Class #97 Cycling Friday 5:40 a.m. (David for Betsy)

This morning’s class – my twelveth with a start time before 6 a.m. - completes my tour of the pre-dawn group exercise schedule. This is a good thing. My strategy early on in the quest was to knock out all of our ‘before work’ classes on the front end but I stalled out after quickly doing seven or eight of them. Instead, I’ve been picking off the stragglers whenever I get the chance and this morning puts a wrap on it.

For the second day in a row, the regular teacher is missing due to a wedding. Yesterday it was Victoria getting ready for her daughter Tory’s wedding on Saturday. Today it’s Betsy, off to California to witness the wedding of her sister.

Betsy’s sub this morning is the one and only David Prince. If there was such a thing, David would get my vote as the most enthusiastic, life-affirming, whoopin’ n’ hollerinest’ securities lawyer in the world (who also happens to be a group cycling instructor). Maybe there’s another one out there like him but frankly, I doubt it. Anyway, we’ve got him and we’re not giving him back.

Super Dave (cleverly disguised as mild-mannered securities lawyer)

The bike I usually ride in class was occupied this morning so I just moved down a few places and picked another one. When I get on it David mentions that he used to ride this particular bike and that it’s the opposite of a magic bike – that is, the work is a bit harder at a lower gear. Sure enough, my normal basement gear is a 7 or 8 but on this bike it’s a 6. It shouldn’t matter but psychologically it’s hard to see the watts score consistently reading lower than usual. Plus my legs are already fried from a hard week AND it’s five forty in the morning….shall I go on with my whining?

As I’ve mentioned before, the truest ‘score’ where effort is concerned is heart rate and that isn’t affected by gearing in the least. Even by that metric though I’m not at my best. During class I work hard enough to max out at 148 (pretty good) but my average heart rate is only 126, which is a little low. I notice that it takes me a long time to get thoroughly warmed up (i.e. awake) this morning and that dampens my numbers somewhat.

David plays great music (see play list below), which he seems to arrange or rearrange for each class. I’m not sure how teachers learn how to put music together for the various parts of a class (i.e. sprints, climbs, intervals, rolling hills, etc.) but I know there’s a definite rhyme to their reasoning.

I’ve now completed twenty-two bike classes and have only two more remaining. Thankfully, I can report quite proudly that we’ve got a very strong group of committed, caring cycling instructors and I’m sincerely grateful about that.

This morning there are about nine of us in class. The $25 gift certificate goes to early morning regular David Menz.

Tomorrow I’ll take my last Saturday class – the mega-hard Cardio Sculpt with Michelle.

David’s play list follows:

1	Warm Up	Let’s Just Fall In Love	Jason Castro	3:28
1	Flat Road & Surge	All In	Lifehouse	3:56
2	Seated Climb-Continuous Push	All Or Nothing	Theory of A Deadman	3:31
6	Sprint	Check Yes Juliet	We The Kings	3:40
2-4	Seated Climb to Standing Climb	S.O.S.	Jordin Sparks	3:33
2	Seated Climb	I Never Told You	Colbie Callait	3:53
2	Seated Climb-Continuous Push	Never Say Never	The Fray	4:17
2	Interval (4x30)	Low	Flo Rida	3:50
2-4	Extreme Hill	Two Is Better Than One	Boys Like Girls	4:03
6	Sprint	Girlfriend	Avril Levine	3:37
2-4	Seated Climb to Standing Climb	According to You	Orianthi	3:20
2	Seated Climb-Rolling Hills (4-6)	This Afternoon	Nickelback	4:35
2	Seated Climb	Somebody Told Me	The Killers	3:17
2-4	Extreme Hill	Someday	Rob Thomas	4:08
1	Cool Down & Stretch	Baby Can I Hold You	Tracy Chapman	3:14
1	Stretch	One Day	Matisyahu	3:28
1	Stretch	Hard Times	Mary J. Blige	3:58

(53.0 minutes + cool down) (Spin 050