by John | Nov 22, 2012 | Latest News
Amy and I want to wish you and your families a Happy Thanksgiving!
We were spoiled today with what started as a reasonably nice day. Our buddy Randy (far left) convinced us to try one more ride outside before hanging up “The Bus” in the garage rafters for the season.
One word of advise for any of you trying to sneak in a late season ride. When the Weatherman says; “on Thanksgiving Day the temperature will plummet from 55° to 40° at one o'clock and the wind will go from naught to 20 mph in your face at one o'clock, believe him and plan your ride accordingly 🙁
by John | Nov 16, 2012 | Music
So there I was, sitting in the front row at OMpower Studio in San Francisco on Monday, taking a MyRide+ virtual ride with ICG Master Trainer Jim Karanas. Jim was leading us up a long climb somewhere in Italy when this song came on to motivate us to the top.
“This is an awesome climbing track, I need to remember to ask Jim what it's cal… wait a second… I can just Shazam it and have on my iPhone when I get home!
You'll probably recognize it as the de beers TV commercial music we start hearing as we get closer to Christmas.
It's a version of Palladio and this track screams climb, with a powerful beat at 70rpm and a big finish at the end. Jim actually strung a number of versions of Palladio together for his 10 minute video segment.
Silent Nick — Palladio
 
If you will be in SanFran this weekend, Jim is leading an Indoor Century (100 miles) on Saturday. That's 5 hours on the bike riding to 5 hours of stunning video from locations around the world – I came home too soon 🙁
by John | Nov 15, 2012 | ICI/PRO Community, Instructor Training, Master Instructor Blog
When Tom Scotto told me he wanted to lead the opening ride at the conference last year using a live band, I was a bit skeptical. “How exactly will that work?” I asked him. “Don't worry about anything John… I'll take care of all the details… this is going to be awesome” was Tom's response.
And awesome it was and take care of the details he did!
Tom planned this ride to perfection – he even jumps in with the band to play drums at one point as he lead all of us on a journey through a series of towns based on different musical genres. I have to say I was very impressed as we rode from Funkville to Rockville and followed the intensity profile from ClassBuilder on the screen. Be prepaired to take notes as Tom has a bunch of great cues that you can use in your own class.
I knew that the crew from Cycling Fusion was filmed the event, but we never offered it for you to watch and learn from. So Gene's making the video available as a sort of reward for taking this short survey – you'll be taken to the video after completing the survey.
Joining Tom on stage are a very attractive front row made up of ICI/PRO Teammates; Stages Indoor Cycling Master Trainer Cameron Chinatti,The Senior Group Fitness Instructor Amy Macgowan, Spinning Instructor and Studio Design expert Barbara Hoots and of course Gene Nacey from CyclingFusion.com. There's also crowd shots that include many of the participants 🙂
Click here to take the survey and I'm sure you will enjoy it.
John
My two favorite women working hard 🙂
by John | Nov 11, 2012 | Best Practices, Instructor Tech Help
I've been a loyal Carbonite customer since 2008 and see having a system for regular, daily backups of your computer as a Best Practice. They've saved me from multiple Hard Drive failures where I would have lost everything. All my music, all my files and thousands of pictures remain safe and recovering every single file, after you drop your laptop on the kitchen floor, takes just a few clicks 🙂
And I mean every thing. Carbonite runs every evening, backing up every new or changed file, so when you're a little blurry at 5:00am and you hear a very loud crash, followed by a strange grinding noise, you don't have to freak out. You've got a secure backup that you can access from another computer until your's is fixed.
I just got an email from them with what has to be the best deal they've ever offered. Carbonite is running a refer a friend program. Sign up today ($59.00 a year) and you and your friend (that's me) receive a $20.00 gift card from Amazon.com
Once you are a customer you can become the “friend” and get a $20.00 gift card for everyone you refer. Play it right and you could actually make money on the deal!
Options for Mac and PC – Signup here.
by John | Nov 11, 2012 | Best Practices, Instructor Training, Master Instructor Blog, Music
More and more I'm hearing and seeing how Instructors are experimenting with riding in with the class, rather than presenting up-front-and-center on the traditional “Instructor Bike”.
It's fun to mix it up and IMO, an imperative when teaching to a structured Virtual Ride DVD.
But riding away from the music controls creates a technical difficulty; how do you make adjustments to the sound volume?
I witness this firsthand, while riding in an unnamed (but very attractive) Instructor's class this morning.
Her playlist included a bunch of very interesting mashups of popular tunes. Which made for a great class… except that a number of tracks had been mixed at varying sound levels. After hitting play, our unnamed Instructor took her position with the rest of class in the front row, leaving her iPod up on the sound equipment cabinet. Everything was going as planned until one of the mashups came on REALLY LOUD! She hopped off her cycle, walked up to her iPod, quickly turn down the volume and returned to her bike. Problem solved.
Solved that is until the next song which was very quiet. Not wanting to disrupt the class any further she left it where it was, leaving me wanting to yell out “turn up your music!” Out of respect for another Instructor, I didn't say anything during her class.
But I will offer you two possible solutions, Amy:
- I can order you a very long cord for your iPod.
- I can lend you my Bluetooth receiver and show you how you can connect wirelessly using your Android phone.
I'm here to help and you know where to find me.
Actually there's another reason I've found to go wireless – many accessory cases prevent the 1/8″ plug on the connection cord from being fully inserted into your phone. So it doesn't work with the case installed 🙁
In my case I was forever taking off my iPhone's case so I could plug in the cord. When I got tired of the hassle, I quit using the case altogether. And then promptly dropped my iPhone, breaking the back glass panel – not good. So a Best Practice for any Instructor is to invest in a $25.00 (with free shipping) for this Bluetooth receiver and not need to invest in a $549.00 replacement iPhone.
Speaking of riding along with your class… I Shazam'd this track last night, Come Along from Vicci Martinez. It conveys the essence of exactly what I'm trying to communicate to my students as we push through a tempo Threshold effort together. There's a wonderful refrain the you can add to your cuing at the 2:27 mark; Time Fly's, Make a Statement, Take a Stand… and finishes with; Take… Your… Shot!
I felt you might like it.
Vicci Martinez — Come Along
