So what’s coming next?

Movie Night – Guest Post From Charles (Spook) Hilgartner

A great excuse for a long endurance ride

Monthly movie night at the Maryland Athletic Club (MAC) started last year. It was held on Friday night at 6 PM in our Spinning studio. Members or non-members were charged $10 which was split with instructor.  Our Spinning room has had a mounted LCD projector and a section for the front wall was painted with a special paint that would act as a movie screen.

Various instructors volunteered to host movie night and select the movie for the evening. The rides is easy for the most part. Sometimes the music may encourage some to climb out of the saddle for a bit or do a little sprint. The basis idea was LSD (long slow distance). The instructor is responsible for bringing any treats (popcorn or whatever) and to keep the members water bottles full. Movie selection always an issue. I have used the “The Italian Job” and one I can’t remember.  Somebody did “Kill Bill” and I am not sure how many showed up for that one. We were not getting big crowds10-15. The program died  sometime ago and I am not sure why. May have been because of  lack of instructor interest or time of year.

A few weeks ago someone asked if it was going to start up again and I said sure I try it. So we are doing “August Rush”. I was also asked me to do “American Flyer”. I also checked to see if there were and other cycle movies. Here is a  web site other bicycle movies. Miracle  on Ice would have been a great one a few weeks ago.  I read somewhere that the a rider did a century ride and played all three Bourne movies back to back.

So movie selection very important and getting the word out is even more important. Depending on you facility, you might want to offer free babysitting. You can always find some gimmick.

We also use it to do video rides. During the Tour de France, I showed power point and YouTube clips of  where the tour was riding that day and what we were going to do with that same ride in class.

If you have any question email me at spookh@indoorcycleinstructor.com

Signs of Spring

A sign of spring as I walked away from my class this morning!

Life Time Fitness Sets New World Record for Static Indoor Cycling Participants @ 1052

That was fun, being part of a New World Record for Static (their word) Indoor Cycling Participants. The official total of 1052 was certified by a representative of the Guinness World Records, who was on site to observe, at the end of the 2 hour class.

What an undertaking and to pull it off with only 4 weeks from conception to World Record.

Here is some video I shot while I was there.

Up Date: Here is a second video taken by another participant. If you pay close attention, at the 26 second point, the camera captures yours truly (I’m in the white hat)

Indoor Cycling World Record – History

Tomorrow I’m participating in a new world Indoor Cycling World Record attempt that will take place in Minneapolis at the Target Center. Billed as The Ride Of a Lifetime and is sponsored by Life Time Fitness. (my employer) 1,000 participants are registered, with many on the waiting list!

I did a little research as to recient attemps and they are:

• January 9, 2010 – 600 participants road in the Life Time Fitness “Ride of a Lifetime, in Houston, Texas
• September 18, 2009, 450 cyclists participated in a static cycle class in Galway, Ireland (no link to be found)
• March 23, 2009, 418 participants took part in an outdoor cycle ride at the Life Time Fitness center in Plano, Texas
• February 21st 2009 – 412 cyclists pedaled into the record books this week at Esporta Health Clubs’ annual conference in Gloucestershire.
• August 14th 2008 – 354 Indoor Cyclists break world record at Can – Fit Pro conference in Toronto.
• February 28th 2008 – 323 cyclists at Esporta Health Clubs’ annual conference in Gloucestershire.

So why 1,000? I’m guessing Life Time Chairman, CEO and President, Bahram Akradi is just sticking the flag way down the beach, to an almost unreachable point, essentially ending the back-and-forth.

Video coming tomorrow.

Ten Easy Steps to Teaching Your Indoor Cycling Class About Nutrition – Part 4: Hydration

Consider the following facts:

* Your speed on a bike decreases about 2% for each 1% of body weight lost through dehydration

* By the time you feel thirsty, you can already be at 2% body weight loss

* A 3% weight loss indicates dehydration has occurred

* Loss of fluid during exercise varies, but averages about 34 ounces per hour (3x that much in hot and humid conditions!)

* Hyponatremia, which is just as dangerous as dehydration, is a term used to describe “water intoxication” and can occur with excess water intake

* Acclimatized individuals who are used to training in hot climates or hot rooms can reduce fluid loss by up to 50%

Based on these facts, it would pretty important to make sure your indoor cycling class knows all about proper water intake.

After you’ve introduced the facts above, teach your class the proper formulas and rules for determining regular daily hydration and exercise hydration:
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Greetings from New Zealand

Hello from a beautiful part of the world! Guess what – we haven’t touched a bicycle yet. We were late getting into Auckland last Friday and had a long 5-6 hr drive (plus rush hour traffic) to the north to meet my family for a wedding the next day. It was a beach wedding – they had rented cottages on the beach and we were joining them there. As we pulled into the beach community around 10:30 at night, we saw this sign:

My husband Jeff said, “Oh great! Tsunamis!” I laughed and said, “Oh don’t be silly. That would never happen!” More on that in a sec…

Very long story very short, my brother John left the States at age 22 (I was 7 or 8). He met a Kiwi on his travels and has lived a fabulously simple and rural life here ever since. My youngest niece (of 5 kids) is the one who got married. I won’t bore you with wedding details but I will make you jealous with a photo – can you even imagine a setting like this?

