Ah well, it turned out that my dream of four spinning highs in a row was a fantasy too far. I’d not slept well on Tuesday night: despite not finishing freelance work until 2am, I woke up ravenous and bathed in sweat about 4:30 and stayed awake for at least an hour. Not a good foundation for a full day of grinding out a research publication!

Anyway, I started the spinning session in a mixture of hope and trepidation. The session was so full that even the old Schwinn bikes on the stage were being pressed into service. (Stewart thought riding one was like driving an old classic car.)

After about 15 minutes, my left lower left thigh (just above the knee) started grumbling. I swore at it sotto voce, rubbed in some analgesic cream, reduced the resistance and carried on: I’ve found such niggles often disappear after a few minutes and indeed this one did. However, it was replaced by my right thigh grumbling in the same way. This too responded to swearing and analgesic but about halfway through the session my right upper thigh and hip began moaning loudly. The only way to shut them up was to reduce the resistance to almost nothing.

So instead of an exercise high, I felt quite depressed. Rationally, I knew this was due to tiredness, self-inflicted pain and overblown expectations. Before this week, such exercise highs have come my way about once every 6 weeks, so 4 consecutive highs was asking far too much.

There were some good moments though:

• About 5 minutes into the session, we had been running on the pedals. I’d had my eyes closed so I could concentrate on my cadence and form, and so didn’t notice the rest of the class sitting down. Andy eventually called out ‘you can sit down now Bruce!’, much to everyone’s amusement. (I was laughing too.)
• Elly got to try some SPD bike shoes – she was buzzing slightly from the extra power they gave her.

So overall I’m happy about that session and looking forward to our next session – the Sunday Sundowner!