First Time Spinning

Do many of you go spinning? My sister started going a few weeks ago and loves it, so last night Mum and I went to a taster spin session (that you could only go to if you'd never been spinning before) to see what it was like. Monday is also Body Pump day so we ended up going to spin 7-7.45pm and then Body Pump 8-9pm! Body Pump I, as always, loved...spinning I'm still not sure about. The instructor said to give it at least 3 classes before giving up on it, so I am booked in to go tomorrow, eek! All but two of the spinning classes at my gym are at 6pm or earlier, which doesn't suit me as Liam doesn't get home until 6.30pm, so I will be going to tomorrow's class on my own (ie not with Mum or my sister) as they can't do Wednesday and are doing the early Thursday class instead. Must be brave, must be brave. I woke up this morning with a bruised bum (!) so went and bought some padded cycling shorts today, but I need to try them on again tonight - I'm used to wearing 3/4 length capri trousers so feel uber self-conscious in the above-knee lycra shorts!

Anyway, I wasn't really sure what to do about my eating yesterday as I was going to be out the house from 6.30-9.30pm and wanted to make sure I didn't eat to close to the spin class.

I ended up having early lunch with Toby at 11.30am of yorkshire puddings, goats cheese and sweetcorn (slightly weird, but what I fancied!) Toby wasn't overly keen on this meal so I ended up eating most of his two yorkshires with cheese as well, yum, the type of food I used to eat when I was at uni!! :)

I then had "dinner" at 4.30pm. This was a bit repetitive - leftovers from lunch of goats cheese and sweetcorn + houmous that needed eating, in a pitta bread leftover from the weekend! Judging from the poor quality photo I was nonetheless in a hurry to eat this!

I had 5pm as the "deadline" for eating (2 hours before spin) so when that got close and I was still hungry, I had a big spoonful of new-to-me honey peanut butter:

Not as nice as Dark Chocolate Dreams in my opinion, but still tasty!

A couple of hours later, off to the gym I went! The taster spin session was with the lady who teaches the beach body boot camp I go to, and probably wasn't really any reflection of the pain I have let myself in for tomorrow!! It was a 45 minute class, but a lot of that time was spent getting the bikes set up right for us, and explaining what normally happens in a spin class (while just leisurely cycling). It still got me and Mum super sweaty, and as I said earlier, I'm still feeling a little sore today, so we shall see what tomorrow's class brings!!

Whilst I didn't want to eat close before spin, I didn't really have the same reservations about eating before Body Pump as it isn't heavy cardio in the same way. So I'd taken a bar in my bag in case I was hungry between classes. My first time ever trying a Luna bar - thanks Maria for sending me one!

I only ended up eating a few bites of this before Body Pump as everyone started setting up their weights early, but I ate the rest when I got home later. This wasn't at all what I was expecting, it was really good! For some reason I have it in my head that I "don't like protein bars" but I think what I actually mean is "I don't like Clif bars" as every other protein bar I've tried I've really enjoyed!! So thanks Maria, for sending me yummy food, and opening my taste buds to things I might not have tried otherwise! ;)

Back to Body Pump - loved it! It had moved to a smaller room in the sports centre as the instructor had got a new speaker system and wanted to try it in the small room to see if we could all hear him. The class had been held in the huge sports hall previously and no one apart from perhaps the front row had a chance of hearing the instructions! This did mean that last night we were all a bit more tightly packed, which wasn't ideal for triceps or abs, but apart from that it worked fine and meant we could hear much more clearly...including the instructor singing along to the tracks which, whilst causing us to a cringe, did also make us laugh which I suppose is a good thing!!

As I didn't get home until 9.30pm I was too tired to eat much more, so I just had plenty of water and finished off the Luna bar. I made up for it today though with a trip to Costa for breakfast, half of this cake for an afternoon snack (I saved the other half for Izzy, very impressed my willpower lasted until she got back from school!!)...

Rhubarb and strawberry crumble cake from the bakery...delicious! :)

And also a delicious quick dinner - Liam got stuck at work longer than usual so the children and I made the most of being able to have a "non-Liam friendly" dinner - mashed avocado with nutritional yeast on toast with a sprinkling of Munchy seeds...

Yum, so good! Izzy and I loved this, but Toby took one look at the green and turned his nose up, nooo!! ;)

So, padded shorts - yes or no?? And any other tips for surviving my first proper spin class? I tried the shorts on again a minute ago and they cut into my thighs too much for my liking, so I think I will be taking them back. I'm possibly going shopping in Exeter tomorrow though so I will see if I can find any other ones that fit me better. Still not convinced I'll feel comfortable wearing them without capri trousers over the top though...will have to see how confident I'm feeling tomorrow evening!!