This morning was a brutal class. I don't know if it's just the humidity, but I was dripping like a mo'fo today. I was also pushing myself harder than I usually do. I forgot my HRM the past couple weeks, but now I have a pretty good idea of where my heart rate is at most times, so it's not that big a deal.

It looks like there's going to be another road drills class on Sundays at 9:30. The weekend classes supposedly get very busy, so it would be interesting to see how that is. The most people I've ever seen so far is maybe ten.

I much prefer the road drills class to the spinning. At first glance they look the same. They both have music and an instructor. They both talk and push. You're standing, changing resistance, sitting, and moving around the saddle and bars all the time. But there is a huge difference in how they're executed.

Spinning is a workout and road drills are training.

When the spinning instructor pushes you, he's getting you to stand, to sit, to stand, to sit... he's pushing you harder and harder. It's like the goal is to kick your own ass. He's trying to make us spin at ridiculous speeds, with little to no resistance. Sometimes we're recovering standing up, and doing all these things that would never work properly if you were actually on a bike. They definitely get your heart rate pumping I've really enjoyed it, but it's a gym class above everything else.

Road drills are pretty much just that. The trainer is pushing us, but we're given a lot of flexibility on how we attack her challenges. We can grind things out or spin if we'd prefer. We can sit or stand. She lets us know how hard we should be pushing and lets us take care of it. The drills are very closely related to what we might encounter when we're riding, either alone or with a group. I've had times on group rides where I've actually taken what I've learned from the road drills class and applied it successfully.

I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to work the Sunday morning class into my schedule, but I'm going to try.