Brandwave team members Emma Cox and Jessica Rouse were recently invited to go to an indoor cycling event in a cave in Liskeard, Cornwall. Here’s what they had to say about their experience.
We’re pretty lucky at Brandwave as we get invited to some really interesting events every year. At a recent fitness trade show in London, we heard about an indoor cycling event run by a team in Cornwall. Sponsored by Precor and organised and run by the Big Southwester team, we were told this would be an immersive spinning event in a cave.
For anyone that knows Emma and I, you will know we’re obsessed with indoor cycling. It was the perfect event for us.
We drove to Liskeard on the Friday evening, and were up early the next day to head down to the event site. The Big Southwester team had chosen a beautiful venue, Carnglaze Caverns. Traditionally a tourist attraction this former slate mine was our spinning venue for the day.
With around 80 bikes in the caverns and up to 6-hours of potential spinning time, this was a unique boutique experience, unlike anything we’d tried before. The day went a bit like this:
09:00 Timeless
This was an endurance energy zone ride. It was a great start to the day with a slow and steady pace. I was definitely trying to pace myself as I’ve never been spinning for this long before. A great warm-up ride.
10:15 Eden
Cat Booker led this session and being an aerobic interval energy zone ride we were pretty sweaty by the end. I loved this spinning session, it was similar to what I was used to from other studios that I’ve trained in.
11:30 Lord of the Rings
This was an interesting ride, an anaerobic interval energy zone. However, the key difference for me was Mel Chambers, our Instructors storytelling throughout the ride. I also loved the fact that some of the riders were in wizard gear. We were running away from Orcs so I was definitely spinning harder than normal.
12:45 Evolve to Revolve
Emma and I sat this one out. Knowing that there were another 2 hours of riding to go, we chose to be strategic, taking this time out to rehydrate and try to eat some lunch. We watched those that were part of this ride, it was an aerobic and interval energy zone workout led by Richard Mullins. It also gave us a chance to have a quick look around the beautiful surroundings.
14:00 Clubland III
I mean who doesn’t love to wear neon. I’m also yet to meet anyone who doesn’t love glow sticks. This was my favourite ride with really upbeat and euphoric music. I think what stood out to me the most was how much everyone got into it. The dress code was ‘Wear what you’d never dare to wear’ and everyone looked amazing. I still can’t believe how many of the group chose to ride in tutu’s and rave gear. Mel and Cat did an amazing job of leading this one.
15.15 The Journey Never Ends
This was the last ride of the day. We were knackered by this point, but we wanted to join everyone for the close. This was a recovery energy zone ride followed by a deep stretch which we definitely needed after 5 hours on our bikes. Surprisingly, Emma and I still had a bit of energy in the tank for this one (I don’t know how must have been the home-made flapjacks from the team) and it was amazing to be able to finish up the event together.
One of the elements that we loved during the rides was that there was always an Instructor and someone riding alongside them on stage. This was a really nice touch, it made the event even more personal. I also loved getting to know all of the people who were riding alongside me. A great way to connect and get to know each other through fitness.
The team are running the event again in 2019 and we will absolutely be looking out for those dates.
