My Week at Cyclebar Columbia Pike

Today's my spin day. Tonight at 7:15--15-minutes early, as I always try to be--I'll be joining a new instructor, Sam, for a 7:30 ride called The After Party.

My last ride was with Damion, also a new instructor to me.

Damion is an edgy, fun, fulfilling instructor who is always open-minded to trying new things—especially when there’s a physical challenge involved. He took his first indoor cycling class and instantly knew, “I can do that!” Damion motivates his riders through his own actions as a person. His rides are always filled with motivational herbs and spices, and he wants his riders to see that it goes beyond the studio. Balance, confidence, inspiration, motivation, education, addiction!

He's a powerhouse and his ride was an hour long. Given that I ride my own ride and do my own thing, I was able to hang with everything except I couldn't quite keep it going full-throttle for the 60-second sprints he invited us to do. But I performed pretty well; and, if you look at my max and average power and RPMs, I am still improving, progressing from class-to-class:

 And here's how it ranks in comparison to last week and last month:

And here's how my last ride compared to the previous ride before, with Danny. I will feature Danny in a future post because he was pretty awesome, very friendly, and very generous with his time in class and general friendliness after class.

Danny, a graduate student at GW Elliot School of International Affairs, works full time at US Department of State and hails from Louisville, Kentucky. He used to work the front desk at an indoor cycling boutique, and eventually got tired of spraying shoes, so he became an instructor himself! When you ride with Danny, he hopes that you feel the same rush that he feels every time he gets on the bike. Danny hopes to show people that their physical and mental limitations are not limitations at all. People can always push past the point they thought was their limit.

Here's how I did:

I am seeing so much progress and it's even showing benefits in my social and my medial life. I visited my cardiologist, Dr. Lucks, and he had nothing but good news for me and I don't have to come back for six months; also, even though I see myself as grandpa when I look at myself in the mirror these days, a lot of my fellow riders have been very friendly and lovely and supporting and nice--and not the way you would with Uncle Phil at the rest home but as a colleague and as community, and maybe even as a friend. Or at least an acquaintance. Where we recognize each other and say hello, how are you, nice to see you. That's nice. I was missing that.

All is going very well. Thank you, Marina Ryan!