Spinning!

That’s right, just in time for the weather to turn foul (again) the MCT spinning classes will begin. For the rest of the fall semester we will have one spinning class per week on Sunday mornings from 9-11. This will allow you time to engage in you preferred cross training activity. Starting next semester we will increase this to two classes per week so that we can ramp up our fitness for the start of the road race season at the beginning of march. Of course, these classes are open to all members of MCT (if you have access to the gym) not just roadies.

One important thing about these classes. I will be structuring them primarily around heart rate training. While it is possible to do this manually, I cannot recommend highly enough that you have a HRM for these classes. You don’t need anything complicated, in fact there are HRM’s out there for ~$25 that will work just fine http://nashbar.com/results.cfm?subcategory=60001054&category=600094&browse=&storetype=&estoreid=&brand=&searchbox=&start=1&orderby=price1&pagename= for example. This will allow you to work in the target zone more effectively and benefit more from each class. It is not as essential for the fall workouts as they will be focused on strength, but once January rolls around and we start to work aerobic fitness and threshold it will be an essential tool to have.

This semester’s classes will begin on November 23rd and run until Dec 21st. Also, there will be a sign up on the forum EACH WEEK since there are a limited number of spin bikes available. I will post the sign up for the first class once I recall how many bikes are available.

I hope everyone else is as excited as I am. Let me know if you have any questions.

WOOOO!!! SPINNING!!! YEAH!!!

… not.

just kidding everyone. hons’s’s’s spinning classes are great. i just remember last march wanting to shoot myself from being inside for so long. i’m not really ready for the going slightly insane part of training just yet…

If you don’t feel like that, I haven’t done my job properly.

Im guessing this will go down in the spinning room besides the fitness center… do we need a special card to enter?? im guessing it should be free for us??

thanks

Yeah, it’s the spinning room down the hall from the regular gym. And yes, these classes are included in your MCT dues.

And no, you don’t need a special card to get in (other than a valid student card…I think)

I’m thrilled. I’ll need to get my Cateye’s battery shenanigans figured out, though.

do we need to bring anything?

where do we sign up? seeing that spinning starts on sunday…

You should be able to sign up here soon.

In terms of what you should bring: some of the bikes have spd pedals, so you can bring your biking shoes if you have that type of clip. If not, just wear running shoes. Apart from that, you don’t really need to bring much. Water, maybe a small towel if you sweat buckets.

You can also bring your pedals and shoes (and perhaps a pedal wrench, i usually do that)

and a barf bag. or, just don’t eat too much before coming.

and i highly recommend a towel. if you’ve never spun before, know that you will sweat. think about it. you’re going as hard as you normally would on your bike, but you’re not moving and there’s no wind to dry you off. so please, bring a towel.

guess we can bring our own seat as well?

If I remember correctly, a 6mm Allen-key can also be used to remove the pedals (otherwise it’s 5mm).

It depends on the pedals, some have the allen key slots, some don’t; some don’t have the 15mm wrench fittings either. Seats are much more of a pain to change.

yeah, don’t plan on bringing your own seat (this is really unfortunate).

And I second victoria on this one: BRING A TOWEL. save yourself the embarassment.

Erm… would anyone suggest wearing a chamois or chammy… wtr…,

or was that already a given or assumed?

yes. wear your cycling pads.

we’ll just pretend you didn’t ask that.

so sign ups? or since its the first time, we can just all go??

The bike saddles on the spinning bikes are really uncomfortable - I think you’d be dying without a chammy.