Just Keep Spinning

Outdoor cycling classes have been a ton of fun.  Well, some more fun than others.  I haven't written much about my cycling recently so I'm going to give an overview of the last 3 weeks.

The first week we split into our groups and my group did hill repeats.  The hill that John chose for us to repeat is called Lawyer's Hill and is a long, steep hill rumored to be 1 mile long.  I didn't look at my computer to see if it was actually a mile but I know that it was a long, difficult climb.  The hill went up steeply, turned to the right, leveled off slightly, then a steep incline again, then turned to the left, then more incline to the top. The ride up was really hard but the leveled off part gave me just enough of a break to be able to make the 2nd half of the hill.  My bigger challenge was going down the hill.  The first time down, I was white-knuckled on the brakes.  I was going 23 MPH and terrified.  The turns in the road, combined with some rough patches, made for a very scary downhill.  By the third time up the hill, I felt like I was going to throw up and my legs were pretty much jello...but I made it!  I wasn't the last one in my group to make it up the hill, but I was pretty close to being last.  Hills are a humbling experience.

The second week we split into different groups, and my group rode "the rollers".  We rode into Patapsco State Park and there are some rolling hills along the stretch of road. So we were practicing spinning at a cadence of 90 and shifting our gears to get maximum power.  I had a blast and was one of the fastest in my group.  (Not too competitive...haha)  I did learn a lot from one of the instructors, Maddie, as she rode next to me for awhile.  She helped me immensely with being on top of my shifting.  That has always been one of my weaknesses.  After the rollers, we rode up Lawyer's Hill.  Having done repeats on it the week before, I knew exactly what to expect.  I did much better this week, although it was still really hard.

Last night we all rode together.  We did a warm-up ride, then did time trials.  It was so much fun!!! Basically, John had us start in inverse order - the slowest went first and the fastest went last.  The goal was to keep anyone from passing you while passing as many people as possible.  I started twoards the back with maybe 6 or 7 behind me.  We only rode for 2.5 miles so there wasn't a ton of time to catch people.  The first 2 times I caught everyone except the lead rider.  The last one wasn't started the same way, so I actually started following the 3 fastest people.  My goal for that one was just to keep up with the speedy group.  By the end of the last one, I was maybe a 1/4 mile behind them, which I considered to be a huge success!

Overall, I am still struggling with hills.  I am getting better and the smaller hills aren't quite as daunting as they once were.  I am still terrified of Lawyer's Hill, but I am getting a lot more comfortable on the downhills.  The great thing about this class is the level of detail that the instructors provide.  They are all extremely knowledgeable and really try to give individual attention despite the size of the class.  I'm so glad that I took these outdoor classes!!!