...Your cycling DVDs are killer!
It's rainy and gross outside today, but I needed to cram in some kind of bike workout, so I popped in one of my spinning DVDs and set up my trainer in the garage and off I went. I figured I'd do about 30 minutes of intense spinning then call it a day. The DVD I put in contained a 65-minute workout. Okay, I'll just go for 30-40 minutes (notice the time already creeping up?) and then hop off.
Right.
I totally did the whole thing, and I cycled hard!
The DVD, called "Cycling for Cadence," focuses on your pedal speed (or cadence) and increasing your power output while maintaining a certain rpm. I don't have a bike computer that tells me any of those data points, but I watch the people on the screen and try to match their pedaling. When that fails, I put my head down and just pedal as fast as I can. There are a number of sets, where you pedal really fast at a low resistance for 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 4 minutes with 1 minute breaks in between. Then you get a ~4 minute break, then you do two sets of 5 speed intervals of 30 seconds on/30 seconds off. The "on" means high cadence and high power - so increase the resistance but keep your cadence up - for 30 seconds, then recover at a low resistance/high cadence for 30 seconds. Five times through, ~3 minutes rest, then do it again. THEN you get to the good stuff.
At this point I'd finished my water bottle, so I hopped off my bike to refill it during the break. I have clipless pedals, which means my shoes clip directly to the pedals of the bike, and to exit you spin your toes inward and the clip unlatches and you can step out. I, being a bit tired, leaned to get off the bike before properly unclipping, and over I went, bike, trainer, and all, onto the garage floor.
Awesome.
No injuries except bruised pride, which really isn't so bad when you're the only one there.
The last set was killer - three sets of 3 minutes on/3 minutes off, where the 3 minutes "on" was high cadence/high resistance, and the "off" was moderate cadence/low resistance. "High" resistance for me is only a cog or two up the chain ring, not much but I can really feel the difference, and for the very last set I spent all 3 minutes in a higher cog than I had before, and really focused on keeping my cadence up. Three minutes is a long time, and to get through it I can't watch the clock so I just put my head down and close my eyes and listen to the awful music they have playing on the DVD. When the idiot on the screen opened his mouth and said "You only have..." I figured that was going to the 30-seconds-left mark, but then he said "one minute..." - and I thought, okay, I can do one more minute of this, but then clearly he'd read his stopwatch incorrectly, because he added "...and a half left!"
I actually cursed out loud at him.
Again, glad I was by myself.
After that, there was a ~7 minute cool down, which was just spinning at a low resistance to loosen up your legs again.
Oh, I almost forgot - of course I started the set chewing gum, and guess what happened? It fell out of my mouth! I really need to rethink this gum chewing habit, but I don't know how else to not end up with a really dry mouth...
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