The lyrics are something like we drift deeper – life goes on – we drift deeper – into the sound – travelling somewhere – could be anywhere. There’s coldness in the air but I don’t care – so bring it on. Embrace me – surround me – as the rush comes. This song seems appropriate, both in tempo and feeling to tonight’s spinning session.

I’d felt energised this afternoon after finishing writing a lesson plan and presentation for my teaching cycling skills course. Travelling to spinning was fast and furious, despite an encounter with a BMXer. I don’t get the point of a stupid little bike with no gears and no lights, jumping on and off pavements and scaring the wotsits out of pedestrians. Open road, smooth tarmac and enough lights so the 4WWs have no excuse is the best way. If you have to go off-road, do it on a proper mountain bike!

As I arrived at spin-central, some wee nob-ends were hanging around. One threw some gravel at me. It turns out they (probably) had thrown stuff at the windows, so that class was delayed while clearing up occurred. Also, the spinners had found a cat that had been run over – there was much upset. (Hug to ——- [I don’t want to embarrass her]. Can’t be nice seeing something you care about knocked about.) However, I didn’t know about this until afterwards.

The session had Andy’s usual music (unsubtle hint to Andy: please give me a track-listing!), with warm-up, jumps, hills, running, etc no different (as far as I can tell) from the last few weeks. And yet I was able to give it a lot more than usual, even running. (This has been problematic for me because my right shoulder won’t take my body-weight. I’ve now found a way of putting my weight on my forearms which allows something similar to running.) I’m not fit, I’m not fast and my leg-strength is nothing compared to some of the spinners. (They include full-on triathletes and major roadents.) However, for me, this was one of the best sessions – keeping going, putting more into it, running on the pedals until it seemed there was nothing left, sitting for a moment and finding there was more after all!

Even cycling home via Ferry Road and Orchard Brae (where I normally have to unclip from Lev Davidovitch Bikestein’s pedals in case I start to fall) seemed OK, despite the cold night. I even had the energy to do the washing-up!

Huge thanks to the spinners, to Elly for the funky new shirt and hugs again to anyone who was upset by the fate of the wee fur-ball, the news and whatever other crap happened today.

And if anyone doesn’t know what I’m on about, look here (website) or here (Facebook). Or better still, come to one of the beginner classes and discover for yourself the hugely enjoyable semi-masochistic mayhem of cycling to fine music in perfect safety and with some of the most supportive people it’s been my pleasure to know!