I took a spin class tonight, taught by Cat 1/Pro female racer Kristen Meshberg. It wasn’t in some fancy gym, but in a brick warehouse building in the West Loop in Chicago.
I entered the huge elevator with my bike and my trainer and hit the button for the third floor. And truthfully, I was a bit nervous. I had never taken a class like this before. A year ago I never would have even attempted it. My cycling friend who recommended Kristen’s class “warned” me of the hurt I would probably experience. I needed to put that aside.
I was immediately greeted by Kristen. She spent time going over the workout, what I should expect, and some other basics. And she complimented my bike. Ok, I like this woman.
She projected the Tour of California on a huge section of the brick wall that was painted white, and we started pedaling. Relatively easy tempo for the first part; concentrating on spin, cadence. Then, eight killer sets of attacks meant to simulate race efforts with very short recovery time between sets. Ridiculously short. And finally on to intervals. In total, ninety minutes of pure, sweat-filled heaven.
She was riding along with us and she probably doesn’t realize, but when I could I would watch her. Strong powerful legs spinning the pedals, and not a single wasted motion from her upper body. As we were doing these drills she would talk of real-life racing situations, and how what we were doing directly related to the effort you need to be competitive. I can’t wait to go back again.
We talked for a while after class. She talked about how she wants to get more women involved in cycling. It’s easy to see how much she loves the sport. And as I was about to leave she said to me, “We’re holding a racing clinic on March 20 for women. You should come.”
Hmmmmm……