Real Ryder Indoor Bike Class

As I've foolishly registered for the Ride for Heart as a VIP (Very Important Philanthropist, pledging to raise $1,000) - I'm privy to a bunch of perks that the regular masses can only dream of. The regular masses who are not pretending to the Heart and Stroke Foundation that they will be able to raise $1,000.

One of these perks was a free indoor bike class at Cykl, a studio that has RealRyder™ bikes, which are regular stationary bikes except for the fact that they move side to side as well, so that you can add a bit of core and arm strength into the workout. I'm not one for indoor workouts, but since I don't really love riding a bike anyhow, it was kind of all the same to me!

Our instructor had the workout up on a big whiteboard, and from what I could tell, we probably did an easier version than the max in her ranges. What I liked about this was that we were asked to be in tune with our bodies and our perceived effort, rather than having an electronic readout tell us what we're doing or what we should adjust to doing. The tension on the bike was adjusted with a simple crank that we had to turn to our own measure of effort as we went along. And our exertion was based on how we felt, not heart rate.

Workout: 2x through:

- bike handling practise
- 3x 1min rolling hills - sitting, then 15 and 30secs out of the saddle respectively
- turning workout - using the biceps and core to turn the bike and hold, then swerve the other way and hold, etc.
- sprints on a very light hill: 5secs hard wind-up, then holding sprint for 30-60secs
- 8mins hill climb, with 15-45secs of stand-up riding, and 1min recoveries

At first I had a hard time controlling the bike out of the saddle, but I observed how the instructor used her abs and arms to absorb the movement of the bike, so that her bike was totally straight as an arrow. I was eventually able to mimic that, and she gave me an honourable mention for it after the class. :)

This might be really good for my bike strength conditioning, and I may actually come back for another class.

--Duration: 45mins (60 with warm-up)