Well, it's been a quiet post-Christmas month here in Burghausen. We have settled into our winter routine, which feels kind of mundane, but I think it's just part of winter hibernation.We have joined the local sports club, SV Wacker Sportsverein, so that James and Ronan can play soccer and I can take spinning classes. They offer all kinds of sports, including fencing, handball (very popular here), sailing, bowling, gymnastics, and lots more that I can't remember.
I'm trying to get in the routine of doing a spinning class twice a week. The instructor for the Wednesday night class is really good, he plays a good variety of music, pushes us all hard and speaks in a heavy Bavarian dialect, which I'm still trying to get a handle on. Last week he made us climb for 25 minutes, so I just closed my eyes and did the last part of the Mt. Baker Hill Climb. Good times! By the way, I thought my Mt. Baker Bike Club buddies would appreciate the attached photo. Since German shops are closed on Sundays, our local bike shop has an automatic dispenser for bike inner tubes in case you get a flat on a Sunday and the shop is closed. Gotta love it!
So, as far as I can make out, Burghausen doesn't have a road bike group, Mt. biking seems to be more the thing here, we are near the Alps, after all. The spinning group meets for Mt. bike rides once the weather changes, so it looks like I'll be using James' Mt. bike in the spring. The spinning instructor also mentioned that if I want to find folks to road ride with, it would be fairly easy to start a road biking group in the spring, so that will be my plan. Anyway, missing all of my biking buddies. Our door is open if anyone is in the neighborhood!
That is such a great idea and Kulshan Cycles should install one outside it's shop. I have needed a tube right before closing and had them honor me with the trust that I would return and pay the next time I was in town.
ReplyDeleteThe tube dispenser is a killer idea. We should figure out makes them and start marketing them to bike shops around the US.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about a 25 minutes climb in a spinning class. Seems like a lazy instructor. To me, spinning is all about short bursts of intensity -- at the 8 or 9 level. In the class last night, we did a minute thirty of 8 1/2 intensity (on a scale of 1-10) and then bumped up to 9 for 30 seconds followed by a sprint. Tougher than what I usually do on the roads.
Haven't done a spinning class for a while in the States, I will say that there isn't as much sprinting in German spinning classes and the instructors don't yell as much here, but the 25 minute climb did involve some speed and resistance changes and I still worked up a very good sweat.
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