indoor cycling Archives - Cynthia Gellis

August 5, 2019August 4, 2019

Indoor Cycling, Summer Edition

I have recently made some changes to my indoor cycling schedule. I’ve traded in my Saturday morning class for Sunday. I know, I’m surprised at myself too!

I’m happy that I am managing to still get in at least two classes a week, even without having an overwhelming amount of grrrr to get out on a daily basis like I used to. But every time I go to the gym on Sunday morning, I crack myself up. Here’s the thing:

Yesterday was a beautiful summer day in southern California. Around 9am I got in my car, drove one mile to the gym, and spent 45 minutes in a dark room taking an indoor cycling class. There is nothing about doing that which isn’t at least a little ridiculous. It felt like I was living in a scene from LA Story.

First, it’s barely a mile. And I don’t think that it is too much to expect that I can comfortably and safely walk there during daylight hours (I give myself a pass to drive when it is still dark out). Also, after 8am parking enforcement is in full effect. Either drive around for 10-15 minutes looking for a spot or pay to use the metered parking. If you’re going to spend 10-15 minutes driving around looking for a free parking spot (like I did), you may as well have walked.

Second, it was a beautiful day but here I was choosing to do my exercising inside. Not just inside, but in a dark room. I really can’t get over my own ridiculousness. If I had decided to go to the 8:30 class instead, I wouldn’t give myself such a hard time because that still counts as first thing in the morning on a Sunday. By 9:30, you should have already started your day (unless you had a big Saturday night, which I did not).

One important component for getting habits to stick is to make them automatic. There aren’t options, it is just what you do. I don’t spend any time thinking about how I’m going to get to the gym on any other day. But on Sundays I keep considering all the options. I should walk…maybe I could take my bike…then I have to dig it out of the garage…do I need air in my tires? And by the time I’ve run through the whole monologue, it’s late. I need to either decide ahead of time that I’m going to bike and make sure that everything is ready, or I need to take that option off of the table and just know that I’m going to walk.

The bottom line is that I still make it to indoor cycling at least twice a week and that is what really matters. But I can’t help but laugh at myself about how I get there.

November 26, 2018November 25, 2018

100 Cycle Classes with Rachel in 2018

On Saturday, November 17, I completed my 100^th cycle class with my instructor, Rachel. Not only that, I was the first person to complete the challenge that she set out for us in January. I don’t know how that happened, but I am basking in a sense of accomplishment over it.

I had only become a Rachel groupie a few months earlier. There is just something about when she is yelling, “yes, you can!” at you that makes you believe it.

Rachel teaches twice a week, Wednesdays at 5:45am and Saturdays at 8am. No one goes to spin class at those hours for just for kicks, those are serious, get the grrrr out people. But 100 classes is still a formidable challenge. I love getting activity credit, checking things off, and discrete goals so I signed up right away.

At first blush, it seemed nearly impossible: Rachel teaches twice a week and there are 52 weeks in a year, so you can only miss four. All year. Yikes. If she was subbing for another instructor, that would count; also, you could count up to ten classes with other instructors toward your 100 (so really you only need to take 90 Rachel classes). If someone was subbing for her, that counted toward your ten. Ok, still challenging, but potentially moderately do-able.

I wound up using nine of my ten freebies, so I’ve decided to dedicate the rest of the year to making those up. My new-improved goal is to have 100% Rachel classes before Christmas. I’m not a perfectionist, but I do like to go back and fine-tune things when time allows.

Did I mention that there were prizes? How fun is that?

At 25 classes, you got a certificate. To me, this is a prized possession. For so many years a big part of my job was creating and producing recognition certificates and awards but this was the first one that I had received since I was in school. It makes me so happy to see it on my refrigerator every day.

At 50 classes, you got a granola bar. I somehow neglected photographic evidence of this award, but let me tell you, it was delicious.

At 75 classes, you got a water bottle. A fancy, Lulu Lemon squeezy-style water bottle. It says, “Your GOALS are showing.” This treasure spent a few weeks on my desk (aka dinning table) as a trophy before I deigned to put it into action.

I had to show up to class number 101 to claim my final prize. It is starting to feel like winter in So Cal and as I walked out to my car at 5:30am that morning, I remember thinking that I really should spring for one of those cozy Lulu Lemon snappy scarf things. Long story short, that was my prize!

Sally and Anabel thought that my accomplishment was great and sure, that was a nice gift, but they really thought that the gift bag was the real prize.

I am very grateful to Rachel for all the time and energy and resources that she put into this challenge because she loves her spin tribe. And I am so honored to have found and been granted membership into this group.

October 15, 2018October 14, 2018

Indoor Cycling, part 1

I love to watch the Tour de France on TV every July. The drama! The metaphor for the human condition! The scenery! I totally get why folks like to spandex up and ride bicycles for miles and miles outside in the fresh air, but cycling as a sport is something that I prefer to participate in as a spectator.

I do like ride my beach cruiser around the neighborhood. Sometimes I’m going somewhere that is just a little too far to walk, or the parking situation is too much trouble. But serious outdoor bike riding is not for me. The two big reasons why are: 1) the ground is hard; and 2) cars.

I do like to ride bicycles inside.

I first tried indoor cycling about 16 years ago. I have never been a cardio person and cycling is super challenging for me. The great part back in those days was that there really wasn’t anyway for anyone to know if you weren’t keeping up. I could just dial the resistance down or slow my pace or both when I started to feel like my lungs were on fire and my heart was going to explode. I still got stronger as time went along and could maintain an increasingly greater levels of effort but I certainly wasn’t ever keeping up with the class.

I credit indoor cycling classes for helping me discover the beauty of morning workouts. I think that it’s a great way to start a morning workout habit because you don’t necessarily need to be fully awake to do it. I mean, there’s not a lot of coordination or balance involved. And usually the room is pretty dark. You can get half-way through your workout before you realize what’s happening.

My current cycling routine is Wednesday mornings at 5:45am and Saturday mornings at 8am with Rachel. There is a great camaraderie in her class and once I had started showing up regularly, I was warmly welcomed into the tribe. Which is great and all except it’s not like the old days when no one really knew what you were doing. These bikes light up! Blue = easy, green = moderate, yellow = hard and red = breathless. So everyone can tell who is keeping up. Fortunately, everyone is very supportive and we really just judge each other on whether or not you show up.

Rachel’s class is very different from other instructors. She has us grind it out at various moderate-to-hard (green and yellow) intensities for long stretches with occasional bursts of red sprinkled in (last Saturday was 28 minutes straight through before any recovery, then repeat). It’s a different kind of mind game to hold pace for those long stretches. I’ll tell you, I still remember the first time I kept up on a six minute hard hill. Something clicked over somewhere around the four minute mark. I don’t know how to describe it, but all of a sudden I wasn’t just surviving anymore. I’ve been a Rachel groupie ever since.

I will tell you all about Rachel’s Great Cycle Challenge of 2018 in a future post.