Normal service will be resumed next Saturday, we hope to see you then.
Thursday, October 30
Metafit cancelled this week
Normal service will be resumed next Saturday, we hope to see you then.
Monday, October 13
Metafit
Created by a former Royal Marine Commando, Metafit looks to burn fat by working big muscle groups with simple, unchoreographed bodyweight exercises in high intensity intervals. There are many copycat workouts but none compare to the original.
It's difficult to describe but you can find out more on our Facebook page or, better yet, join us for a FREE taster session!
Monday, October 6
Rise of the Phoenix
Hi there!
If you are following this blog, you may have noticed a distinct lack of posts from me in your feed. After a few years' sabbatical, where I decamped to Facebook, I shall be returning to blogging again.
I'll come clean: I got enticed by the immediacy and interaction of Facebook but that interaction also meant dealing with the irrational, the idiotic and the downright nasty. So, to retain my sanity, I have recently left every FB group related to indoor cycling and fitness bar one, reverting back to my blog (which I originally started to move away from an indoor cycling forum that had turned nasty).
My aim is to post anything that wouldn't or doesn't make it to a paid online publication. This blog helped me get noticed but I have to pay the bills; so, any profiles or articles deemed worthy of being published won't be reproduced here (for obvious reasons!).
I hope, however, that I'll still have plenty to say and write - watch this space!
If you are following this blog, you may have noticed a distinct lack of posts from me in your feed. After a few years' sabbatical, where I decamped to Facebook, I shall be returning to blogging again.
I'll come clean: I got enticed by the immediacy and interaction of Facebook but that interaction also meant dealing with the irrational, the idiotic and the downright nasty. So, to retain my sanity, I have recently left every FB group related to indoor cycling and fitness bar one, reverting back to my blog (which I originally started to move away from an indoor cycling forum that had turned nasty).
My aim is to post anything that wouldn't or doesn't make it to a paid online publication. This blog helped me get noticed but I have to pay the bills; so, any profiles or articles deemed worthy of being published won't be reproduced here (for obvious reasons!).
I hope, however, that I'll still have plenty to say and write - watch this space!
Thursday, May 24
A week is a long time in fitness
So, it's been a mixed bag this week:
• I gave up my Tuesday evening class at Downham Leisure Centre for a variety of reasons but, mainly, their combination made the class feel like a chore. Spinning is a passion for me and I used my justification for leaving my desk job a few years ago: if you dread going into work several times in a row, then it's time to move on (if you can!).
• The next day I was asked to start a new Friday early morning class at Bannatyne's Grove Park. I had been covering the Wednesday 7am class for another instructor for nearly five months and I can only guess that the members must have lobbied for me to lead another early morning class. Thank you, riders, your appreciation and efforts are truly humbling!
• Then, today, the day I'm getting ready to go on a much-needed holiday, I find out that my 7.15am classes on Tuesday and Thursday at LA Fitness are going to be handed over to in-house gym staff. To pull this off, I think they will need to have an extra person on duty at that time of day, so it's a false economy - especially so when several members said that, without my two classes, they'd have no reason to stay at the gym, thus losing more money. I won't be there now until 12 & 14 June, which will be my last two classes...unless my riders are successful in their lobbying while I'm away!
Anyway, as Spock would say, it's illogical to fret about things over which I have no control; I just hope the riders at LA Fitness are as successful as those at Bannatyne's. People power can work, if that power is greater than the pressure from the suits at head office. Just as in any democracy, people are the key - if enough of them vote (with their feet or their voice) then change CAN happen!
Now to enjoy my last day before a well-earned break!
• I gave up my Tuesday evening class at Downham Leisure Centre for a variety of reasons but, mainly, their combination made the class feel like a chore. Spinning is a passion for me and I used my justification for leaving my desk job a few years ago: if you dread going into work several times in a row, then it's time to move on (if you can!).
• The next day I was asked to start a new Friday early morning class at Bannatyne's Grove Park. I had been covering the Wednesday 7am class for another instructor for nearly five months and I can only guess that the members must have lobbied for me to lead another early morning class. Thank you, riders, your appreciation and efforts are truly humbling!
• Then, today, the day I'm getting ready to go on a much-needed holiday, I find out that my 7.15am classes on Tuesday and Thursday at LA Fitness are going to be handed over to in-house gym staff. To pull this off, I think they will need to have an extra person on duty at that time of day, so it's a false economy - especially so when several members said that, without my two classes, they'd have no reason to stay at the gym, thus losing more money. I won't be there now until 12 & 14 June, which will be my last two classes...unless my riders are successful in their lobbying while I'm away!
Anyway, as Spock would say, it's illogical to fret about things over which I have no control; I just hope the riders at LA Fitness are as successful as those at Bannatyne's. People power can work, if that power is greater than the pressure from the suits at head office. Just as in any democracy, people are the key - if enough of them vote (with their feet or their voice) then change CAN happen!
Now to enjoy my last day before a well-earned break!
Friday, April 27
Busy as a bee
Hey, long time no see, how are you?
It's been a long time since I updated my blog and not many posts in the last two years, mainly due to other events taking greater priority over my time.
