Mondays Moans!

Picture 1

Hello Blog lovers.

I am a day late but this blog is all about yesterdays exercise.  I have just had a thought, not sure if this should be in my cycling blog or whether to leave it here.......hmmmm, I shall have to think about that.

So, the moans.....oh the moans and the groans of yesterday, such a lot of groans! But first let me just reminisce for a second.   I remember as I child, spinning, spinning and spinning, it was a fun thing to do, anything we could spin we tried to spin! A spinning wheel was fun.....  ok that was a bit scary in the sleeping beauty story, but there were spinning tops, (see pic.1) they were fun!  I loved watching them as the spun and spun, around and around. Some even made a lovely whistling noise if you got it to go fast enough.  Then there was battling tops!  (pic 3) That was great fun.  Four in a game, you wound your battling top up, then secured it in the launch zone before pulling the string to make it zoom off to the arena to do battle.  Spinning widely, knocking your opponents tops out of the playing area!  Great stuff.

Picture 2

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Even spinning around and around in circles, (can't do it now, makes me feel very sick, not being spun but me spinning grandson!) See pic.2 (even though that is not grandson, obvisouly!) But just spinning, spinning alone, round and around, as a child, looking up at the sky, spinning and spinning inanely as kids do. Those were the days. But mention spin these days and the fear shows itself,  etched on the faces of the 'victims' of the 'Spin Instructors' !  As you can probably guess, yesterdays cross training comprised of a spin class followed by 'Body Balance'.

Pic 3

I was in a bit of a rush to get there, as I had a school run to do, so I drove there, missing the warm up jog from Bim's house. Finally as I sat in place, bike all set up for my little legs, hardly anytime to 'losen' the legs with a bit of gentle spinning, so the instructor started!  "Ok, round one level 1" and so it begins.

After what seemed ages the sweat was pouring off me, I was guzzling my drink, looking around at everyone. They  were all working hard, you could see the sweat on the shirts of the other spinners.  I didn't want to, but I took  a look at how much time there was left of the class "What, only 3 minutes! Really!" I couldn't believe it I could have sworn we were at least half way through our session, but there it was, illuminating from little computer on the bike, just 3 minutes of spinning done, yet already I was hurting!

It was like that the whole way.  I tough session,I tried to keep up.  It hurt, my legs were screaming! I was sure I must have lost half a stone in sweat!  I glared at Bims, I couldn't give the instructor any of my  'looks' as I was in the direct line from her and there were at least 3 people in front of me!  I couldn't keep up with all that she said, I tried, I really did.  There is no point coming to these classes if you are not going to try, right?

I stood up on the pedals again, trying to at least seem as I was working as hard as the others, and then I saw her.....the instructor.....she was off her bike and was weaving through the cycling sweaty bodies of her class. She was looking to see if they were at the top speed that she said.  "Oh no, oh no, is she going to come over here and see how pathetically I am doing!" I don't think I even touched on the top speed today.

What it would have looked like had a photographer
been about! (pic 4)

She looked at a couple of the ladies at the back row (which is where I was) but thankfully by then she was satisfied with what she had achieved! Her work was done.  Round 3, level 1, spinning, spinning, spinning.  Nearly done, My legs feeling jelly, sweat dripping from my head,my face, my neck, my entire body, nearly done.

Then it was the warm down! Oh thank goodness! It was so good, stretching out the screaming jelly legs, the arms and the back!  Wow. Another spin class done!  Loved it, loved it! I can't wait to do it again!

After that, it was the gentle exercises of the body balance!  But even that had me sweating!  I am sure I am getting more 'bendy', well, I am just wishful thinking really! But it's just what is needed after a very hard spin class!

Great time yesterday. Loved it!