning before, and to be honest was kind of intimidated by it! I'm not very good at going fast or climbing... I just go slow and steady for as long as necessary!

I'm more of a tortoise than a hare... (image source)

Things started off badly because we arrived to the class about 2 minutes late, so I was never sure what resistance I was originally meant to be at - so every time the instructor told us to turn our resistance up by half a turn, I would wonder if I was doing it right! It didn't help that my machine was unlike all the other ones in my class - it had twice the resistance so I had to divide everything the instructor was saying by two!

I thought I was doing okay for the first 15 minutes or so. Then the instructor shouted out, "Is everyone sweating? Who's not sweating? YOU'RE not sweating" (you can probably imagine, he was pointing at ME!) I pleaded that I really was sweating, but apparently not as much as I should have been for spinning class!

Anyway, the class was just the right amount of time and intensity to be extremely difficult but not impossible. It left me flushed and tired, but not broken. In fact, my legs felt fine, the bigger problem was being out of breath.

Going to spinning class is very different from going on a cycle ride - it's much shorter than my typical ride, it's obviously less pleasant to be stuck in a gym than to be experiencing the countryside at 20 kph, and of course there is someone screaming at you to work harder (and that someone is not your boyfriend!).

Anyway, it was fun and I hope it might eventually help me get my speed up. Up until now, I've continually pushed myself to go on longer and longer rides, but I'm reaching the point where I can't really push the distance anymore because there literally won't be enough hours in the day. Time to start working on the speed I guess!