I was having a post-class discussion with long-time participant and friend Denise when I exposed my utter cluelessness about popular music. When I got home I asked my two daughters (18 & 22) if they knew who PitBull was and they informed me that PitBull was a rapper who works with lots of other popular artists. You need to get with-it Dad!
Enter Spotify to get myself hip 🙁
First I checked the Top Instructor Class Music list Barbara Hoots put together last year. No Pitbull.
So I searched for Pitbull and was quickly exposed to a bunch of tracks that weren't half-bad.
I used two in my class this past Thursday night – sans Denise, who I'm guessing was attending to a soon-to-be new mother in her role as a delivery nurse.
Traci Kann was the winner of our Ultimate Instructor Class Profile contest!
She won a prize package that included accommodations at an all inclusive caribbean resort from FitBodiesInc where she will be the guest Spinning Instructor for the week!
She also received $500.00 from Team ICG to use toward her travel expenses and a one year enhanced subscription to Indoor Cycling Music 🙂
What follows is her presentation of Ladder Stepdowns – A Descending Interval Workout.
Profile Description
This ride was inspired by a running workout described in “Runner’s World” magazine a few years ago. While the workout in the magazine was designed to be done on foot and not on an indoor bike, and while it was presented a bit differently than this rides in terms of timing and the total number of intervals, the basic concept remains the same. The premise is to experience a range of paces from common road race distances, from the marathon to the mile. As the simulated race distance decreases, the intensity of the interval increases.
Morale, welfare and recreation fitness specialist Susan M. Lowry instructs Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) on group cycling. Image from http://commons.wikimedia.org
We've got a bunch of ICI/PRO members scattered around the world who serve (and teach) in the military. I'm deeply appreciative of anyone who volunteers to serve – many times making huge sacrifices to do so.
I love when I hear from one –
Hi John –
As you may be aware, I'm working in Afghanistan through a limited
server connection. Our NATO gym has Danish bikes and instructors. It's
interesting to compare the IC styles from different geo locations…
… I look forward to returning to the US and comforts of home, but until
then it'll be techno music and lots of standing climbs 😉
– Ryan
Out of our appreciation for these brave men and women, we offer any active duty military Instructor a free subscription to ICI/PRO. It doesn't matter where they are located or which country they serve.
If you know if any Instructor who would benefit from this – please have them contact me.
P.S. Wouldn't it be cool to take an Indoor Cycling classes in/on and Aircraft Carrier like this one? Forget music, you just cue your sprints with every jet take-off 🙂
I know that we have thousands of visitors from around the world who access the site using an iPhone or iPad. So if you don't own either device this will be of no interest.
On the other hand, if you do own an Apple device and use it to help navigate through life, this may be like an early Christmas present – it was for me!
Google Maps are back!
When I updated to OS6 last summer the little Google Maps icon was gone – replaced by Apple's new mapping application. No big deal, I thought… it's an Apple product, so I'm sure it's as good, if not better than what it replaced.
Boy was I wrong 🙁
If you search around you can find that the whole world thinks Apple's map sucks. I couldn't find anything with it. Type in simple search terms like “Chinese food” or “auto parts” would typically return “no results found”. Really?
I often needed to humble myself and ask if I could use Amy's Droid to look up an address, then hear about it for the rest of the day.
Just in time for Christmas I saw that Apple has finally approved the new Google Maps App! So I downloaded it, turned it on… and it didn't work.
Apple wasn't going to let me make the move easily. When I first clicked the little “where am I?” arrow at the bottom I got this error message saying I needed to turn on my Location Services.
But they are on you stupid phone – I use them all of the time.
I wouldn't have even considered creating this post until I spend 10 minutes trying to find how to turn on something that appeared to be on everywhere else. So I thought you might appreciate not having to fight through this yourself.
Each application has it's own toggle. Google Maps has one as well that you can find under:
Settings > Privacy > Location Services 🙂
(The old OS version had an easy to find toggle on the main setting screen)
It is of course free and after a short time playing with it, I really like it.
Comment from Myth #4Indoor Cycles require a lot of Fore/Aft Saddle adjustment to accommodate the range of cyclists coming into your class.
Well… the difference between real bikes and an IC bikes is that real bikes come in many frame sizes/geometries. They don’t need much room for saddle fore/aft positioning because if you have the right size frame, you don’t need that much fore/aft movement to find the right fit.
I should have anticipated this response and addressed it in my original post.
Changes in saddle Fore/Aft on an Indoor Cycle replicate the similar movement you would experience on various sizes of a typical road bicycle.
Let me explain…
I found this frame sizing chart at ribblecycles.co.uk and it's typical of most any modern road bicycle frame design sold in stock sizes.
Areas in yellow don't change, regardless of frame size
Certain dimensions* at the rear of a bicycle do not change with frame size:
Dimension [B] is Bottom Bracket Height = how far the horizontal center-line of the Bottom Bracket is off the ground.
Chain Stay length [I] sets the distance the rear wheel axle is from the vertical center-line of the Bottom Bracket
Changes in frame sizes come primarily from:
Seat Tube length [A] affects saddle / stand-over height and is the most common method of sizing bicycles
Top Tube length [C] changes the reach to the handlebars.
So with the back of the bicycle essentially unchangeable, if you want to increase the frame size you're limited to; make it taller or longer… but only through increasing the length of the Top Tube.**
Notice that there's no dimension for Saddle Post position Fore/Aft. That's because it's controlled by the Seat Tube Angle [E] which is near universally @ ~ 73° plus/minus on Road Bikes.*** Lengthen the Seat Tube and Saddle Post naturally moves further behind the Bottom Bracket center-line.
Indoor Cycles use a similar Seat Tube Angle = similar results. Raising the saddle also moves it toward the rear ~ the same amount as you would experience with bicycle frames in various sizes.
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*Yes, of course you can find examples in the extreme (very tall or short) where this isn't the case. I'm trying to make the point that bicycle manufacturers (indoor and out) design their products to fit 90+% of the general public, and, with over 100 years of experience, do so very effectively.
** Which is what Keiser attempts to do on the M3's handlebars. They move farther away, as you raise them up.
*** Triathlon Bikes for example, use a steeper (more vertical) Seat Tube Angle.
