Moms are awesome – I realise that although raising kids can be a thankless job at times… there are moments that make it all worthwhile 🙂
This is college graduation weekend for older daughter Abby. Amy and I are very proud of how she has grown into a self sufficient, hard working young women.
It's not a surprise to me. Abby had a fantastic role model growing up.
While watching this very confident graduate receiving her diploma, I couldn't help but think; I'll bet Amy's parents watched a near replica of this and felt exactly the same way as I do now. There's no mistaking Abby and Amy as anything other than mother / daughter.
Abby and her housemates hosted a big after-party at their favorite tavern. The place was packed and I must of heard 50 times – YOU MUST BE AMY, ABBY'S MOM!
Amy and I will be heading out on the “Bus” (our Trek Tandem) later today after it warms up. My plan for the ride has me doing more than my share of the work – but I'm not sure Amy will be soft pedaling for very long. When there's work to be done, Amy has the tendency to step up and hammer whenever and wherever she's needed. And I appreciate that.
“There must be something wrong with this bike… my wattage doesn't match what I normally see on my road bike with a PowerTap. 🙁
A common complaint that many of us are hearing, now that our clubs are offering power meters.
The answer could be as simple as; “it's because our Indoor Cycles have a different saddle than your road bike.”
Now I'm not saying that that's the only reason for the discrepancy. There are multiple factors that affect how you produce power and what ultimately gets displayed by the console. A few months ago I wouldn't have believed you, if you tried to convince me that (beyond the level of comfort you feel) a bike's saddle design could add or subtract to the power I could create.
I believe it now.
Back in March I had a professional bike fitting on my new VeloVie with none other than the Bike Fit Guru Chris Balser. I figured that I had a few dollars left because of the incredible deal I got and, with one kid graduating for college this Friday, why the heck not?
I was a bit naive about what all was entailed in a 2 hour fitting. I thought Chris would be super focused on getting my seat height exactly right, maybe futz with the tilt of the handlebars. Stuff like that. Nope. For close to an hour we tried out different saddles, 11 in total. That's right, Chris had me ride on a trainer, trying 11 different saddles, to find the perfect saddle that (his words) your ass can find easily. Here's what we finally decided on… a Fizik Kurve.
Impossible to tell just by looking at it – my butt knows where it belongs.
What we were looking for was more than a comfortable place to sit my butt. Actually comfortability was third on Chris' list of criteria for a saddle. The first was; “can your ass find it?” and second was; “how much power do you make with it?”
Both the “find it” and “power” go hand in hand. I've forgotten which number (of the 11 saddles) this Fizik was, but I knew the instant I sat on it… or better said, my butt knew the second it sat down. It just felt right and I wasn't sitting on it, I was kind of in it. That's when I understood what Chris was talking about when he kept saying find it. There wasn't any question where on the saddle I was supposed to sit, I just sat down and I was right where I was supposed to be. No working my way a little forward or backwards. I just sat down.
Once my butt found its home I made more power! The trainer I was riding was connected to a power meter that displayed both my left and right leg's power, on a flat screen hanging in front of me. I was pedaling an easy gear at 90 rpm and making around 40 watts. Each saddle change I road in the same gear/cadence. Chris was watching me to see how stable I was and the balance of power between each of my legs.
The differences we saw were considerable, as much as a 20% or more variance left to right. Once I was sitting on the correct saddle for me I was able to maintain a nice even flow of power with my butt happy that it found its place.
Everything that can be changed or adjusted on my bicycle affected my power. Stem length, handle bar height, saddle tilt, height & fore/aft and cleat settings all made a difference that could be observed. Some were positive and some negative. Chris explained how our bodies adapt to the settings on our bikes. Some changes, that could be ultimately be helpful, often require time as our muscles and the nerves that control them adjust to the new settings. During this adjustment period you could/will appear less powerful.
