February 2007 – Frank Kinlan's Blog

Weekending 04 Mar 2007

Monday: Spinning. No places at the Oval meant it was a trip to West Kirby and Barbara,s class. This was packed too, I suspect a few hadn’t swiped in.
A good class about 750 calories burnt, average heartrate was 139 BPM, peaking at 178 BPM, not a maximum effort but close. Vocal class !!!. Also noted was Gel seat covers making an appearance, they have obviously not had the sublime pleasure of a Brooks B17 narrow. Tried a couple of weight machines in the gym, a bit hard to get on stuff when half seem to be using the machines as chairs between sets.
Tuesday: Spinning. Another virtually full class, a couple of weights before the class and a couple after. 650 calories burnt, it felt like more, it may have been a slipping belt. Max 162 BPM, sweated buckets. Average 140 BPM, during the class but the stretching exercises lowers it a few BPM. Weight machines, not quite as bad as West Kirby but it it was Tuesday. Thanks Tina. Next Tuesday prebooked for once.
Wednesday: Restday, which means tiling a bathroom after work.
Thursday: Looks like a session in the Gym. It was a session at the Oval. Crosstrainer 15 minutes. followed by 500m/1min rest intervals on the Rowing Machine 3km rowed. Various upper body weights. Nothing outstanding but still better than sitting watching TV.
Friday: Work, nothing planned
Saturday:Work, nothing planned

Sunday: Ride day, undecided which one to do.

CTC Ride Eureka Cafe to Delamere Forest

I’d like to say I’ve pre ridden the route but after a GPS programming error I’ve ridden everything but the route. Friday had me riding 70 miles when I should have rode 50. I know where I went wrong but it went all went pear shaped at Backford. On the route out I’d only programmed 4 way points into the Garmin out of the 27 Ray sent me.
I’d got lost twice following waypoints left in the Garmin.

I ended up doing Ray’s Lady Heyes route to get to Delamere and I didn’t get there till 2 pm. Cajun chicken baguette and a cup of tea at £1 a cup and I was on the way back. That proved difficult too, the lane from the visitor centre was bad enough but it got worse past a barrier, mud and puddles had me off the bike in places after nearly falling off. The Yeld is cancelled as getting there is too dangerous. I’ve got something much tougher lined up.

I’ve been down this hill but now it’s time to go up it. It’s Heath Lane off Fishpool Road after crossing the A54. This is eventually going to take us down a 1:10 to Willington Corner and it’s all downhill from there.

18 miles out 21 miles back. More later, got to clean the bike.

Sunday: Up early, but I’m soon back in as the windshell isn’t going to be up to the weather today. Taking it easy along Route 56 throught Thourton Hough and Willaston. I hit the lights at Hadlow road. As it’s flat to the Cafe I decide to have a little go as some of the Northend are stuck at another set of lights. Next thing I know I’ve been passed by one of them. I’m doing 27 mph !!! and just about to get dropped . The rest are nowhere to be seen . At this pace I had time for my breakfast as always. I set my maximum heartrate for the day staying with this chap. 158 BPM

Now this is the first time I’ve led a ride, there was me thinking I’d a get out of jail card having only joined the CTC last August. Doesn’t time fly when your having fun. Various CTCers are drifting into the Cafe and I’m thinking there were going to be about six of us doing the ride. Janet says there are two new faces doing the ride and for one, Catherine it’s her first ride with the CTC, Andrew rode out for his first time last Sunday.

As we start to assemble outside the heavens open, not a good sign. The overtrousers are donned. Across the road Chris and Cliff are hiding in the bus shelter, not a bad idea but they’ve got their bikes in their with them !. 10:10 and ten of us set off towards Capenhurst, Chris, John, Janet, Bob, Jill, Steve, Cliff, Andrew, Catherine and moi. The Garmin bleeps before the station signaling a right turn. At the end of the lane it was left onto the cyclepath on the A5117. The Newt bypass road construction is really starting limit the route options out of the Eureka.

