I reaaaaaaaaaaaally wasn't going to run tonight I debated it all day. then I thought, I blogged last week about not running. Can't do it again this week, pathetic. I'm glad that I did.
The reason that I didn't want to go was that my thighs are KILLING me. I finally (wo)manned up and made it to a Cycle Fit class on Saturday (aka spin class but I don't think the Y owns the rights to call it "Spinning"). I liked it, yes. I would go back. I really liked the instructor (I can't really remember but I want to say John). He's this like, 70 year old extremely fit guy who really likes music so throughout the class he would tell us what artist was singing the song that was playing at the time.
Cycle fit/Spinning is that class that you may hear people call torture that you do on a stationary bike. I introduced myself as a newbie when I got up there and I wasn't alone, there were at least 2 others. John?got me set up on my bike and I sat there awaiting this legendary workout. Honestly, it's tough. I think that one of the guys behind me is a real cyclist as he was wearing a cycling shirt and the other dude directly behind me knew him so I assumed he also was a cyclist. Hey, I have to do something to keep my mind occupied. I normally make up stories about people when I am not focusing on staying alive. Anyways- the point is: there were varying degrees of athletes there.
It's actually really easy to make the workout suit your level. You can choose not to stand up, you set the tension on the bike yourself and you choose your pedaling speed. I definitely was not adjusting the tension very much and my friend gave me a great trick afterward. In her spin class they tell you how many times to turn the tension dial- when they say 3, she turns it 2 and then does a pretend one. In this one the instructor just told us to work to a percentage of our own choosing. So baseline we should be working 60% then he'd up it to 100%. So I didn't need this handy method with him. He wasn't the yelly type he was very encouraging. If you were smiling he'd acknowledge it, which made me smile. 2 things I took pride in...and I'm petty I know. One of the new girls had to leave after 15 minutes. I stuck it out the whole time although for a portion of if I envisioned my BP dropping and me passing out on the bike with my feet still in the little footholds. The other- the man behind me was really given 'er throughout the class I could hear him. Trust me. In fact at one point he dropped an f-bomb. I liked it. Ok, so we're doing the cool down at the end and for one of the stretches we have to put our foot up on the seat and touch out toes. Thanks to yoga I had no problem whatsoever and I got pretty deep into the stretch. The guy behind me could barely touch his shin. I realize he's obviously way more fit than me, but I took the small victory in my flexibility. I knew I was in trouble after the class and I could barely walk down the stairs. The following day I couldn't even walk with substantial pain. Then today- still sore.
So I am sure you can understand why I wasn't so keen to get out there. I had a good time once I got out there though. Good music played. and my legs felt good once they warmed up. Clearly, I did an abbreviated cool down afterwards. The stretches were a bit much for my traumatized legs.
Morgan, you are such a trooper! Spinning intimidates the heck out of me, but you have pushed me a little further in the direction of giving it a try. Your instructor sounds great! :)
ReplyDeleteIt scared me too. I figured the worst that would happen is that I wouldn't be able to do it and I'd have to leave. In all honesty, as I mentioned this workout is one that you can totally adjust to your ow fitness needs. Unlike yoga for example, where if you can't do a pose, you can't do a pose or it's obvious when you're doing the easier one. No one can tell what your tension is and it's so challenging that even people I could tell were incredibly fit would sit. I did like my instructor. I had to miss out this week but plan on going back next.
ReplyDelete