On October 10th my sons, Christian and Seth, and I participated in an indoor cycling charity ride called The Roadless Ride which benefits a local charity named Brent's Place. This event consists of 12 one hour indoor cycling classes where participants donate $45 or more for each class they choose to participate in. There is also a group of “Century Riders” who ride all 12 hours. Christian, Seth and I joined 22 other endurance junkies for this challenge. It was an awesome day! Most of the classes sold out and all the Century Riders completed their 12 hour endurance journey. The event organizers are predicting we raised over $100,000!
I participated in 9 classes and led 3. For the final 2 hours I team taught with fellow instructor, Collin Catel. Colin and alternately taught 3 song sets. We have different teaching and music styles, but when we were organizing our playlist I fell in love with this set that Colin put together, so I thought I would share it with you.
I also included the video we used with this 3 song set. I hope you enjoy it!
3 song harmonically mixed track, to download Right Click > Save As / Save Target As to download. Open in iTunes and then you'll see this in your Spotify Local File folder.
Not only do I think there's something special about 3 song mixes I also think there is something powerful about 3 interval sets. One of my favorite 3 interval sets is to go HARD, HARDER, HARDEST. This teaches pace and control but also forces riders to “dig deep” on the third interval. If you are lucky enough to have bikes with power these sets are easy to teach, simply finish each interval with a higher average wattage. If you do not have wattage you can use more gear\resistance and the same cadence or the same gear\resistance and a faster cadence for each interval.
This 3 song mix is perfect for this type of interval set. All 3 songs are about 4 minutes long so you can simply have the riders go hard for 3 minutes and recover for 1 minute and repeat 3 times. This HARD, HARDER, HARDEST interval can be done in a variety of ways. I sometimes teach it in the same position for all three intervals, other times I teach it: seated with a fast cadence, seated with a slow cadence followed by standing. Other times I let the riders choose their position, but I remind them that each interval has to be harder than the previous one.
These types of intervals are both fun and challenging. Let me know how it goes.
With the season of giving upon us, I have a question for all of the Indoor Cycling instructors out there.
What one “gift” could your facility add to your Indoor Cycling studio that would help you improve the experience you try to create for your class participants?
The Power of “3”
