by John | Jun 6, 2012 | Latest News
I can't take any credit for this, but as Instructors we all do our part!
Minneapolis-St.Paul Tops Fit List for Second Straight Year
ACSM American Fitness Indexâ„¢ 2012 report identifies healthiest, fittest metro areas in the U.S.; Latest report adds benchmarks to help direct community-level efforts.
Indianapolis, IN (PRWEB) May 31, 2012
For the second consecutive year, Minneapolis-St. Paul is the healthiest, fittest metropolitan area in the United States, according to the American College of Sports Medicine’s (ACSM) annual American Fitness Index™ (AFI).
Made possible by a grant from the WellPoint Foundation, the 2012 AFI data report, “Health and Community Fitness Status of the 50 Largest Metropolitan Areas,” evaluated the most populous city areas to identify the healthiest and fittest places in the United States. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington achieved a high score of 76.4 (out of 100 possible points) to capture the top ranking.
Read the whole press release here.
The metropolitan rankings included in the 2012 AFI report are:
Rank Metropolitan Area 2012 Score 2011 Rank 2011 Score
1. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn. 76.4 1 77.2
2. Washington, D.C. 75.8 2 76.8
3. Boston, Mass. 70.0 3 69.1
4. San Francisco, Calif. 69.0 6 66.8*
5. Hartford, Conn. 68.5 7 66.8*
6. Sacramento, Calif. 68.4 10 65.3
7. Portland, Ore. 67.9 4 67.7
8. Seattle, Wash. 67.8 8 66.5
9. Denver, Colo. 65.6 5 67.6
10. Austin, Texas 63.4 16 57.8
11. Virginia Beach, Va. 63.2 9 65.8
12. San Jose, Calif. 62.2 11 65.2
13. Salt Lake City, Utah 59.8 15 59.8
14. Raleigh, N.C. 58.8 24 50.0
15. Pittsburgh, Pa. 58.7 17 55.5
by John | May 28, 2012 | Latest News
Click the post title to see it!
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by John | May 28, 2012 | Giving Back To Your Community, Latest News
Here in America we celebrate all those who have died in the service of our country.
For all of you active duty Instructors, regardless of which country you serve, we offer a complimentary six-month membership to ICI/PRO with our thanks for your service 🙂
You can use the contact form on the right or drop me a note john@indoorcycleinstructor.com and we'll get you all set up.
If you know an enlisted Instructor please forward this to them and thank them for their service.
What are you doing this day?
The weather looks like it's going to be fabulous and my normal Monday morning class has been canceled. So watch for Amy and myself out on The Bus – our red Trek Tandem. We'll be putting in some much needed mileage, in preparation for this years MS 150 that happens next month.
I would really appreciate it if you would donate! Please click the MS banner at the top of the page 🙂
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by John | May 27, 2012 | Engage Your Students, Instructor Training
Something about this movie trailer moved me to the point where I made a donation to support the production of this film. It wasn't much, only $25, but as I begin year #51 it really spoke to me and I wanted to show my support.
Maybe it was this quote, right at the end, that got me:
I don't know what's around the corner for me. I've never been so fulfilled, not knowing.
Kickstarter.com is a community where you can submit your funding needs for just about anything you're working on. It could be a new invention, business start up or documentary film like I'm fine, Thanks
If you agree with the message, at the very least please go and Like the page. Once they've reached their fundraising goal they will complete the film and provide digital downloads for all the contributors to the project. If you donate $25 they'll send you a DVD. My plan is to show it in a class this fall.
I know we've got a lot of fiftyish Instructors here. I'd love to know if you're feeling like you've maybe been climbing the wrong wall yourself?
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by John | May 24, 2012 | Latest News
What began as a crazy dream I had while face-down and bored with swimming laps, turned out to be a lot of fun. Hosting a conference is a lot of work to be sure – huge amounts of stress and plenty of anxiety… but getting the chance to meet so many of you in person was actually really special to me, Amy and everyone else on the ICI/PRO team 🙂
Boston is a wonderful town and really worked well for our first two events. The hotel was very accommodating and Boston is local to a number of the people on our team including; Tom Scotto, Bill Pryor and Andrea Flaherty, our event coordinator. I'll never forget the experience of navigating a U-Haul truck, full of indoor cycles (courtesy of Bill Pryor who shut down one of his studios for the weekend) through the madness of New England traffic.
After two successful events in Boston, survey respondents asked that we move West. So we began looking for a new venue to host the ICI/PRO conference somewhere in the middle of America. Of course it needs to be in a city that is easy to fly into… which limited our search to a handful of cities with major airports. Understanding that a big part of the charm of our first two events was having everything under one roof – most everyone stayed in the hotel where the all the events occurred – had us looking for a similar facility. The venue we were looking for also needed to be open to hosting a fitness conference of 150 or so people and most importantly be somewhere we could afford. Hotel ballroom and meeting room rentals are incredibly expensive – which has me petrified at the prospect of financing two weddings, for my two daughters, in the future.
