If Six(ty) Was Nine(ty)

Six was nine and sixty was ninety today.  An easy hour-long class became a hard 90-minute class.  I went to VeloSF with thoughts of an easy spin today and a hard workout tomorrow.  But I didn't exactly overwork myself in the last three days, so I made an impromptu decision to go for it.  The class's structure appealed to me -- lots of muscle tension work.  Muscle tension is more about strength than about panting.  It's about fighting through burning pain in my legs at low cadences, rather than spinning like crazy at high cadences, feeling as if my heart is about to jump out of my throat.

Today, we did five minutes in mid zone 3, four in high 3, three in low 4, two in mid 4 and one in high 4.  We stood roughly 45% of the time.  We rested for two minutes in low zone 2 between the intervals.  Legs burned, but not too badly.  At the end of this five-interval set, which ended the class, Alex, our instructor said, "and this piece of paper says another 23 minutes."  I asked, "is that for the 90-minute class?"  Alex nodded.  I said, "I'll do it with you if you want to keep going."  He was willing, as was another student, so the three of us did another set.  We rested in zone one because this set started in high zone 3 and finished in zone 5.  For the one minute in zone 5, I went at it with resistance set at 305 watts (my zone 5 starts at 260), reasoning that we can do anything for one minute and I can do 305 watts sitting and standing for that long.  I did.  It was hard.  If I had to, I could have done another minute at that power level.  I am glad I didn't have to.

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