A day and a half of rest over the weekend was much-needed, and the tour continued on week two with a stop at Denver’s Pura Vida Fitness & Spa.

This joint was so swanky it’d make Hilary Swank look like Hilary Clinton. To be honest, as an east coaster who has been to Colorado but not to Denver, I wasn’t even aware Denver had such a thing as a posh neighborhood. But after getting Gene’s report and seeing his YouTube video, I have been supremely enlightened. This place had the works, is a mere toddler of a studio at the ripe age of 8 months, and is already a shining beacon of fitness in the mile high city. Very modern, lots of metal and sharp edges that look sexy, a fireplace in the lobby, and just an attitude that constantly spews a cloud of success and awesomeness. Much of the club’s exterior is glass, which provides a brilliant overlook of the city streets below (the swanky streets, you’ll recall).

Upstairs was aerobic heaven, and enough technology to make Gene’s unbelievably low heart rate spike to levels of cardiac arrest. Why, you may wonder? What could possibly be so exciting and adventurous that it would rattle the roots of Gene Nacey’s rock solid foundation? Every piece of machinery in the facility comes equipped with an LCD screen for video viewing during exercise - that’s what. I must admit, it does look pretty rad. This was avidly captured in the video, so give it a peek.

The spin room was equally super, with screens already on the walls. They have yet to really use these screens for anything, so Gene and Paul came to the rescue with Global Ride DVDs, skipping and galloping with giant grins on their faces, heaving discs into the arms of the club owners like a plastic-faced pageant queen tossing Tootsie Rolls to children in the street from a 4th of July float.

The only unfortunate bit about the room was the podium command center that manages all the technology in the room. (If that sentence makes no sense, watch the video. Actually, watch the video anyway.) The sound wasn’t able to get very loud at all thanks to limitations put on the device, and they had to settle with a relatively quiet soundtrack playing behind them. A bit of a bummer - but as with all the setbacks they have faced, it worked out fine in the end.

The local media came to cover the event (I believe he said it was the Denver CBS station) and Paul briefly captured the interview (also in the above video) as it was beginning. I’m sure there is a written or video report available from the station, and I’ll post it as soon as I find out where to get it. This was great exposure for our cycling dvds and beneficial for Pura Vida as well, and we had been hoping for this sort of media coverage from the beginning. Mad props to the news station for checking us out.

The class itself was made of about 65% outdoor cyclists, a fantastic number, and about 1/3 of the attendees were other instructors. And about 3% of the class was extremely pregnant. What those first two figures mean to Gene is “YAY” - these outdoor cyclist and instructor groups are big factors related to our mission for the product and the Cycling Fusion site. Gene ran the class as a race, which worked out well with the majority being outdoor cyclists who enjoy that sort of thing, and the response was wonderful. The verdict remains that with proper instruction, a specific workout program, a knowledgeable coach and the interest of video, everyone can get proper training.

Here’s some cake. You can eat it, too.