John’s Ramblings

Today was session one of the ‘07-’08 High Intensity Training (HIT). A group of the Green River Riders are doing this 13 week workout series in the garage of one of the participants.

Ten folks showed up this morning, two were absent, and one person was 5 minutes late (me). John had a hard time getting his ass out of bed this morning after spending Saturday night at the neighbor’s house for wine and cheese tasting (discovery of the night was Root: 1 Cabernet Sauvignon ‘05-the clear winner of the night).

The garage is of the 3 car variety, and the cyclists are arranged in a circle across two car-spaces. One person calls out the exercises, and counts down the interval times for the other riders. Being in the garage rather than a warm and brightly lit gym gives it a bit of a “Rocky - Eye of the Tiger” training feel to it. Being part of the group is key for me, as I don’t really have the inertia necessary to do these kind of workouts on my own. I need that peer pressure to keep me going.

Today’s workout was a few sets of “spin-ups” (intervals of increasing cadence), individual leg intervals, a 10 minute standing interval, and 5 minutes of tempo riding at the end. The total workout today was about an hour. One down, 25 to go.

Although my rear-wheel speed and cadence sensor would allow me to keep track of spin “miles”, I’ve never done this in the past.  For whatever reason I’ve always felt like “spin is spin” and “road miles are road miles”.  This may be due to my previous spin classes being at the gym, where no mileage can be tracked.  I think I’ll continue to track this time separately, and try to get all my “goal-mileage” on the road.

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