Spin & HR

badly_dubbed

well this evening i did a 1hr 40min spin class with the local club,

but pretty much during it i found i couldnt lift my HR all that high as my legs just didnt want to move as they were quite sore

my first spin of that length and intensity, so maybe it has something to do with leg endurance?

just wonder why i couldnt lift my HR all that high ( think 87% was the max i reached and was only above 75% for 40 mins

i know the obvious answer will be push harder...but my legs could not take spinning harder or faster.

:?

meanredspider

I found exactly the same thing (even after a couple of years of spinning). Somebody suggested it's because you aren't working that many muscles.

mrlobber

Spinning inside usually psychologically feels much harder than on the road for the same actual effort level (except for mentally super strong individuals, which we all probably aren't ).

So, unless you deliberately try to torture yourself, your legs would tell you that they hurt, while your heart would actually feel it's not really doing that much of an additional job. II realized it this year when started to train with power. Effort which I thought last year was hard (tempo level), actually was on my active recovery level.

Another factor is that by spinning you spin all the time without interruption while on the actual road riding you spend at least 20% of time (on average) just rolling forward with inertia when the leg muscles can do temporary recovery.

rock_hopper

badly_dubbed, you've kind of answered your own question there. You said your legs were sore, that tells me that they are not fully recovered (for whatever reason). Don't stress about it, you obviously just needed to recover, not do a spin class.

badly_dubbed

not pain sore they got tired sorta into 45-60mins of the class...

i had only done a 50miler on sunday and a few easy rides at work less than 20miles, so i doubt if i needed to recover.

i did 10miles at 18mph average this afternoon on my dinner break and felt fine.

cyco2

badly_dubbed wrote:

i did 10miles at 18mph average this afternoon on my dinner break and felt fine.

You could at these times use a 65,69,or 72 " gear as fast as you can to get a spin effect. Doing 10's on low gears can be very hard. Normally they're done on fixed so you have to keep pedalling when you're trying to rest. I never did it on free but would liked to have tried.
I did a winter on 72 fixed once and came out of it as weak as a lamb.
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