So I hop over to Amazon and find about 120 Spinning DVDs.  Well, I guess I am a bit behind the times here.

So I got one called Spinerval Ultra Conditioning.  I like the cutesy name and it’s a workout that combines stationary bike work with pushups and dumbbells.  It’s an intense workout, but any DVD based training is easier than hitting the road-you can always turn off the DVD, but you still have to ride home from a regular bike ride.

About twenty-five years ago, when Greg LeMond was winning the Tour de France and everyone he competed against had names no one in America could pronounce, I fell in love with cycling.  I read odd bicycle racing magazines, learned that there were other Tours besides the one in France, and worked on those names of the greats of the sport.  I also had an old bike with killer gears that I rode a hundred miles a week.

My current bike is a Trek with an old set of Look pedals and a pair of Look shoes to go with them.  I still have my Lycra cycling togs and a couple of pairs of fingerless gloves with padded palms.  And I have a cheapie stationary bike that I got on sale at Sears. It’s good enough for a DVD spinning class.

Doing the Spinerval workouts is fun, but it is also pretty hard work. I have always thought that I could just hop back on a bike whenever I wanted and ride off to parts unknown.  I’ve always had these dreams of being a long distance cyclist.  I did ride about three hundred miles one week, but that is about as far as I ever rode.

I would like to do some cycling in Ireland or Scotland, but that dream has been on the back burner for a very long time.  Something about paying two grand to ride a bike seems a tad silly.  I wonder if anyone could use a slightly over the hill tour guide?

So I am spinning away the odd hour and thinking about all those hours I spent on a bike when I was younger.  I rode a couple of Centuries, but I never joined any local groups.  Never seriously thought about racing.  But I did fall in love with a ton of gear, I sold most of the odd stuff on eBay-loopy handlebars, odd shaped gears, shifters, levers and whatnots.

I am going to see if I can handle training a few days a week-if you can Spinervals training.   Then all I have to do is win the Lotto and I’ll cycle through Ireland or maybe Australia.

Hey, it could happen.