Those count as freebies

So, last night saw my return to that wonderful small room full of sweating pedaling maniacs in the Gold's RPM class. The previously mentioned sweaty-cheeked person was there, the noses only inches from buttocks was the same, the bass thumping music was present and the energetic instructor had thankfully returned from a brief stay in hospital - not RPM related but I think they were checking insanity levels.

'Tonight', I told myself, 'was the night I would stay in time with the music, I would keep up the pace, and ultimately put myself close to some sort of cardiac event, but not to worry, tonight was the night for going all out.' I strapped on my trusted heart monitor to continue my scientific investigation of exercise alternatives (see previous post about shoveling snow) and off we went, pedal, pedal pedal.

Things started well. I was staying in time (mostly), feeling good (despite already having worked out earlier in the day) and my monitor began to report rapid calorie loss. Things were going well, and then it happened - the peppy instructor encouraged us to 'turn it up' and shouted other things like 'add in more resistance' and 'give me another gear'. Then the instruction came from the front that we were to climb the next hill. Up we stood, pedaling furiously and 'climbing' the hill. At this point my mind shifted from the burning in my legs to the reality that although I was 'climbing' I wasn't changing altitude.

I then spent the next 3-4 songs of exercise trying to calculate how high we actually did climb during these songs. Then it struck me. Every time I ride a bike outside and I encounter a hill, there is one thing that is sure to happen - what goes up must come down. Where were the downhill sections in this class? Why were we always climbing and never descending? Were we attempting to ride to the top of Everest? With all this climbing when do we reach the point where the air is so thin that we pass out and fall off the bikes.

CRASH! (- this time not literally, only mentally)

Reality snapped back in to play as I noticed that in my absent minded exertions I was still pedaling this insanely high gear and my heart was doing its best to explode out of my chest. I looked at the heart monitor on my wrist to see my heart rate was 180. I glanced over to the poster on the wall and saw that for my age group 180 was the very top of the INTENSE EXERCISE band and the shortness of breath was not from a lack of oxygen in the room due to altitude, but just a lack of oxygen in my system from being out of breath.

Finally, the beat slowed, as did the pace, and my heart rate. Fifty minutes of leg pedaling fury was complete and it was time to try to regain my land legs. Shakily I stepped off of the bike - another RPM session complete, and me still being alive.

As for my calorie count - 1026 after the class. Not bad for an hour of sweat. I decided to leave my heart monitor on for a while to see how my calorie count would change. By the time I took it off (about an hour later as I had to pick up my kids from AWANA) I had burned 1556 calories. WOW! 500 calories burned just in the hour immediately after RPM. Those count as freebies - calories burned without any exertion.

Today is the day after. I must admit that last night I was so tired I fell asleep on the sofa, went to bed before 11pm and walked around this morning like I had been kicked by a horse - but still, you got to love those freebies.

Now if only our instructor would find a song that goes downhill - is that possible?