So, what's been happening since then? A mixture of highs and lows: I asked Cassie to marry me, found out that her mother had cancer, brought the wedding forward by a year and organised it in a matter of a few months, a horrid time at Alpe d'Huez for a Marmotte for which I was unable to ride thanks to some meddling ex-friends, pulling out of last year's Jalabert sportive in Mazamet due to a very dodgy and unsafe course, complications with Cassie's mother's treatment that required emergency surgery, having to "get legal" with Cassie's HR manager to prevent them from unlawfully dismissing her, clearing out two rooms to turn one into our home gym and the other for letting out to lodgers for extra income, looking for potential full-time office work to make ends meet, picking up a heap of extra classes (see sidebar for details) that mean I won't need to set foot back in an office after all, and Cassie's shoulder operation a few months ago and subsequent ongoing recovery.
I think that's all... doesn't sound like much when it's written down but it's all stuff that sidetracked me from doing much of anything else, I'm no good at multitasking! Add to that a distinct lack of goals, so that my training fell by the wayside until recently along with my motivation.
So what's changed? Well, our marriage is solid as a rock and nicely bedded down, the extra classes and lodger have given me back my financial safety net, Cassie's HR person was cornered into backing down so that her job is also safe, her recovery is coming along leaps and bounds, and her mother is one operation away from completing her recovery. All this means that my head, for the first time in ages, is clear once again - crap has been sorted and filed, emails mostly answered, new rides mixed, events entered, a sense of purpose and harmony restored.
Much like cycling, you just have to keep going until it gets better; and then you keep going some more. Don't let life get you down - it can drain you, as it did me, but it can only beat you if you quit. As Johnny G used to say, "keep moving FORWARD!!"
It's been a long time since I updated my blog and not many posts in the last two years, mainly due to other events taking greater priority over my time.
So, what's been happening since then? A mixture of highs and lows: I asked Cassie to marry me, found out that her mother had cancer, brought the wedding forward by a year and organised it in a matter of a few months, a horrid time at Alpe d'Huez for a Marmotte for which I was unable to ride thanks to some meddling ex-friends, pulling out of last year's Jalabert sportive in Mazamet due to a very dodgy and unsafe course, complications with Cassie's mother's treatment that required emergency surgery, having to "get legal" with Cassie's HR manager to prevent them from unlawfully dismissing her, clearing out two rooms to turn one into our home gym and the other for letting out to lodgers for extra income, looking for potential full-time office work to make ends meet, picking up a heap of extra classes (see sidebar for details) that mean I won't need to set foot back in an office after all, and Cassie's shoulder operation a few months ago and subsequent ongoing recovery.
I think that's all... doesn't sound like much when it's written down but it's all stuff that sidetracked me from doing much of anything else, I'm no good at multitasking! Add to that a distinct lack of goals, so that my training fell by the wayside until recently along with my motivation.
So what's changed? Well, our marriage is solid as a rock and nicely bedded down, the extra classes and lodger have given me back my financial safety net, Cassie's HR person was cornered into backing down so that her job is also safe, her recovery is coming along leaps and bounds, and her mother is one operation away from completing her recovery. All this means that my head, for the first time in ages, is clear once again - crap has been sorted and filed, emails mostly answered, new rides mixed, events entered, a sense of purpose and harmony restored.
Much like cycling, you just have to keep going until it gets better; and then you keep going some more. Don't let life get you down - it can drain you, as it did me, but it can only beat you if you quit. As Johnny G used to say, "keep moving FORWARD!!"
Wednesday, May 18
Test of mobile blogging
Ever since I got my new iPhone back in November, I've used it for internet access even when at home as it's so portable around the house (I could see that Apple were right in predicting big things for their iPad).
It works for most things, except complicated work - including blogging. Then I got tipped off about the BlogPress app, from which I'm writing now. It won't make for perfectly laid out posts but it will mean I can post more regularly in between uploading new Spinning rides and mixes.
Anyway, test over - I hope it works!
It works for most things, except complicated work - including blogging. Then I got tipped off about the BlogPress app, from which I'm writing now. It won't make for perfectly laid out posts but it will mean I can post more regularly in between uploading new Spinning rides and mixes.
Anyway, test over - I hope it works!
Thursday, November 11
I need your help!
OK, readers - time to put this social networking to good use.
Both my girlfriend, Cassie Abbott, and I have had friends and relatives suffer with cancer - in Cassie's case, her mother who will soon undergo chemotherapy. According to Lance Armstrong's Livestrong Foundation, 1 in 3 will have cancer at some point in their lives with almost everyone having some experience of it.
Will you be the 1 in 3 ? If not, who of your friends and relatives? Cancer Research UK has made huge leaps in increasing survival rates for cancer.
After only her first year of cycling, Cassie has decide to raise money by cycling the big one - La Marmotte. I've done it twice and have seen grown men cry on the way; it is the hardest one-day amateur cycling event in Europe, maybe the world. She made the (crazy) leap to raise as much money as possible for a cause close to her heart.
Please donate whatever you feel you can afford - to borrow a catchphrase, Every Little Helps. Please help spread the word too - cancer's not fussy who it strikes, everyone may feel they can donate by visiting Cassie's Justgiving page.
Thank you so much for reading this plea, even if you choose not to donate.
Robert
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