when satan teaches your spin class

I've started incorporating 3 days a week of regular training in the pre-dawn hours. Normally, I'm an after-work trainer, except on weekends when I work out as early as feasible. These days, I'm mostly training early in the morning during the week and occasionally after work. And though it's not late in the evening right now, I'm exhausted already.

On the one hand, it feels really good to get a good, hard training session in before anybody else is awake, and then put in a full day at work, and still get good family time when I get home. On the other, it means my late nights of wasted time must end....which doesn't sound like a bad deal.

Perversely, it's getting easier to get up early in general. And my husband has said it's as if I'm working the night shift.

I got sucked into this early morning thing pretty sneakily. Two days a week now, I swim with the super guppies: the masters swimmers. It's a pretty intense experience, in that they're all really good swimmers, it's really early, and we crank out many many laps before the sun rises (them more than me).

I wish I could come more often, but I've now signed myself up for a 10-week time trial spin class series. I was talked out of the evening session of this class, which would have been on a Thursday, since I'd have to get up early and swim the next day (which would be hard if I were wired). Instead I volunteered for a 5:30 a.m. session.

The time trial spin class is a 2 hour spin class run by a guy with an extremely solid timetrial race resume. I've ridden with him outside too. My first experience out on my bike ever was with him in a group of experienced riders, and I am pretty sure I scared the bejesus out of him. What newbie tri bike rider doesn't scare the pants off a roadie? He in turned freaked me out. Is that what I have to do? Stay two inches from that guy's wheel? No way!

Whatever. I'm no longer new, and it's time for me to really suck it up and work hard on my bike.

I've known about the time trial class for a few years now and it's scared the crap out of me. Two hours on a spin bike? With that guy? That's nuts. I'd be at the gym and I'd see people leaving the class who looked like they had showered in their clothes. Everyone I know who has done the class has told me pretty much the same thing: it's pretty intense. I heard this from a range of people -- none of whom were prone to exaggeration.

Today was the first class for me: a 5:30 a.m. start.

To call it a Time Trial class does not do it justice. Simply described, it's two hours of sustained effort, starting high, and increasing into the stratosphere. I found myself starting to pop in the first 10 minutes - the warmup. I thought oh crap - this does not bode well. Naturally, he demanded more.

As I said, the instructor is no slouch. He teaches regular spin classes and offers this time trial series twice a year. He often competes in local events, and if he's there, it's pretty much a given that he'll be one of the top three, if not the winner. I think he's also got some national wins behind him as well. In other words, the guy makes some serious horsepower.

The instructor is very sensitive to the energy of all participants in class. He had warned me in the pre-class interview that he would not hesitate to come adjust our resistance if he felt we were not working hard enough. Slacking is simply not allowed.

So, we started at a high effort level. Predictably, we were asked to add resistance. Then increased the cadence at the same resistance, then add more resistance at the same cadence, then increase cadence, etc. It was bizarre - every time I thought I was working at my limit, he'd ask for more. And somewhere in there, I'd try and find it. Every time I thought I was going to burst a blood vessel he asked for minutes worth of more, higher, harder, faster.

This went on for Two. Hours.

I paid money for that.

Ever seen the Far Side cartoon where Satan is leading Calisthenics in hell? 999 thousand, 1 million! OK, now the left side. We got two recovery periods. The first one was 4 minutes. After an hour, we got a second recovery: 2 minutes. Oh yes, I was counting. Yeah - it was a little intense.

There was no slacking.

I think the general principle is to get us not to save anything. I mean, when I walk into training knowing that I'm going to be working hard for two hours, it seems only natural to hold back - to pace myself. His job is to make me not do that - because the strategy is that real gains are made when I push myself farther than I think I can go.

You've heard the concept of whatever does not kill you makes you stronger, right? But if it just beats the living sh*t out of you and leaves you for dead once a week for 10 weeks, apparently you become superhuman.

At least, that's the plan.

I usually leave my swim mornings feeling tired but perky. Conversely, I dragged myself away this morning feeling completely drained. The class initiated a long, slow bonk that lasted for the rest of the day. I think by late in the afternoon I had eaten enough and somewhat recovered from the experience.

Right now, I'm cooked. 1 down, 9 to go.

Luckily, this is only once a week. And luckily, it's only Wednesday, because this Saturday, I'm at the Quad.