Single file down Liverpool Road turning off at Backford and down Church Lane which has had the hedge cut. This was as far as I got on Friday before loosing the route. Once over the canal its the climb up the hill at Caughall Manor. Two years ago this was a granny ring on a mountain bike job for me probably stopping at the top for breath. It’s down Fox Covert Lane and over the M53. Ashhey Lane to Picton and onto Mickle Trafford and the A56. Heading out towards Moldsworth some of the troops are a bit restless and Moldworth Motor Museum is nominated as a water stop.

Moldsworth Motor Museum.jpg
Ray informs me the cars are Jowett Javelin,s

We’ve made good time and the Museum isn’t open yet. Next minute one of the above cars turns up. Bob told me what it was but I’ve forgotten. Then like busses another two turn up. Out of the Museum Rays route has us going up Well Lane followed by Moss Lane, it turns out nobody has ridden this route and it went down quite well.
Further on at Dark Ark Lane Andrew passes me going downhill like he knows where he is going. Which he does, it’s me that doesn’t know where I’m going. A short stop to regroup after the climb to the junction and it is a rolling climb up through the forest along Ashton Road. Right at the junction with Station road and we are at the lunch stop. Some are partaking in the all day breakfast on a baguette at the Station Cafe, the rest of us cycle down to the visitor centre.

As luck would have it I had the last Cajun Chicken baguette which wasn’t bad, comes with a small salad and a cup of tea. If this is what it’s like in winter I can see it being mayhem in the summer. Plenty of mountain bikes around and there is a chap with an owl under the covered seating outside.

Chap with an Owl.jpg The group after lunch.jpg

Now the original plan was to go down the track past the above and ride up The Yeld, I actually managed to ride The Yeld on Friday and this time it didn’t seem too hard and yes I did do it in the middle ring. Friday was dry and the path was muddy after a night of rain and showers in the morning only Catherine on mountain bike tyres would have stood a chance.
Plan B which was scouted on Saturday was to carry on, on Station Road past the Abbey Arms towards CoteBrooke but turn up Heaths Lane which is a fairly long climb.
Oh before I forget Barbara and John joined us at the visitor centre, it’s Barbara,s ride to the Candle factory next week.

Now it has to be said some people don’t like hills and I was one of them so I was a bit wary of including this one. It’s the only part of the ride that I’ve put in myself (no Yeld)so you can’t blame Ray if you find it a struggle.

It wasn’t too bad, Andrew kept me company up the first section so would get bonus points if I had been keeping a tally. It turns out that these are his local roads it wasn’t a bad ride up the hill for only his second time out. Stopping part way up so the back of the group can still see the front it was then on again towards the summit. Then the heavens opened, it was time for me to don the overtrousers that had been ditched at Delamere. There is a cafe at the top of the hill that Bob and Jill told me about, I hadn’t noticed it on the recce. It would be a tough climb if you did it from Willington Corner as it’s 1:10.

The descent to Willington Corner had me loosing the light off the back of my bike. Robust little thing as thats twice its dropped off with no damage.Thanks to the woman walking the dog that picked up the pieces. Two left us at Willinton Corner and the rest of us headed of towards Duddon. Across the road and heading towards the Crocky Trail.
No time for the Crocky trail this time Bob, maybe have it down for one of your Wednesday runs. We have a water stop at Waverton admiring the traffic chaos due to poor parking. Its a fairly straight forward run back to Mickle Trafford.

Around Picton Gorse I’m asked what route I’m going back to the Eureka, the plan was to go down the dip at Mollington but I’m told that Catherine was starting to struggle on the hills so it was back up Church Lane. It doesn’t seem as long when you are going up it for some reason. Liverpool Road was busy with the usual fast traffic that it attracts. Stopping at lights and the Old Wirral Hundred pub I have a thought, this pub isn’t old it’s relatively new, the original one is actually in the Wirral, this one is more Cheshire than Wirral. When I was younger I was a member of the Wirral 100 Motorcycle club so seeing this place grates.