In the end we were unsuccessful in finding a location. To be perfectly honest the effort left me exhausted and without the passion and enthusiasm needed to champion a third event.
I can't let the opportunity pass to again thank everyone who attended our two ICI/PRO conferences! Your willingness to spend hard earned dollars to attend one or both of the events humbles me to this day. Thank You.
And I need to extend the same thank you to everyone (presenters, sponsors and volunteers) who had a hand in the actual events. In particular I need to thank the the major sponsors who literally took a big risk on me. Each of the following invested a considerable amount of time, money and effort. Missing any one of their contributions and we would not have had either of our conferences.
- Darren Pelkey from Keiser Indoor Cycles
- Gene Nacey with Cycling Fusion
- Bill Pryor from Spynergy Consulting
- Laurel Mylin and Cameron Chinatti with Stages Indoor Cycling
- Barbara Hoots from Indoor Cycle Design
Will we have another event in the future? Who knows… Through this process I've developed relationships with a number of other event producers. We weren't able to make anything work this year, but you never know.
Now if you got to the end of this and you find yourself thinking; “so what are you going to do with all your extra time John?” I have a good answer for that. We are at this very moment planning and designing a number of new features that we feel will really benefit Indoor Cycling Instructors and ICI/PRO members. We'll be rolling these out in time for the next indoor season, this Fall.
After all, my passion for innovating is as strong as ever. So stay tuned 🙂
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by John | May 20, 2012 | Instructor Training, Latest News
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Ladies and gentlemen; after a week of review and deliberation, we're excited to announce the Top 5 – Ultimate Instructor Class Profiles!
We will be publishing these profiles, as well as recording the Top 3, in the coming weeks.
Here they are:
#5 – Good Better Best by Michele Forrester-Morgan from Waxhaw, NC
Profile Description
My inspiration for this came from riding outdoors working on hill repeats. The goal in putting together this profile is to improve strength and speed, not just for the uphill climb, but also on the flat road, downhill and in/out of the saddle. This profile consists of 3 loops, each focusing on a different cycling skill.
#4 – “The Gate” — Halloween Mixed Ride by Kim Moody from Libertyville, IL
Profile Description
This profile is based on the urban legend, “The Gate,” in Libertyville, IL. One can find more information about the frightening place by going to www.hauntedusa.org/thegate For this Halloween mixed ride, I wanted members to visualize the dark and desolate location so I began the class by retelling excerpts from the article to provide some background information and imagery material.
#3 – Welcome to the Jungle: An Introduction to Tabatas by Krista Leopold from Charleston, SC
Profile Description
The word “tabata” has become quite a phenomenon recently. A google search for “tabata” produces nearly 9 million hits. Given how our riders to turn to the internet for answers to their weight-loss and training questions and given the tendency of the internet to provide less-than-factual information about these topics, it is important that instructors be prepared to counter with evidence and experience.
#2 – Waldo’s Revenge — 30 Minute Time Trial by Amy L. Pillitteri from Belfast, ME
Profile Description
Waldo’s Revenge is adapted from the actual 12.2 mile bike leg of the Waldo County Family Triathlon Course in Belfast, Maine where the beautiful scenic rolling countryside combines with the unforgiving wind to provide a challenging and rewarding bike course.
And the Ultimate Instructor Class Profile is:
Whiteface Mountain – Surrender to Gravity by Allison Santoro from Hampton, NH!
Profile Description
Today we will test the law of gravity…what goes up, must come down. Whiteface Mountain is a very challenging 8-mile climb up to a castle at the summit of the mountain. As you approach the toll-booth at the three-mile mark, you will be mentally preparing for the most challenging part of this ride with 8% to 10% gradients for several miles. As you ascend to the summit, two switchbacks and an ease in grade will provide you with the perfect opportunity to enjoy the rush of powering-through your threshold to the summit. At the summit, you will surrender to gravity…you will be rewarded with an exhilarating 10 minute down-hill recovery.
Congratulations to our Top 5 and a big THANK YOU to everyone who submitted a profile!
We couldn't have done this without all of our generous prize sponsors:
Performance IQ, ICG ® Indoor Cycling Group, Zoning Fitnessâ„¢, EpicPlanet.tv, Cycling Fusionâ„¢, STAGESâ„¢ Indoor Cycling, indoorcyclingmusic.com (formally Cadence Revolution)
View the complete list of prizes!
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