I'll admit it, I have spent the whole day dreading this spin class which Suzanne talked me into going to. I have never done a normal spin class before and this one had a difference... it was at altitude. Not properly at altitude of course as it was in Chorley and not even on top of a hill in Chorley. It's simulated altitude and all the spin bikes are inside a chamber where the oxygen is gradually reduced (at least I think that's how it works anyway - probably a bit more technical than that).
I got there and was greeted by not only Suzanne but Nadine from Horwich RMI too! It was starting to look like a club session. Dave, the instructor took us, along with two other ladies and two fellas into the 'chamber' where the bikes awaited us.
Dave showed us the four different standing positions, which just involved having your hands at different positions on the bars and leaning forward on some positions but being upright on others.
After the warm up, we did various stints at different rpms and in different gears which at some points were really challenging.
What can I say, I loved it! It really showed me how fit I am because I followed Dave's instructions to the letter, keeping up more than the speed he was telling us to be at and having the gear where he was telling us, yet I was still able to keep going and, during the rest periods, was able to talk easily despite sweating profusely. Turns out my lung capacity is much better than I give it credit for and we got up to 9,500 ft I think.
At the very end Dave issued a challenge and had everybody stand up at position 3 with gear 16 and see who would be the last to sit down. I'm not embarrassed to say that I was the first to sit down. The reason I'm not embarrassed though is because it wasn't because I was tired (although I'm not going to say I wasn't tired at all as that would be a blatant lie) but was because my right hip was sore and felt like it was jerking and, even though I was trying desperately not to give up, I thought I might be doing myself more harm than good if I carried on. I sat down but I kept going at just under 140 rpm and stayed in gear 16 so it's not like I shirked off completely and gave up. My hip just didn't hurt when I was sat down, although my backside did and I think I'll have to wear padded cycling shorts next time!
Suzanne, as I suspected, was last to sit down, along with a young lad who seemed determined not to be outdone by a lady. In fact, neither sat down at all and Dave stopped the session because I think otherwise the competition would have gone on all night.
We were on the bikes for around 45 minutes altogether and it was a great workout. I'll definitely be back and it was really nice to catch up with Nadine who I haven't seen for a while.
We were told that they can accommodate group sessions so come on happy harriers, give it a go!
These Strava stats will show absolutely nothing as I wasn't wearing a heart rate monitor so the rpm it shows bears no resemblance to what I was doing but they're there anyway.
http://www.strava.com/activities/209735760
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