December 1, 2003

  • Spin class was good (and bad for the bike).  I had this bad sore throat and virus that seems to be running round and put my whole body on halt.  Maybe that's why I've been feeling tired but I started off straight on a high gear and the bike started whining!  I use the bike at my old place, the one that is at the corner of the class because I am late already and the rest of the bikes seem to be taken up already.  The whining is quite continuous and doesn't stop for the first 20 mins, which blended in quite well with the music and I can't be bothered to be bothered by what others thought of the "music".


    The squeaking sound actually is caused by the flywheel on the spin bike not lubricated properly or something, but I think it started when a few weeks back, I pulled a very very hard gearing and continued even when it started protesting, on this same bike.  After that it seemed to have learnt to squeak constantly, much like how I've learnt to grunt and groan.  So tonight, I'm left with a steady "eeeeeeeeeeeeeee" sound as I push a very high gearing.  It didn't seem to affect my ride though but at nearer to the end of the class when I didn't have enough strength to push on at the high gears, it got a bit irritating and momentum breaking as it went from squeak to non-squeak.  The force went from high to low without the squeak and kinda made me able to move forward suddenly, then a sudden stop again as it caught again, and after a few of these I just gave up and spun a low gear instead.  Fortunately it was near the end of the class already, not to mention I also kinda felt bonked out, very weak, after 20mins of heavy pushing - prob from the virus.


    Still I did a second class (changed bike) and pushed a relatively high gear still, switching from a full circle nice rounded cycling style to mashing and stamping on the pedals.  It took some time for me to go back to my old style of mashing and stamping; I've become quite efficient at pedalling circles until I don't even think about it, but it causes my knees to hurt more due to the pulling effect.  Mashing the gears helped me the last time I had knee problems and it is the same now (as of this morning, I hardly feel the knee joints giving problems anymore, but I still band up the left knee), but I am also very tired.


    Had some Jap food after class, the browsed around HMV before heading back home by MRT.