So, anyone keen for 6 hours of spin? Yes, yes, pick me, pick me!! Of course I am up for a 6 hour spin-a-thon, especially when it is for a good cause.
This past Saturday, 40 women of varying ages and fitness levels made their way to Brighton to cycle for cycle hours in aid of Breast Cancer. Each rider was required to pay £40 to enter and asked to raise a minimum of £60. In true form, we all had to wear pink outfits and accessories – I am not really a pink person but I succumbed to the pressure and wore a pink cycling shirt. Others wore wigs, leg and arm warmers, socks, earrings, head bands and whatever they could get their hands on.
Three different instructors were to teach two classes each – the first class was a warm up ride, just to get the blood flowing – nothing too onerous or hectic but enough to make you sweat. The second ride however was what I believe to be the most challenging of all the rides, we took on a leg of last year’s Tour de France route. This is the class that I pushed myself the hardest in – lots of switchbacks!! Maxed out the old heart rate. Love it! The third ride was taken by Mel Chambers, the event organiser and was a nice, long mountain climb. Again, a challenging ride and I pushed myself on this ride also. Following this third ride, I was absolutely famished….had a quick pit stop for some fruit and nuts – lots of other riders where digging into jelly babies, mars bars and various other goodies – not really my taste for a long ride. So far, bum OK!!
The fourth hour was full of surprises, we didn’t know what was coming on the road ahead. The fifth ride, well, you guessed it, it had to be done - lots of cheesy tunes but I should note that Kylie didn’t feature even once! The final ride, again taken by Mel, was a low end endurance ride, recovery ride but guess what – no one wanted to do much in the way of seated flats or seated climbing! Sore bum? Affirmative!
Between us, we raised just shy of £5,000 and I believe further funds are coming in after the event. My hat goes off to all those women that rode, particularly those that are not instructors or regular cyclists – of which there were many.
The only improvement that I could suggest is that they use the star trac spinning bikes.
A great event and one that I would happily do again – maybe with a bit more padding on the cycling shorts.
Best regards,
Karen Caldwell