The pace has slowed a bit but we are nearly home Janet and Chris peel off at Capenhurst to take the Missing Link home, Bob and Jill peel off for their car. So John, Cliff, Catherine and moi make it back to the Eureka for a well earned drink. If I was dishing out prizes one would have to go to Catherine for completing what I would call a Medium Difficulty ride on her first outing. We all know what it is like to ride with mountain bike tyres, a bit like riding through treacle.

If you get to read this Catherine a pair of slick tyres will reduce your effort by about 50% on the flat, you may find the gearing too low eventually. The other thing is you really do need a helmet. I had a fall on Christmas Eve were if I hadn’t been wearing a helmet I think I’d still be in a coma now.

Link to Goggle Map of Ride

Link fixed and I’ve spent the last five days trying to edit it. Learnt a lot.

My thanks go out to those that turned up, and Ray for the route. I’ve got to admit it was an experience leading a ride, so thanks to Janet for nominating me. I had a great day despite the patchy weather. I’d only joined the CTC in August following the three rides rule. Before that I’d been doing my own thing not thinking I was fast enough to ride with a group let alone lead one.

The ride home from the Eureka was much the same as it normally is but past Thornton Hough the road and fields down to Brimstage were bathed in a low sunshine. It was a fitting end to a grand day out. There are another 10 months left in this year it promises to be another fantastic year.

Stats: 46.4 miles. 2400ft of climbing, 2500 calories burnt Average speed 11.2 mph.

Wait till I program the Steve Cummings training route into the Garmin, it followed parts of this ride and is listed at 63 miles.

The eighth followup class

I’ve another followup class coming up tommorow and I’m coming up to the end of my year on the course. Saturday was the anniversary of my making the decision to do something with my life and sign up for this course.
For those on the course at the moment the course doesn’t finish after the 12 week classroom sessions. You should be looking to do this for the rest of your natural born.

If you’re not getting results have a good look in the mirror and try and take control of your life. Out of 25 that started the class I’m the only one left that regulary attends followups, these figures really shock me. This probably goes a long way to explain why I get so little feedback from other Lifestyle and Weight Management Course participants.

I’m still of the opinion that women drift back to Slimming World and Weight Watchers, men generally don’t do either but only see their doctor when they think they are terminally ill. Which brings me back to the very reason you are on this course in the first place. You are in bad shape and need do something about it.

Nine of us turned up the followup class and the major theme of this class was exercise and food labelling (GDA, Traffic lights and the standard labels) Gordon from the class that I attended was there so that makes two of us that are going the full term. There was discussion from the September class about numbers coming back. They think they are good, I think they are pretty poor. The course runs for 12 months, half the class will have dropped out by week 12 and of the remainder most will have dropped out by the third followup class.
Once you have missed a followup it will be very hard to get back on track. Depending on how you look at it the course may be judged as succesfull, if you take the figures at the end of the 12 months it might be judged less so. I intended to do the full 12 months, its been an outstanding success for me. Way way beyond what I thought could be acheived.

See you next month Andy, I passed the message on to Ron.

Weekending 25 Feb 2007

Monday: I’ve had better days but managed to get a spinning class at the Oval. Work on the car didn’t go to plan and had to be abandoned. Had 20 minutes on the cross trainer before Louise,s class and a couple of weights then it was time to grab a bike as people had turned up early. The Precor crosstrainer reads significantly more calories than the Crane Sports HRM.
Louise is a regular reader of the spinning section now, so all the posts were not in vain.
It was a full class with a couple of new starters, the attrition rate of new starters is nearly as bad as the Lifestyle and Weight Management Course I am still on. Many do one class and are never seen again.
Any way it was a good class with a sprint at the end we weren’t expecting. This was an opportunity to bury myself again, I’d had a maximum effort on the previous hill section.
The stats: 815 Calories burnt. 65 of these were in the warmup while the newcomers were being shown the ropes. So the net result is Louise,s Monday class 750 calories burnt. Max heart rate 187 bpm.
Now a google search has a 42g Mars Bar at 190 calories, so thats 4 Mars bars worth.

