Random reflections on teaching with Power

by John | Feb 12, 2012 | Instructor Training, Training With Power

I'm like a kid in a candy store now that I have power in my Sunday 90 minute endurance class 🙂

Much of it, I'm sure has to do with the purity of the participants – which is to be expected from participants in a 90 minute anything… but there is more to it than just transitioning a 90 minute class without Power, to one with Power.

They get “it”
The people in my class are really smart! Once I explained everything they quickly understood how valuable the combination of magnetic resistance and power indication would be to reaching their fitness goals. Now when I talk about maximizing their time in class; get in and setup early, don't wait for me or waste 10 minutes talking to your neighbor – start your warm-up as soon as possible, as soon as your breathing calms get back to a flat road wattage, etc… they nod in agreement. Don't get me wrong, Heart Rate training is still important, but the instantaneous and member specific, information that comes with Power, makes Heart Rate training so 2000's.

They get “me”
“John, now it's all starting to gel together…” And gel it has! Being able to discuss Power and it's correlation with Heart Rate training zones has been very freeing and immensely satisfying, to me as an Instructor.

Today for example, I did my Nice Pull! ride. This is a simulation of working through a pace line of a group riding into a heavy headwind. Tucked in nicely, shielded from the wind, everything is manageable. Until BAM!  The last rider in front pulls left and now you're hit hard with the force of the wind. Cuing / describing that feeling, to someone who's never ridden in a group, is very difficult. The challenge for the indoor rider is to immediately add load, at a level they can sustain for 2-5 minutes, without losing cadence. Tough to do on a conventional IC bike, working off of RPE or Heart Rate, but very easy and understandable when you have taking your class through some 5-8 minute intervals where you establish an estimate FTP – Functional Threshold Power. In an outdoor ride your pull at the front needs to be at a consistent pace. As soon as you can no longer maintain the pace you need to pull off… those who can sustain the pace, for an extended period of time, get a simple Nice Pull! as they slip toward the back. Having an average wattage number to maintain, for the whole 5 minute interval, replicated the feeling of pulling into a headwind more realistically than ever before. And the multiple, positive comments I received after class were just awesome. This could make a fun Audio PROfile 🙂

I don't have to feel like I need to compete with anyone, anymore!
And neither does Amy – and neither will you [wlm_firstname]. Lorrinda takes both of our classes and she told us both this weekend; You guys need to train all the other instructors! We are so far out ahead of all the “entertainment on bikes” crowd it's not even funny. Not everyone will want to make the transition, there will still be still be goofy housewife classes at 9:30 on Tuesdays, but the tide (at least where we teach) is a changing.