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Winter Blues, Spinning and Fiddies

Here we are in the middle of December. Christmas is near with the outlook of 2009 not far behind. While I'm always looking forward to the holidays, the winter itself has barely started and I'm already waiting for this winter-wonderland season to be over. Maybe I'm just a little more stir-crazy than normal, but I'm over the cold and snow. The spring is looking pretty good right now and it couldn't come a day too soon for me. While a 17-hour drive to Jennings GP in Florida is no quick escape, it’s looking better and better by the day.

To pass the time, I've been at the gym several times a week and doing some pedaling inside at home, but more importantly – have started back up the routine of the spin class. Good God is it awful. Really it is. But yet somehow great at the same time. Sixty minutes on a bike that puts a pounding on your entire body. Pedaling and lots of it – standing up, sitting down, doing pushups on the bike while pedaling faster than you ever would normally. Leaning left, standing forward, leaning right, standing backward, drag a knee (well, everything but that). Adding resistance, adding more resistance, pedaling as fast as you can for counts, and then upping the resistance yet again and repeating. Then set the resistance even higher and simulate climbing a hill. Do counts of that, sit and pedal faster. Then sit, stand, sit stand, sit stand; fast paced – 10 sets of 10. Repeat, repeat and repeat again, while trying to not look at the clock each and every minute to see if the end is near.

The best part is when it's over. You get off the bike and are completely drenched in sweat. You've got to have a spare t-shirt on hand. The lights are turned off during the class (probably because it's mostly women and they don't want to be seen in such a state of disarray), but with music blaring and an instructor pushing you on, it's a friggin' great workout – especially for racing a motorcycle (I sure as hell wouldn’t do it otherwise). If I was doing this at home, I'd have stopped before I hit the halfway point – either because of boredom or because I didn't think I could go any further. You get through the sixty minutes, numbly walk or fall off the bike and surprise yourself on how you made it that far.

The tricky part is that the classes fill up so fast, you call two hours ahead of time to signup – and if you're more than a couple minutes late on the call, the class is already full. That might be considered a good thing, but when you build up the will to actually do the class, finding out you can't get in is a demoralizing letdown. On an uplifting note, last night there were five guys in the class. A new record!

One thing that might get me out of this winter funk is that Kart 2 Kart is back open and in business, which means I can start riding the little CRF-50 again. Jay, Justin and I have been running events there for the past couple years, but when the existing Kart 2 Kart closed down and plans for the new "Apex Karting" fell through, we didn't think we'd have a place to ride this winter. Better late than never. Now I’ve just got to dig out and dust the cobwebs off the fiddy.

We used to run an all-out race series which became quite extensive (see http://www.glmmrs.com), but with the short notice on Kart 2 Kart reopening (and honestly, the amount of work running a series actually took), it's perfect to just run open track events where everyone can just get out and ride.

Since dad's and my brother's 50's were stolen last year (bastards), my dad's been riding my bike. Fortunately he's contributing a new set of tires this time around. The tires last forever, but once forever becomes two years and counting, it's not a bad idea to throw on some fresh rubber. December 28th will be our first event and I'm looking forward to bangin' bars with everyone again. Time to find out how many hours Justin spent prepping his bike, why Jay isn't riding, and what new excuses everyone else has.

I wonder if that GPS timer will work indoors .. I mean, it's overkill – but if it's just sitting in the toolbox, I might as well try it out, right?

Friday, December 12th, 2008 | POSTED AT: 10:05 AM
FILED UNDER: General

2 Comments on “Winter Blues, Spinning and Fiddies”

Justin wrote on 18 December, 2008, 7:51 AM
Quite honestly I have lost touch with my fifty craz. Over the summer I rode it a few times and that was about it. I believe once things get going again (if I can fit in my leathers) the interest will spark again at a lower level of intensity. This will lead Ed trying to talk me in to racing big bikes, which would be enjoyable, just not feasible at this time. I look forward to seeing Joe Kraft on the fifty this year as he has some expectations to live up to after his success this summer. Most of all I wait to pass George Black at K2K to see the look on his face.
Eddie wrote on 18 December, 2008, 7:56 AM
Big bikes would definitely be better than four wheels. You know that.

JK is coming to ride from what I’ve heard! And George – he’s going to be insane this year. He keeps telling me how many one-handed pull-ups he can do. He’s going to be off the deep end insane this time around.