The Mars bar scale is a bit tricky as there are a number of different sizes of bar and the size has come down over the years, a 60 odd gramme bar is 290 calories on some of the searches I’ve done. It looks like i’ll have to get to the bottom of this one as I’ve been using the Mars bar scale for a while. I used to snack on these out of the vending machine at work. There is a worse example, a Cadburys Double Decker.

284 Calories in a 62.5g Mars bar. A normal size Mars bar is now 62.5g so 42g must be a funsize or multipack size. A bit of a let down knowing a good spinning class is only 2 and a bit Mars bars.

Tuesday: An hour in the gym after work, weights logged plus a session on the rowing machine 500 metre intervals with 1 minute rest. 1:56, 2:06, 2:01.4, 2:01.4, 2:00.9 2885 metres rowed in around 15 minutes including the rests.
Wednesday: Lifestyle and Weight Management course followup class.
Thursday: Gym after work, weights, crosstrainer 250 cals, Rowing routine as above. 500m/1:00r 1:57.5 1:56.6 1:55.6 1:55.6 1:53.8 3152 metres rowed. Started to do 2 sets on some weight machines with a reduced weight.
Friday: Ride Sundays route to Delamere. An absolute disaster of a day The route was corruted and I ended up riding The Lady Hayes ride, worthy of a post on its own.
Sunday: CTC ride to Delamere led by moi. Ray has prepared this route for me, thanks Ray I owe you another one. Includes The Yeld after lunch just to liven things up. Bonus points awarded for getting up in the middle ring(road not MTB). Double bonus points for beating me up. Ad hoc points awarded awarded throughout the ride. Points for turning up, points deducted for punctures.The run leaders decision is final.

Stop Press: Yeld removed from ride!!!. The track from the visitor centre is too muddy so I’m looking at another route.Shame I know, I’m sure you were looking forward to it.

Mini NorthWest Passage Audax

Friday had me preping the bike for todays ride. What I thought was a faulty wheel bearing wasn’t which is just as well as I would have had trouble sorting it. energy drink was prepared too as I didn’t want a last minute rush.

I’d set off in good time for the start and made the home of the co-op, Rochdale in good time. Finding the start proved to be a bit more problamaticle. I’d stopped at a garage for directions and the chap I showed the map to said it looked nothing like the route to the start. Another two people were stopped and I made the signing on with less than ten minutes to spare. Ray and Craig were there and Ray had found me a spot to park, thanks Ray.

Mini Northwest passage start .jpg

With the Edge set to Navigate route it was right at the mini roundabout just down the hill from the pub. After a while we took the Todmorden Road and passed through Calderbrook and summit. Todmorden had barely woken up when we went through. The route was mainly A roads but traffic was reasonable and before you know it we are in Burnley. Around here we have our first stop for food and water.

Our next stop after this is Gisburn where we have to note what is behind the toilets. There has been a fair bit of climbing and a fast descent to get to Gisburn.

The first control point.jpg

Once on Mill lane we are on a different ride, off A roads it’s a lot quieter, It’s a sunny day and the views are great. Further on it’s Bolton by Bowland heading towards the next stop at Waddington.

The original cafe checkpoint has closed so it is a couple of K’s further on we stop at at Bashall Town shop/ cafe/brewery. Here Ray and I decide to have an ice cream. It is the middle of Febuary after all. Ray asks for the one with two scoops, so I’ve got to have the same. Now I wasn’t expecting what came , Ray certainly wasn’t these things were monsters. We were laughing like kids trying to eat them.

Febuary and were eating Icecream!.jpg

In the village before this picture the signs were telling us to go in one direction and the Edges in another. We followed the Edge which is always proving to be the right thing to do these days. Late in the ride when we are hooked up with some local riders we come to a roundabout with multiple exits . The locals take the second exit and stop as we go past the first exit the Edge is saying we should have took the first. Two of the group later pass us on a climb and say we are on the right route.

