I’d failed to do anything wheeled since Monday night’s spinning session (I don’t count cycling to and from Cramond or to and from Napier – both journeys are under 5 miles, especially the trip to Napier), I was happy to try the Sunday Sundowner spinning session, led by the one and only Martino. Elly’s exercise quotient for this week had also been severely reduced by work-stress – she’s not been home before 8pm and a couple of times wasn’t home until well after 10pm.

So after a fairly lazy day (lunch at Nando’s – I even wimped out on the extra hot sauce – and a movie*) we were ready to face the challenges Mr R might throw at us. I don’t know whether this evening was typical of Martin’s sessions but I echo Elly’s comment that it was fun, with really clear instruction. Martin’s voice came through very well, with much more than a hint of fun and encouragement. He dealt even very well with an involuntary heckle from my digestive system.

There wasn’t a scenario or theme holding the session together but this absence wasn’t a bad thing. Instead, each track was a self-contained unit of work: a climb, a time-trial, a sprint or similar. All of these were spilt into relatively long sub-units. So a track might be 60 seconds at fast cadence, then 60 to 120 seconds of faster cadence or running (or both!), followed by either an similar interval back at the original work-load or a higher work-load, just to push us that little harder.

The intervals felt longer than I’m used to and I’m not good a sustaining high cadences, so, in retrospect, working on these aspects was very welcome. (At the time, I just gritted my teeth and swore silently at my legs to stop moaning: my right knee and thigh grumbled noticeably during the session, so I wasn’t able to push as hard as I’d have liked.) Ah well, next time! Overall, it was fun – good craic, a very small class (only 8 of us – a great shame for those who missed out) and so lots of personal encouragement. Top marks to Martin for including the Stranglers’ exquisite cover of Walk on by – play it loud!

And so I have to echo Arnie. This might mean spinning 4 evenings in a row each week until I’m ready for the Tour o’ the borders – can my gear and our washing machine take it? And here’s a thought for a post TotB challenge: to do and blog about every spin session Lifescycle offers at least once. Not quite sure about doing them all in the same week: 17·25 hours of sweaty fun!

*Silver Linings Playbook: a romantic comedy(?) set around mental illness – it was reminiscent of things I’d sooner not go into here. Let’s just say that the script and direction felt quite close to the knuckle.