Spinning class - The Race

The title says it all - no drills, no breaks, just hard work for the whole ride with attacks thrown in. Not for faint-hearted and requires a good level of fitness, although you judge your own effort levels and so don't have to push yourself to your limits.

Start warming up with relatively quick leg speed and gradually add resistance over the 4 minutes while slowing your legs to match the rhythm of the music. You should feel like you're starting to warm up by the time you hit the climb and settle into a steady rhythm - from here, neither resistance, effort level or leg speed should drop (apart from temporarily slowing down your legs while taking a drink of water). The consistency of effort is vital - whatever your desired effort level, keep it there as a bare minimum.

For attacks 1 & 2 you're trying to split the pack of riders and get rid of the hangers-on. To apply this extra pressure - the equivalent of increasing your road speed - add a lot of resistance, enough to make it too hard to keep your rhythm in the saddle, so that you have to stand up to keep climbing. A heavy effort, spread over 3 minutes, but try to keep it constant to stretch the pack until it breaks, building a time gap. When the attack is over, resistance returns back down to the climb, i.e., no easy recovery - the important thing is to not relax afterwards or the riders left behind will start to catch up again. For the first minute or so, keep pedalling until your legs adapt and start to recover from the attack. Then settle into the rhythm again before taking a drink of water.

By the time we get to Attack 3, we're left with the hardened climbers. To shake off these guys, there's no point in applying more pressure as they'll just stay with us. So we need to spring a surprise attack by keeping the same resistance but jumping out of the saddle and accelerating as much as possible for the full minute. You shouldn't be able to double your leg speed as resistance is quite heavy: 10-20% is realistic and is enough to create a small time gap. Then it's back to the saddle for a minute of normal climbing - don't take it easy or that attack will have been for nothing - to regain your breath (no time for water!) before Attack 4 and anothe acceleration to shake off the remaining riders.

Finally, a sustained 3 minutes of seated climbing before we start working towards the finish line with a final 3 minutes out of the saddle. Up to you whether you keep the same resistance or decide to up the pace a little by increasing it. Then, for the final minute, it's as much resistance as you can possibly handle while still keeping the same leg speed - reach for the line with your final burst of energy and cross the line with nothing left to give. Well done, you win! Just make sure you don't do anything hard that day (or the next, if you can!), as you'll need to recover fully.

Warm up (to 70% HRR) - 4 min
Seated climb @75-85% HRR - 5 min
Attack 1: Standing climb @80-90% HRR - 3 min
Seated climb @75-85% HRR - 9 min
Attack 2: Standing climb @80-90% HRR - 3 min
Seated climb @75-85% HRR - 7 min
Attack 3: Hill sprint @85-90% HRR - 1 min
Seated climb @75-85% HRR - 1 min
Attack 4: Hill sprint @85-90% HRR - 1 min
Seated climb @75-85% HRR - 3 min
Standing climb @85-90% HRR - 2 min
Final push for the line @90-95% HRR - 1 min
Cool down and stretching - 5 min

HR Profile:


Playlist:
Saltwater - Chicane
Invisible - Tilt
Home - Chakra (Attack 1)
Everyday - Agnelli & Nelson
Please save me - Sunscreem vs Push (Attack 2)
Rapture - IIO
Sandstorm - Darude (Attacks 3 & 4)
The Silence - Mike Koglin
Universal Soul - Mandrake (final sprint)
The Lonely Shepherd - Zamfir