Rays been on fine form today there were a few times when I was in danger of getting dropped. On one of the climbs back to Rochdale Ray was leading out Rochdale Triathlon Club members. Craig and I were down the road wondering if they where going to give him an honary membership. Lots of the climbs were at a 5% gradient the steepest gradient on the day comes out at nearly 15%. If you look at the route profile in Motionbased it has us climbing 5,454 ft, the Edge had it coming out at 4754. Either way it’s a fair bit of climbing when you’re used to a flat Wirral and the Cheshire plains.

On the descent int Rochdale we pick up a local rider while waiting at a set of roadwork traffic lights. The descents have proved to be good as the Edge has me clocking 39 mph on one of them. The cycle lanes have curb stone lane separators every couple of hundred yards to force the cars out of the gutter. Cycles pass straight through, they seem to work. Anyway as I’ve got through a set of light near Rochdale Town hall I have to wait for the others, the Edge is saying left at the next set of lights. Our newly aquired riding buddy tells Ray he knows a short cut back to the start.

So right at the lights it was, now I’d been this way in the morning when I got lost. It was up the hill to the set of lights at Drake Street, along Drake Street right at MFI and a couple more turns and we end up in Mattalan car park dodging Saturday afternoon shoppers. It gets better, as we go down Oldham road under the rail bridge the traffic becomes gridlocked by roadworks further on. Now some of us are filtering down the outside of the traffic, our new guide is doing 20 mph down the pavement past rows of shops.

This stops at the next set of lights when we are in the same boat as the traffic. A bus picking up at every stop is our next hold up but it’s soon past and we veer of down a one way street marked on the route and back to the start. The pub is busy with customers and wedding parties but we find the control point in one of the rooms at the front. Once signed in it was a well deserved pie and peas to finnish what had been another great day.
It had been sunny throughout the day, blue skies and very little wind. The scenery has been good with rolling hills dotted with sheep. I’d say Cheshire is more cows as there is a lot more slurry on the roads, Yorkshire seemed free of it.

Link to Google Map of route

Stats: 75 miles, averageing 13.6 mph, max 39mph, 4726 calories burnt, Gaining 5454 ft and losing 5448 ft. Average heartrate 128/9 bpm for 5 hours 28 minutes. Max 167 bpm.

Weekending 18 Feb 07

Monday: Work followed by an hour at the Oval. Very busy because it’s a Monday. Rowing machine was free so rowing it was, thought I’d have a go at the 2 Km workout. Eight minutes and ten seconds later I was finished, I don’t know if this is a good or a bad time but boy did I feel finished after it. What weights I could get on followed and 15 minutes on the cross trainer(200 calories) and that was me done.
Tuesday: Work followed by grouting the bathroom.
Wenesday: Feeling the effects of the rowing, having a night off.
Thursday: An hour at the Oval after work. 40 minutes on the crosstrainer = 500 calories. Rowing, 500 metres with 1 minute intervals went like this, 1:49 2:06 2:01 202 and I covered 2446 metres. The 2:06 session was when I had to stop to adjust my footing as I’d only set one side correctly. Resistance is level 4, which is supposed to be the same as water. Felt like I’d had a good go after this and it’s very time efficient.
Friday: Booked for Sheila,s spinning class at Europa pools. I’m not looking to set any records on this one, Saturday promises to be a tough day.
Rode out to the Eureka for Breakfast, started raining properly by the time I left and I had no overshoes which wasn’t a smart move. 18 miles.
Sheila,s spinning class was half full but fully booked up on the computer, good class 625 calories burnt, no records broken but pulse went to 180 bpm and the average was 137 for 55 minutes.This includes the streching exercises at the end so would probably be in the high one forties.
Saturday: Mini North West Passage , looks like it’s all uphill from Rochdale.

CTC Ride Eureka Cafe to Lady Heyes, Frodsham

A wet start had me donning Altura waterproof overtrousers for the ride to the Eureka Cafe for Breakfast. The Iceni was put into service as it has better mudguards than the Trek, well it has a front one as I haven’t got around to fitting the front Raceblade yet.

Plenty of Northender,s in the Cafe, the Sunlight were thin on the ground and approaching the magic hour CTCers started to appear. Elleven of us set out to the Lady Heyes craft centre. This place has links going back a long time to the place I now work. It was formally a farm.

