It’s been a couple weeks now since the Michigander and I just finished my fifth spinning class at my health club. Sam Kennedy, aka Pit Pull, is right: Spinning dramatically kick starts you to a whole new level.
Sam, my Michigander buddy, has been praising the benefits of regular spinning classes for some time now. I’m so glad I plugged in.
Today’s class at the Rochester Athletic Club was an hour in length and, truth told, after several of the 45-minute classes, I had my doubts about being able to finish. But I did, drenched.
It’s hard. Harder than the toughest hills we claimbed in this year’s ‘gander.
The classes have you moving to breathless very fast. You work on cadence and hill climbing and I’m suffering from a twinge of shin splints from all that standing off the saddle and attacking.
But I’m sold on the benefits. when I rode my normal 16 mile training route at Stony Creek over the weekend, I was stunned to see my time had improved by nearly two minutes. Without trying. And that’s after just a few classes.
I’m hoping to do at least two spinning classes a week from now on. The instructor says a 45 minute class equates in distance to about an 18 mile ride. An hour class is said to cover about 23 miles. But the intensity level is so high that you are much more drained than if you were riding outside.
We’re riding the Schwinn Evolution spinning bike at the club.
