VCGH spinning takes place weekly from October to March at 7:30pm on Thursday evenings at The Charterhouse Club. The classes last for an hour pre-Christmas and step up to 90 minutes post-Christmas. Each has space for around 18 participants, you pay for a block of 6 classes at a time.

Instructors guide you through targeted workout phases: Warm-up, steady or up-tempo cadences, sprints, climbs, cool-downs, etc. 

You adjust resistance on your bike to make the pedalling as easy or difficult as you choose. 

All you need is workout clothes, a towel (to wipe your face) and a water bottle. You can wear trainers as the bikes have toe-clips, or shoes with Shimano-style SPD cleats. A pulse-meter strap (e.g. Polar T31) is an optional aid to training.

Ultimately participants determine their own levels of exertion, something that works better for some folks than others. It can be easy to find yourself slacking from time to time in a spinning class if you don't stay focused; many people do better when being pushed by others - like when riding a real bike when the only alternative to hustling on a group ride is being dropped.

But good instructors like ours can encourage and motivate you to push yourself, and you'll most likely find spinning to be a vigorous workout and a decent way to maintain cardiovascular fitness during the off-season.