Spinning!

My goal this year is go sub-3 hours, and now that I have a specific time goal I am totally obsessed with it. I find it much more motivating to be aiming for a faster time than the more nebulous "I just want to finish," and it makes the training a LOT more fun/interesting/pointed/intense. Add to that my HRM/GPS and I'm a total freak about this now. I'm reading books, talking to coaches, logging my workouts, and just generally working harder than I was last year. It's totally fun.

I just finished a spinning workout in the garage on my bike trainer. I have four cycling DVDs, and this one focuses on sprinting. It works on a 1:5 sprint:recovery ratio, which supposedly works some specific system over another that cyclists supposedly neglect blah blah blah...

It was hard, that's all you need to know.

After the warmup, there were 5 sets of 10 seconds of all-out sprinting followed by 50 seconds of recovery. We went through that twice with a 2 minute recovery spin in between, then a third set where we do a 5-second "lead-up" to the sprint, building our pace gradually over the 5 seconds to the all-out sprint. I seem to have blocked out the middle part of the workout and can't remember it at the moment.

What I do remember is the set of plyometric jumps. Ho-ly crap were those hard. We got off the bike and spent 30 seconds crouching down and exploding up off the ground. 30 seconds doesn't sound like a lot until you're 15 seconds in and want to cut your legs off because it would feel better. After one last triplet set that involved actually standing up to sprint for 15 seconds with 45 seconds of recovery, we hit the cool down part - my favorite!

I love the feeling of being done with a challenging workout. It's so satisfying.

Also, I find it entertaining that I keep using "we" when it was really just me in the empty garage with a DVD. At least I didn't curse at this one.