Filed under: London-Brighton bike ride, X-bike, running, spinning | Tags: London-Brighton bike ride, spinning, X-bike
Having failed to get up early enough at any point this week to get the gym, I did manage to drag myself out of bed for one last spinning class before the London-Brighton bike ride on Sunday. As always, I was glad I made the effort once I got there. A different instructor took the class this morning – Matt – and it started off a bit slowly with some horrendous R&B crap as background music.
There’s a Sound vs Silence debate taking place on Runner’s World at the moment where two writers have swapped their usual running styles. The music nut has had his iPod confiscated, and the “running purist” has been plugged into headphones. Despite running years ago with no music before the iPod and even Minidisc player were invented, there’s just no case for silence in my book. But it’s just as important to think about the type of music. The chap who normally runs to the sound of his own heartbeat was sent out on his first iPod run with Dizzee Rascal. No wonder the poor bloke lost the will to live within the first few metres. He’s onto Mozart now. Can’t say that would flick my switch either.
Anyway, happily Matt turned out to have a wide variety of music on his iPod this morning and we left the R&B behind and upped the tempo with some guitar-and-drums rock music, involving some X-bike handlebar action and clapping during the chorus of a particularly catchy tune, and culminating in a standing climb, pumping the handlebars to Chelsea Dagger by The Fratellis. Jack Johnson helped us cool down, and I left the class with a smile on my face.
Filed under: London-Brighton bike ride, X-bike, cycling, nike+ sportband, spinning | Tags: cycling, London-Brighton bike ride, nike+ sportband, spinning, X-bike
Last Saturday I decided it was time for a “proper” bike ride, so headed up to my parents and went out with my Dad. He cycles several times a week to meet the other retired old gits at the “nursing home” (in reality a garden centre that makes homemade scones and beans on toast for them, before they go toddling off to the pub for a lunchtime pint. One of Dad’s mates drank eight pints the other day, and still cycled home in time to cook a Sunday roast. Which was a little confusing for his family on a Thursday evening.)
Anyway, he agreed to take me out and suggest that we go off-road through the Gorhambury House estate near their house. That turned out to be a good plan – because, on the main road that we needed to cycle along to get to the estate, I was cycling a bit like a granny driving a Rover 200…clinging on for dear life and braking my way down any slight descent, on bends and whenever a car approached. I got down the bottom of Bluehouse Hill and into the estate, feeling like a gibbering wreck.
Once into Gorhambury though, I started to relax a bit. Dad gave me some tips on my grip, when to indicate and brake, which made me feel a bit more secure – and we had a really nice ride. Not very far – Dad’s bike showed 12.8 miles (mine showed 14.5, which may be part of the reason I couldn’t accurately calibrate my Nike+ Sportband last week) – but enough to give me the confidence to go out on my own a bit. He’s also put me on to Wiggle to buy gloves and a lock for the London-Brighton. Fantastic service too – my order placed on Saturday arrived on Tuesday morning.
I’ve also done a couple of spinning classes this week. Class sizes are a bit depleted at the moment – not sure everyone’s enjoying the new X-bikes. Admittedly they take a bit of getting used to – and the classes are way harder than normal spinning – but I’m really enjoying them. It’s about as close to the sensation of outdoor biking as you can get indoors.
Filed under: Pulse8, X-bike, gym, spinning | Tags: gym, Pulse8, spinning, X-bike
“We’re going to christen these bikes with our SWEAT!” yelled Shyam over Candi Staton at Pulse8 this morning. The 35 people perched on the spanking new Trixter X-bikes in front of him looked slightly nervous; he’s a nutty spinning instructor at the best of times.
The X-bikes have the same tilting handlebars as the X-dreams, but the gears are operated by a twisting action on the right-hand side of the handlebars and there is no need for a screen. Shyam showed us some of the basic moves with the handlebars…and we were off.
Just had a gentle pedal to start with – wobbling the handlebars to simulate an uneven road surface and get used to the feel of the clicky gears – which are more sensitive that a traditional spinning knob that you turn 360 degrees to get resistance.