Anyway we set off through Capenhurst as the normal route out across the A5117 is closed for the forseeable future. The weather is now nice and bright with a clear sky, a far cry from when I set out. We head out towards Little Stanney (Cheshire Oaks) on the cycle path, if you zoom in on the link deep enough you can even see where we went around the roundabouts. Once we are on Little Stanney lane things are a lot quieter. Then it was on to Picton lane which gives you a chance to chat amongst the group. I haven’t seen some since last year, one from last September.

We join the A56 which is quiet and divert through Dunham Hill only to rejoin further down the A56. Turning towards Helsby we take a right up Primrose Lane, before it starts to get steep we divert around a golf course down Towers Lane. We have a short break on top of the disused railway bridge and then it on towards Alvanley.

At Alvanley we pass what was once Dugdales, a Yamaha dealer that people (me) used to travel miles to visit. It looks like it has been a sports car showroom after that, and is now on the verge of dereliction. These days it means it’s a prime spot to redevelop and build houses on.We head out towards the summit of the trip out Newton. There are fantastic views of Cheshire from here and John reckons he can see Joderall Bank.

From here it is all downhill and its one where you make sure your brakes are in good order or at least clear the crud off them. Once you’ve made it to the bottom Lady Heyes is just a couple of hundred yards along the road.

I’ve never been here before and at first glance it’s a bit of a mixed bag, any place with a pet crematorium is bound to be a bit quirky. There is a chap at work that used to work there when it was a farm, I’ll have to ask him about it. I ended up having a chicken an bacon baguette at the cafe. Ray bought the tea , thanks Ray.

There was another small group at the cafe when we got there and we ended picking up another rider for the return to the Eureka. Once we had sorted ourselves out we were heading back along the road we came on but picking up the next right turn in the direction of Delamere. The Yeld is going to feature in my ride at the end of the month and I heard mutterings about it on this one, “We’re not going up the Yeld are we?” not this time but pretty soon.

Anyway Ray leads us past the start of the Yeld and on to one that gives it a run for it’s money. Maybe not quite as brutal as the Yeld but still a fair test and they all meet up in the same neck of the woods..

More later, no pictures this week as the memory card on the phone was full.

Link to Google Map of route

Weekending 11 Feb 07

Monday: Work followed by 1 hour at the Oval. 30 mins crosstrainer hillclimb programme 375 calories, 10 mins rowing 2325 metres,141 calories and whatever weights I could get on. Monday evening is a busy night.
Tuesday: Work followed by another hour at the Oval. Much the same as Monday, crosstrainer was 375 calories in 30 minutes again the same as Monday but on the crosscountry programme.
Wenesday: Work, followed by yet another hour at the Oval. 10 minutes rowing, I usually have 1 minute at 100% tonight I kept going to see what I’ve got in me. 2 minutes came up and I’d had enough , 2250 metres. Weights, assisted dips aren’t doing the shoulder any good so I stopped after one.
Thursday: Louise,s spinning class, early start for this one. Looking at the HRM as the class progressed I didn’t think I’d make the numbers. About 3/4 of the way through Louise calls for a hill climb. At least once a week I now take myself to the limit. This was the limit, 190 BPM on the Heart Rate Monitor (Aldi £12.99 a bargain).Sandstorm was done out of the saddle to four sets of eight twice.
750 calories burnt and some weights after the class had the total for the session at 887 calories. I’d also reset the HRM after the warm up as we managed to get in early.
Friday: Spinning class at Europa pools. I’ve also booked next Friday while I was there. Class was about half full which was a pity as I bumped in to two girls who couldn’t get a place when I came out, one remembered me from the previous Friday.
Anyway it was a good class with 717 calories burnt. It was actually more than this as the belt lost contact at some stage and I watched it drop down to 120 BPM and I was trying hard at the time. Once adjusted it was back up to 160 odd. So I don’t know how long this was going on. The watch had me peak at 177 BPM. A 4 minute sprint out of the saddle finished off the class. Sheila mentioned my calorie counting and one of the girls asked what it was equivalent to. Three Mars bars was the answer from 2 of us. Thanks Sheila. If anyone wants one of the cards that gives the link to this site just ask. Women ask for the cards because they have someone in mind that needs to loose weight. The cards are a subtle way of broaching the subject.
Saturday: Free. Bought a new pair of cleats from Quinns. Drove to Delamere. Slush
Sunday: CTC ride Eureka Cafe to Lady Heyes centre led by Ray. The word is that this is going to be hilly and not a gentle flat leisure ride. Hope the snow has cleared.
Cracking early season ride, sun was out, 40 odd miles on the ride a lot of it new to me.

