To everyone here who recommended spinning classes for the winter........

[TrekTheKaty]

Thank you! I just signed up for my 3rd 6-week class. I came off a century last fall, and was STILL hurting after my first spinning class. I've learned to sprint and push up "hills" without worrying about having enough energy to get back to the car! I've also learned to stand up while pedaling--which apparently required more core strength than I had at the time. My husband has also joined me--and never rides off without me!

Now I'm just focusing in smoothing it all out and getting a little more turnover before the weather breaks in St. Louis. We even switched to the 5:30 am class, so we'd be ready when the time change.

Thanks for the encouragement girls!

[tulip]

You will be shocked and surprised and full of wonderment at how strong you are when you get back on your outside bike!

[Miranda]

Good for you on spin class. I love spinning. I'm certified to teach actually, but not in practice at the moment. I was a spinner first, then re-found my love from childhood of riding a bike outside.

Spinning can let you focus on different aspects of your riding while not worrying about cars running you over. I love being able to just close my eyes on a nice quick seated flat in spin class and do nothing but focus on making lovely circles towards a perfect pedal stroke.

AND... I even have time to take a mental vacation to somewhere nice I would love to ride outside.

Yeah for spinning.

[li10up]

I don't want to hijack your thread but how do you train for hills on a spin bike? There are a couple at the little gym I go to but don't know what to do. I want to get stronger going up hills while standing and sitting. Do you just crank up the resistance or what? Do you do it for the whole ride or just for a short period of time?

[Mr. Bloom]

THis is great! This winter I lacked time and motivation to get into the cycling classes...and I know I'm going to regret it!

[tulip]

I don't want to hijack your thread but how do you train for hills on a spin bike? There are a couple at the little gym I go to but don't know what to do. I want to get stronger going up hills while standing and sitting. Do you just crank up the resistance or what? Do you do it for the whole ride or just for a short period of time?

Does your gym offer spin classes? I find it hard to be motivated on a plain exercise bike outside of a class. With a good instructor, you can get a tremendous workout.

[Duck on Wheels]

Does your gym offer spin classes? I find it hard to be motivated on a plain exercise bike outside of a class. With a good instructor, you can get a tremendous workout.

I can motivate myself on the exercize bike (for a while anyway) by bringing along my own music, and maybe even a book to distract me, or pick a bike facing a tv screen at the gym. Buuuuut ... those ex. bikes are not as adjustible as the spin bikes, and they have fat cushy "comfort" saddles, which are a pain in the b*tt after half an hour! So I do better (as in stick with it longer and work harder) at spinning, but that too is getting boring by now after 3-4 months. Good to hear that this is likely to have paid off by the time the snow's gone and I can ride my bike on the road again. I feel stronger, but there's this niggling voice of doubt that maybe I'm kidding myself. I'm up to 6-7 hours of spin classes a week, this week half of that just on Monday after work . And I still have to keep building hours if I'm to be in shape for ALC come June. If I don't get out on the road pretty soon where there's wind through my helmet slits and changes of scenery I'm afraid I'll go spin crazy .

[li10up]

Does your gym offer spin classes? I find it hard to be motivated on a plain exercise bike outside of a class. With a good instructor, you can get a tremendous workout.

No, it only costs me $35 a month so there aren't a lot of bells and whistles. Since I live in TX I'm able to ride year round for the most part...but I rarely ride solo anymore so no "training" rides for me. I've thought about the bikes at the gym but don't really know what kind of workout to do...so I just jump on the treadmill.

[tulip]

I guess it just depends on the demand for spin classes. My gym is $35 also and it as spinning classes almost every day. Another branch does not offer spin classes because the demand is not there.

Maybe if you suggest that they ought to offer spinning, they will work towards offering classes.

[GLC1968]

No, it only costs me $35 a month so there aren't a lot of bells and whistles. Since I live in TX I'm able to ride year round for the most part...but I rarely ride solo anymore so no "training" rides for me. I've thought about the bikes at the gym but don't really know what kind of workout to do...so I just jump on the treadmill.

If you want a more guided workout for the bike (or the treadmill), you can try the iTrain series. These are audio workouts (similar to cardio coach workouts, if you've heard of those) that are specific to each type of machine (including weight training and yoga - which I have not tried). The iCycle workouts are designed to be used on a bike and include a full workout set to appropriate music (that you just put on your MP3 player). I haven't done one of these in ages, but I remember them being pretty good!

http://www.itrain.com/program/iCYCLE

This is the link to the cycling workouts specifically, but the've got a ton more in lots of different categories.

[Irulan]

Does your gym offer spin classes? I find it hard to be motivated on a plain exercise bike outside of a class. With a good instructor, you can get a tremendous workout.

That is correct.

However, I got burned out on the spin class scene. The way I got motivated indoors is working with an online training program. I get a little email each day giving me my work out ( intervals, cadence, strength, recovery etc) and that works great for me.

[TrekTheKaty]

I don't want to hijack your thread but how do you train for hills on a spin bike? There are a couple at the little gym I go to but don't know what to do. I want to get stronger going up hills while standing and sitting. Do you just crank up the resistance or what? Do you do it for the whole ride or just for a short period of time?

I usually cringe when someone says you need to take a class before you start something (I'm a certified personal trainer and do quite a bit off of DVD's) however, it's probably true for spinning. However, the answer to your question is increasing the resistance every 30 sec or so until you are all the way up to your maximum (and probably standing by that point)--followed by a low-resistance high cadence spin. There are sample workouts on Lemond's Fitness website:

http://www.lemondfitness.com/product...ce_Classes.php

There's also DVD's, web classes on cyclo-cub.com and a few different podcasts. I haven't tried them all yet.