Agreed. Doing a spin class and following the instructor is MUCH harder than the average hour of real cycling, if you don't live in the Alps or something ;^) There is A LOT about it that is super annoying for an actual cyclist, but (for me) it is 1K calories burned in an hour and a bucket of sweat. I set my "bike" up similarly to my real bikes and I don't generally follow when it is something dumb that isn't part of actual cycling. There is a lot of artificially high rpm standing with instructions like "add a little bit of gear". Overall, it is a hard workout but I have mostly only been doing my short fixie commute since I started doing spin with my wife over a year ago so I don't know how it translates into real road riding.
Doug
Quote:
Originally Posted by eddief
and I gotta say for me there is a big difference between "keeping up" in a spin class and my typical 40 mile club ride with a 2K feet of climbing. When I club ride I usually ride fairly hard but mostly keep the gearing in a range that is comfortable so I can last 40 miles.
in today's spin class I was standing up when commanded to do so after cranking up the resistance and staying there until allowed to sit back down and back off on the resistance. in other words i was being forced to work way harder on purpose than i ever "force" myself when road cycling. it was the toughest 45 minutes of "cycling" i have done maybe ever.
i will go back and suffer some more and do believe road cycling will be more fun as a result.
today's class = 12 women, 1 me.
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