With lots of young people partying into the night, it very easy because most people rented cottages in this beach community called Taupo Bay. I had heard that many of the younger folk barely were getting to bed around 5am when “it” happened.

A siren, and a pounding at the door. My first thought was one of the revelers had an accident and had to go to the hospital. But then I heard the guy say, “earthquake in Chili”….”Tsunami”….”You must evacuate!”

this is surreal….

So we packed up and left. Fortunately my brother and his wife’s house is 30 minutes away, so a bunch of us went there. There was a parking area in the green hills high above the beach, a tsunami staging area, for everyone else. Apparently the fire brigade in this little community took their national Tsunami preparation very, very seriously, and as we found out later, we were one of the only communities that were officially evacuated – for everyone else is was just an “alert”!

I guess it’s like a fire drill procedure at a school. They wanted to know it worked like it was supposed to! Oh well – I can say I’ve gone through a Tsunami drill.

Was there a tsunami? Well, some will say it was a huge over-raction – the entire country was on alert and events all over were canceled. But the tide did go out fairly quickly in the harbors, and there were tidal surges around the east coast, but nothing more than 10-30 centimeters. I guess one can say it’s better to be safe than sorry! A tsunami 2 years ago hit nearby Samoa and killed a lot of people because of lack of preparation, so New Zealand didn’t want that to happen.

A few more days of visiting family (4 nieces and nephews and their kids to visit here) then we’ll head south and hopefully be able to rent some bikes. Up here in the Northland, they’re not very cyclist friendly – there’s some BIG animosity going on between cyclists and non-cyclists.

I’ll sign off with a photo of my niece’s son Tazman the day after the wedding when we were helping to put things away. If you know any New Zealanders, you’ll understand when I say: they start them young over here!

Life Time Fitness – The Ride of a Lifetime Indoor Cycling World Record Attempt

Looks like they are close to making have made their goal of having One Thousand Indoor Cyclists at this event!  Updated 2/4/10

I just saw an email that, as of this morning, they have 925 riders registered. It should be a lot of fun and I’m guaranteed a great parking spot at the Target Center – I’m helping to unload trucks and wheel bikes into place, starting at 4:00am Sunday morning.

If you plan to be there let me know so I can say hi!  Posted by John. For some strange reason my blog doesn’t know who I am anymore

Indoor Cycling Endurance Learning Class

Does you club offer a Indoor Cycling Movie Night? Mine does as a way to get people in for long rides minus the boredom Working on that concept would this work? Have an “Indoor Cycling Endurance Learning Class” where you play instructional DVDs on different topics. I got the idea over at EnduranceFilms.com I have a few of their Indoor Cycling DVDs and as I’m training for my first triathlon I was intrigued by this 5 DVD Triathlon Training Series.

Stage5 Indoor Cycling Instructor Certification Scholarship Program

We Want the Best!

Stage5 Cycling is looking for the best indoor cycling instructors in the country and we are willing to put our money where our mouth is. Starting in 2010, we will be searching for 10 scholarship candidates per city to receive our 2-Day / 14-Hour comprehensive indoor cycling workshop. Recipients only have to pay for the workbook ($30) and we will cover the cost of the workshop registration ($245).

Why Are We Doing This?

Our workshops and certification is in demand all over the country and we don’t have enough educators to meet the demand. Stage5 Cycling’s goal is 2-fold: (1) populate the country with some of the most amazing indoor cycling instructors and programs available and (2) find and train those exceptional instructors that can become educators.

[Tom Scotto and I discuss the qualifications Stage5 is looking for in ICI/PRO Podcast # 89 - John]

Read more…

Half Moon Sets Off Spinning® Programme

Our very own ICI/PRO Team Member Barbara Hoots announces;

First Officially Licensed Spinning® Resort in Caribbean

(I know how hard she worked and all the hurdles she overcame to make this a reality. I’m very proud of her + it’s going to be a great place to teach! - John)

Find a hammock for after your class...

From their press release:
Rose Hall, Jamaica (February 2009) – Half Moon, the luxury resort located in Rose Hall, Jamaica, has teamed up with internationally acclaimed STAR 3 Spinning instructor Barbara Hoots and Mad Dogg Athletics, developers of Spinning® to offer guests the popular cycling-inspired Spinning® classes. This will make the luxury resort the only Caribbean resort to offer this popular fitness programme.

Equipped with 10 custom-designed Spinner® bikes and state of the art sound system in specially-designed Spinning studio, guests of the 400-acre resort can choose from three unique tours that invite them on a virtual experience of Jamaica.

The programmes Climb to Blue Mountain, No Problem Tour and Adventures in Negril were developed by Spin veteran Barbara Hoots and feature specially created soundtrack to inspire and energize riders.

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