Dunte Hector, Stages Indoor Cycling Master Educator presents his Kor180 Race of Truth as our latest Audio PROfile.
Within any Indoor Cycling class profile, there's the typical warmup and cooldown. For most of us, these segments of our classes remain fairly constant – it's the work-set in the middle that varies depending on our specific purpose for the class.
So in the interest of saving your precious time, some of our new Audio PROfiles will focus on the actual work-set… the important stuff and you'll easily be able to splice these into your normal routine.
We've added a new category; Class Work-Sets so you'll be able to find them quickly in the future.
These will also work well for anyone teaching a cardio/strength fusion class. Dunte teaches at Kor180 in Austin, TX and his classes follow a fusion format of 30 minutes of cycling followed by 30 minutes of strength.
Sometimes it's just being in the right place, at the right time to move into a position as Master Trainer for a major Indoor Cycling education company.
OK, maybe you need more than that. Like having a strong passion for fitness, a bicycle racing background and (in this case anyway) an engineering mindset that helps you to understand and then communicate the true value of adding metrics to an Indoor Cycling class.
Dunte joins me to discuss how he got his start with Stages Indoor Cycling and offers his ideas on effectively communicating power training to our students.
Later this week (shooting for Friday) I'll be publishing Dunte's Race of Truth Audio PROfile. We had some audio quality issues with Skype that made take #1 unusable and plan to re-record his profile Wednesday this week.
I saw this last Tuesday and forgot to share it with you. Our club ride begins at the Minnetonka Lifetime Athletic Club. Better known as The Spa, this is a unique LTF facility. Definitely not a Big Box, this club began as a women only club before being purchased by Lifetime.
When I got there Tuesday night they were setting up for an outdoor ride. How fun is that? We rolled before they got started and I heard later that they (Manager and Instructors) did a very nice job making this outdoor class an event, rather than just a class.
The area behind the fence is a small patio. After the class participants enjoyed Hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar – this is an adults only club. They even had live entertainment from a local duet. Is that something you could do at your club or studio?
Could I keep up in a group ride?
With Amy visiting her family in Phoenix, I become the de facto sub for her Saturday AM class. Which was fine – 55 and rain this morning = no outdoor ride for John. After class a regular member asked me if I felt she could keep up in a group ride. I dislike giving answers beginning with; “well that depends” – except in this situation it really does. Riding with a group depends on a number of factors. So I asked her the following:
Do you have a suitable road bike?
Are you comfortable riding close to others?
Are you OK riding on the road?
How far (miles) can you typically ride at a consistent pace?
It surprised (and delighted) me a little when she quickly answered positively to each question and then clarified what she was asking:
How many Watts do I have to make, to keep up in a group ride?
She's been listening and wanted to equate the power/watts she seeing in class to riding outdoors 🙂
I had to think about it for a few minutes, before I could answer her. I explained that most organised group rides have multiple “levels”:
“A” groups are normally drop rides. If you can't keep up you get dropped, and ride home by yourself. Based on my purely anecdotal experience, “A” groupers can sustain 1.5 or more watts per pound of body weight for the entire ride.
“B” groups, depending on the organization and/or leaders, are partial drop rides = we may wait for you or there maybe someone who will come back to help you catch up. To hang with the “Bs” you should be comfortable producing your body weight in watts > and be able to climb at around 1.5 watts per pound.
“C” groups areno drop rides. Everyone stays together and ride at the pace of the slowest rider.
But I don't want to slow everyone up – so what's the minimum watts I need to make?
I told her that there's no way to know that number. I encouraged her to show up one night and see what happens…
Who was it that decided climbing songs should be slow?
If I tried to stay with the group I ride with on a long climb, grinding along at 60 RPM, I'd be off the back (and on my own) in no time flat.
Sure a climb should make you struggle to turn the pedals – but to replicate an actual climb outdoors, might I suggest having everyone maintain their cadence in the 80s? Or at least the high 70s?
I've been keeping track of rider's cadences during our group rides, especially when the grade turns positive. Anyone who appears strong is spinning smoothly at 75 RPM or more. The grinders hang on for a little while… just a little, before their leg muscles fatigue and someone ends up waiting at the top – to help them catch back on.
Bicycles have gears for a reason. My new VeloVie has 20 to choose from. How I decide which gear to be in is simple…
I select the gear that allows me to maintain my prefered cadence of ~85 to 95 RPM.
Going up, down or on a flat I'm continuously shifting to keep my pedals in this RPM range. The one exception would be on a long downhill where I will have shifted down to the point where I'm pushing a huge gear at ~ 60 RPM. The exact opposite of conventional thinking.
The typical rookie mistake on the road is to wait to shift until the road literally forces you to do something. They're pedalling merrily along during the beginning of the climb, with their cadence slowly decaying and forward momentum slowing. That is until someone stuck behind them (that would be me) yells SHIFT. By that point the damage is done and they've lost touch with the wheel they were following. Riders behind (again me) are forced to pass them and fight to close the gap before we (once more me) get dropped as well.
A more experienced cyclist will respond instantly to the feel of the road pushing back against their pedals and shift gears. Same with any feeling that their legs are tiring and starting to slow. Shifting to maintain or increase cadence moves the production of work from fatigued legs, up to your (hopefully) less stressed cardiovascular system.
Todays free track is at a very powerful 85 RPM – but it's not a flat. Try coaching this as a climb. If you're riding a magnet cycle have everyone add load at 70 RPM until they feel the need to stand > then accelerate to the music's 85 RPM.
Friction folks will have participants find the tempo and then add the hill while staying with the music.
In either case, cuing everyone; “if you're feeling a burning in your legs > you're doing it right :)” “No burning? Then you're not keeping up, slipping off the back and you will be riding home alone!”
When I click on the links nothing happens as I try to bring the playlists into Spotify. I also clicked on each person's name/profile but Spotify says they are unknown user?
Please help, I think I'm way off. I'm still trying to learn this app. Also, in order to take advantage in my class, I have to get a Premium account to stream through my iPhone right?
Thanks!
My response:
Hi – I'll try to help.
Yes you need a Spotify premium account to use your iPhone. You can get a free 30 day trial to see if Spotify is right for you.
There's a setting in Spotify that maybe preventing this.
Open Spotify – Up at the top go to Edit > Preferences > and then scroll down to Open Spotify automatically and check the Allow Spotify to be started from the webbox.
Let me know if that solves it 🙂
John
P.S. You'll notice that I have the Don't Open Automatically box ticked. That setting prevents Spotify from opening on computer startup, but doesn't prevent Spotify from opening if you click a track or playlist link.
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Do you ever Shazam a track and then forget about it… only to be pleasantly surprised to find it later in our tagged lists?
I remembered to check this morning and here's what I found:
Lissie — Go Your Own Way is a cover of Fleetwood Mac's well known hit. I'd never heard of Lissie before – a powerful message that screams TURN IT UP as you cue a breakaway during a long climb that could begin with Lissie — Nothing Else Matters 🙂
