Spinning

Every Tuesday I go to a spin class at the LA Fitness near my work. I love the time, I love the teacher because she loves hills. She loves hills, she love intervals on hills, she would probably marry hills if California was a polygamist state where you could make a commitment to an inanimate object. I also love the fact that she starts on time. It's pretty much the only spin class I've been to at LA Fitness that starts on time. I usually go to another gym, so maybe it's just them.

The past 3 weeks I've only gotten 45 minutes in the class because of the sports nutrition class that I was attending.

A couple of things I need to figure out.
1) In a seated climb I can be at x resistance and it kicks my butt, then we stand up (which I never do on the bike) and I need to bump up the resistance, some times by 1/2-3/4 of a knob turn because I'm bouncing all over the place. How do I get myself stronger whilst sitting? Should I just sit through the whole climb and try to build muscles that way?

2) How to adjust my bike. I have the seat and handle bar heights figured out, for the most part, but it's the seat position that kills me. However, my hips didn't hurt after this class like they did after the bike on Sunday. I'm thinking that hip pain may have been residual pain from my Saturday run.

3) Get over myself. I really wish I knew how to get over the mental blocks I get on the bike. I can do it on the run by simply ignoring myself. It's not so simple, but I've figured out how to do it. Also, I can stop and walk fairly easily if I have to start yelling at myself in my head.

I did have one victory yesterday. We did a cadence hill, where you keep the same cadence/rhythm and increase the tension/make the pedaling harder. I was able to do it, pretty much the whole time. I've never been able to do that before. I usually give in to the pain and the voice in my head that says it's too hard.

I guess there is hope for me yet.