Spin

This Sunday I went to my first spin class. I heard about this group from a cross racer I work with. This guy Paul Boudreau, who is a USA Cycling certified coach, runs it. Unlike most spin classes that are designed around an hour-long high calorie fat burning work out, this class is designed for cyclists. The real difference with this class is that we spin to actual Tour-de-France routes and other popular races and the route is displayed on a big screen at the front of the class.

Paul coaches the group through the route to develop strength and endurance using intervals. You get to bring your own bike and hook it up to their computer, as you ride Paul tells us what % grade to adjust computer to as we are climbing and descending hills. The trainers we hook the bikes up to have a surprisingly real road feel and they measure watts, something my trainer doesn’t do.

So this Sunday we did a Tour-de-France route, I am not sure what the route was but it ended up at a 52 mile ride (we did cut the route a little short). The total ride was about 2-1/2 hours, but it felt more like a real road ride than two hours on a trainer. Pretty fun for riding inside, I will definitely try to get up there for a few rides each month, I think the structured coaching will go a long way when the real season starts.

Check out the site here: http://www.opt-performance.com/