Next track we did some seated carves – the idea is to push the handlebar down to one side as you pedal, without leaning the whole upper body. This works the arms, shoulders and core as your legs work the pedals – give much more of a full body workout than normal spinning.
Shyam soon had us up and out of the seat, climbing and rocking the handlebars at the same time. It was quite tricky to get this right – as it feels slightly unnatural to push the right handlebar down as the right knee comes up, particularly as the pedals don’t seem to turn quite so smoothly (maybe I need to increase the resistance even more to overcome the slight jerkiness). You also need to maintain a pretty good sense of rhythm in time with the music to get the full benefit. After a couple of minutes of this, I thought my lungs were going to explode.
Thankfully, there were a few seconds of respite here and there. Unlike traditional spinning bikes, you can stop pedaling and “coast” in a seated or climbing position. But you can still pump the handlebars or squat to work the arms and abs while your legs take a break.
I always have been a bit of a sweaty betty, but I’ve never ejected as much water out of my body during a 45-minute class as I did this morning. Consider my bike (second row, second from the right) well and truly christened. Can’t wait for the next class though…
Filed under: St Albans half marathon, X-bike, gym, half marathon training, nike+ sportband, running, spinning, x-dream | Tags: half marathon training, nike+ sportband, St Albans half marathon, X-bike, x-dream
It’s 18:10 and I’m drinking my first cup of tea of the day. Anyone that knows me will find this rather surprising, but it’s been a busy one.
Got up at 6am to go to the gym, and ran 5km in just over 30mins on the treadmill’s “sport training” mode, which included some nasty inclines (I hate hills, but know I ought to do more of before the St Albans half marathon). I also had a go on one of the X-dream bikes, manufactured by the same firm as the X-bikes (which are going in today for the spinning class tomorrow). The X-dream looks like a sportier version of a normal exercise bike, with trail bike handlebars which tilt from side-to-side and gears operated by buttons on the handlebars. Mounted on the front is a Dell screen, which shows “you” on a computer-simulated trail. You ride around the trail, overtaking (or being overtaken) by other riders. Your lap is timed along with your speed, cadence, calorie count, and a multitude of other stats and graphs. My only complaint is that my character was obviously male with fat legs. I shall investigate whether you can create and save your own little character, like you can on the Wiii.
After that, I headed into work for an hour or so (spilling my first cup of tea all over my brand new laptop, docking station and papers – whoops). No time for another cuppa before heading into the big smoke for a journo briefing at Yauatcha. Very lovely Japanese food, and nice atmosphere, though a little noisy for business. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before, but chopsticks turned out to be ideal for eating seabass with: my tooth is still not up to metal cutlery, and you can’t really eat with a plastic baby spoon/your fingers in polite company.
Based on Warrior Women’s recommendation, I managed to sneak into Nike Town on my way home to buy a Nike+ Sportband. This is going to revolutionise my running apparently. Hmmm…better get out this weekend while the weather’s nice then.
Right, time for another cuppa…
Filed under: London-Brighton bike ride, St Albans half marathon, X-bike, half marathon training, running, spinning | Tags: half marathon training, London-Brighton bike ride, running, spinning, St Albans half marathon, X-bike
Enough is enough: it’s time I got myself in shape for the St Albans Half Marathon on 8 June and London-Brighton bike ride on 15 June.
I managed a spinning class on Friday when I was at the very lovely Henlow Grange with my Mum, and again on Monday at the gym. Then got back onto the treadmill this morning, doing a comfortable 5.2k in 30 mins. I won’t be breaking any records at the St Albans race, but I am desperate to finish it after having to pull out of the Hastings half due to illness.
I’ll try for the gym again in the morning, though normal spinning is off while the instructors are trained on new X-bikes. No, I’d never heard of them either. According to the manufacturer’s website, the X-bike allows the rider to:
“…functionally engage the upper body and core musculature while the legs do the pedaling. The exercise offers enhanced total-body fitness benefits while bringing the natural movements of outdoor cycling indoors.”
Crikey. I’ll be back to the gym for the Saturday morning class to give them a test run. Watch this space…