Weekending 4 Feb 07

Monday: 1 hour at the Oval gym after work. Weight routine logged, the numbers are all lower than before the crash. Rowing, 5 minutes, second at 100%. Good to be back.
Tuesday: Work
Wednesday: 1 hour in the gym before Barbara,s Spinning Class. Weights , logged another session on the rowing machine doing one minute intervals. About 280 calories before the class. I haven’t been to Barbara,s wednesday class for a while, it clashed with last weeks weighin. It was a full class with a number of new starters. Guess who forgot his water bottle and had to buy a drink out of the vending machine. 500ml isn’t enough for me these days. I saw Barbara at the end and mentioned that the site had had 160 odd visitors to the Spinning pages alone. If you ever get time to see this post Barbara let me know what you think.
There is no let up in some of Barbara,s classes, the HRM tells me. If you’re doing a climb it is more than likely going to be followed by a sprint. Anyway it was a good hard class for me. The stats: 884 Calories burnt including a warm up and cool down. Spinning calories burnt 720+, I’d checked at the end of the class. Max heartrate 185 BPM. Average heartrate 147 BPM and that was over 1 hour.
Thursday: Loise,s spinning class at the Oval. Managed to get a place, this is a 5:15 start so you can be done and dusted for 6:00. Four new starters tonight, the first time is always a shock and two of them came without any water. Not something you do twice, thats if you make it twice. The stats: 790 Calories burnt, Max heartrate 187. Average 136, I hadn’t reset the timer so it’s lower than last night. Trust me, it should be higher.
I had a word with Louise after the class about all the spinning related hits that I am getting and gave her the link to the site. This is where the Six Degrees of Seperation comes into play. I’d mentioned about the world wide interest and that I’d even had a hit from YellowKnife, Canada. Louise it turns out has a relative in YellowKnife and tells me it’s a tiny place. Talk about a small world.
Friday: Managed to get a spinning class at Europa pools.
First time there, the class had about a dozen machines. All Schwinn machines, I’ve mentioned these before and the harder workout they give you compared to a Precor machine. Two new girls started the class, and by the look of things they didn’t know what they had let themselves in for. Sheila takes the class with a radio microphone headset which was the first time I’d been in a class with one.
The format is much the same as with other spinning classes but each class is never the same as the last and each instuctor has little differences compared to another.
It all makes for a bit of variety.
Towards the end of the class Sheila puts on Sandstorm by Darude saying in we all know what this means. A Sprint ?, the woman on the bike next to me said ” Pain”.
I don’t know what the intervals where but it seemed like a minute, a great way to end the class. There is a stretch that is supposed to stretch the inner thigh, I’ve been doing it wrong due to having the wrong foot position since I started. Thanks Sheila for putting me right. You learn something every day.
Stats: 770 Calories burnt. Max heartrate 181 BPM (I’ve been slacking) Average heartrate 148 BPM.
Saturday: Managed to get through the fog only to find the Oval shuts at five on a Saturday.Reception managed to find out that Bidston was open untill 7:30 so Bidston it was, thanks for making that call. Rowing , crosstrainer and ten minutes on that machine thats like cycling with your arms plus a session on the weights had me burning 470 calories. It’s been a good week, I feel I’m back into it, seen 84.5 Kg on the scales for 2 mornings which is a new low.
Sunday: Work

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