So it stands to reason that hopping off the bicycle you're ridden for thousands of miles and on to any of the Indoor Cycles with power, you'll see a difference in wattage. The tendency is to blame the accuracy of the power meter – now I understand that there are mutiple other reasons.
A fitting with the Bike Fit Guru is actually split between two days, with a couple of hundred miles in between. Getting those miles has been a challenge with the miserable weather we've had this spring. Part two of my fitting is set for June 10th and I'll be doing a full report on everything I've learned about the correlation between bike fit and power production.
Are you using the SoundTracking App in Spotify? It's an awesome way to sample songs that are trending on Spotify. By trending I don't mean Top 40 / Billboard new tracks – these are popular tracks Spotify users are enjoying of all genres & time periods.
Here's a great example of an old tune from the band Queen that I can't actually remember ever hearing. The Show Must Go On is classic Queen, heavy on the use of orchestral music combined with Brian May's signature guitar solos. A powerful song at 84 rpm that I can see using as the intro to a long climb. You may want to pair it with another Queen track, with a slightly slower cadence, like Queen — Keep Yourself Alive to create an 8 minute climb with a nice flow as the road steepens and everyone's Heart Rate heads north.
Here's a powerful instrumental version of The Show Must Go On for your free track.
I'm not sure if I would use this – but if you enjoy using original recordings (I'm tempted to call this a demo) that are different from what everyone remembers – but recognizable none the less – you may enjoy this version of Keep Yourself Alive.
The TV Weatherman said that this weekend will be the warmest since Labor Day… that was about 8 months ago. No wonder we're all so itching to get outside!
Today's track is all about holding out hope that you'll make it through to the end. Many times, in life and on a long climb, you reach the point when you have to make a decision; do I quit? or do I take a moment to re-commit to the effort at hand?
I love to tell my class; “cycling is an endurance sport.”
“The root word is endure = persevering all the way to the end of your challenge, whatever it may be.”
“What limits most of us isn't our physical endurance.” “Sure our legs maybe tired, HR's at threshold and our lungs are burning… but that's not what's holding any of us back right now.” “The only thing holding you back, right now is YOU.”
A track like the 7 minute version of Giants from Chicane, with it's slight pause at the 3:38 point, offers the perfect place for you to explain; “cycling is an endurance sport… you'll need to choose to endure this” and then coach everyone to re-commit to the climb to the summit.
I've used Cirque Du Soleil DVDs in classes in the past with very good results. Participant's seem to really enjoy them and the original soundtrack is often perfect for a “and now for something completely different” class.
Amy saw Cirque Du Soleil: Worlds Away on RedBox and brought it home Sunday night. The visuals are amazing and I could easily see using this in a class.
From its Wikipedia page:
Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away is a 2012 3D film directed by Andrew Adamson. The film premiered on October 20, 2012 at the Tokyo International Film Festival,[1] and it was released theatrically in the United States on December 21, 2012, the same day Jack Reacher was released.[4] It was released in 2D and 3D. It stars Erica Linz and Igor Zaripov as the main characters and incorporates acts from the seven Cirque du Soleil shows running in Las Vegas in 2011: O, Mystère, Kà , Love, Zumanity, Viva Elvis and Criss Angel Believe.
If you're not familiar with Cirque Du Soleil check out this video trailer.
Not only are they beautiful to watch live (or on video), but the sound tracks are performed live, incredibly well done and many are perfectly suitable for use in a class.
Cirque du Soleil — Alegria is probably the most popular. Amy and I have used it after first hearing it at a show they performed here in Minneapolis in the late 90's.
Finding music that encourages faster pedal speeds for endurance classes, can be a real challenge 🙁
Spend some time in Spotify Cirque du Soleil and you'll find a gold mine of potential tracks you could string together – or just click play on one of their albums and add some occasional cues for a quick, entertaining class!
Or better, click play on a Cirque video and turn up the soundtrack – I've never have a negative response to using these in a class. Our public library has a number of these DVDs available so that could save you from the expense of buying them – or check RedBox to see there's one near where you live.
