Rogers2Malibu - Days #8-12

From Bret's journal: Sometimes the miles go quickly. At least that's what we've found in the great spin classes at World Gym! Classes are about 55 minutes and are very engaging with up tempo music and constant encouragement and direction from the class instructors. At the end of class, 20 or 25 miles are completed, which means on some days that we're about halfway done with our ride!

Mountains. The instructors love to climb mountains in class. Why is it, though, that when we reach the top of the mountain, there's another mountain right in front of us?! This situation reminded me of this picture I took in Rwanda:

Rwanda is called "the land of a thousand hills," and that's probably a gross understatement! If my only means of transportation were a single speed bicycle (no Shimano gears!) and I had to traverse the hills of Rwanda, I would probably look for opportunities to do just as these guys are doing ... latch on to a fuel tanker!

There's more to this than just the hills. In spin class, I'll burn 600-800 calories. Of course I'm able to replenish a lot of that through a very healthy diet. On average, people in Rwanda consume 1,400-1,700 calories per day. So imagine if you're riding miles up and down hills, at times carrying up to 100 pounds on the back of the bike. You're burning so many calories, most likely many more than you'll consume on any given day. And you do that day after day after day ...

This week we'll reach Texas! The panhandle is relatively flat in real life. I don't expect that our spin instructors will take that into account!