Meet Emmy Ragali, the owner of Go Cycle Studio in Chicago IL. Emmy is the first Beta instillation site for the Top Power Display System from Performance IQ.
I wanted to learn first hand what Emmy's experiences were using the Top Power display to show the wattage and RPM of each Keiser M3 her participants are riding.
You may have concerns about bringing competition into your class and so do I. During the interview I asked Emmy some specific questions about how her class accepted the competitive atmosphere that develops by having everyone's data displayed on a big screen.
While I was reviewing the Go Cycle website I noticed this link to an evaluation form where participants can give feed back on the quality of the Instructor and their class – I see this as an excellent idea and Emmy explained to me that it has been very helpful to her and her Instructors.
Listen to the Podcast below to hear all about Top Power.
It's with great pleasure (and a bit of pride) that I get to announce ICI/PRO member and frequent contributor Doug Rusho has joined the Stages Indoor Cycling team as a Master Instructor!
ICI/PRO members have enjoyed a number of Doug's Audio PROfiles and he did a great job presenting at our last conference.
Doug's first official duties will be to assist his new boss, Cameron Chinatti on Saturday January 14th, for an Instructor Essentials Training.
Cameron, Doug and I have an interview scheduled for next week to discuss all of this 🙂
The location for this training is InMotion Cycling Studio in Sayville, NY. PRO member Nancy Bachety opened her new studio last month with her husband Frank. They both had met Cameron at the conference and this training is designed to get her Instructors up to speed with the FreeMotion S11.9 Indoor Cycles that Nancy and Frank first rode this past fall in Boston.
Open to all Instructors. Here is the information:
Host Location – InMotion Cycling Studio
1/14/20012 8:00 am — 4:30 pm
63 Railroad Ave
Sayville, NY 11782
Contact: Nancy Bachety
Phone: 631-256-5256 InMotionInfo@yahoo.com
You can register for our next LIVE online training scheduled for Sunday 7:00pm Central Time on January 8th 2012.
Learning to use Spotify Premium* is the topic. We will be reviewing everything you need to know to create and share playlists in Spotify and then deliver them to your class using your iPhone or Android smart phone.
Or is first week of 2012 your time to join hundreds of other Instructors as an ICI/PRO Platinum member?
It's only $97.95 for the whole year (28 cents a day) and you will have access to LIVE trainings every month, dozens of Audio PROfiles, FREE music every week and informative articles that will have you teaching the class where they just may cheer you at the end 🙂
You can start your $1.00 – 7 day trial by clicking here.
*My apologies to those of you who live in areas where Spotify isn't available 🙁
Have you have ever faced this dichotomy in your class?
Two riders, call them Bob and Susan (not their real names) are sitting front, center, smiling at you. You know them both and what you know about them causes you to almost freeze with indecision about how you will coach the class.
Here's some background on the two:
Bob is 40 years old and a somewhat competitive cyclist. Bob comes to your class to get stronger/fitter/faster (which is what he wants) so he needs to Train ~ 80% of his time in ZONE 1 to develop aerobically and the remaining 20% in ZONE 3 – above AT/LT. From a Training perspective, Bob should spend as little time in ZONE 2 as possible (junk miles). But the upper part of ZONE 2 is exactly where Bob performs during (long/fast club ride, RR or TT) so Bob's training in ZONEs 1 & 3 is to make him stronger in ZONE 2 when he is competing. Bob also understands that the hard work in ZONE 3 will leave him a bit trashed – which he accepts as the cost of getting stronger.
Susan is a 40 year old Mother of three kids who isn't training for anything, unless you count her continuous battle maintaining her body composition at an acceptable level. She's in your class to burn calories…specifically body fat if at all possible. She wants to leave your class with the energy she needs for the rest of her day while also not having her sugar stores depleted to the point where her low blood sugar level has her stopping at the doughnut shop. I would argue that Susan needs to spend the majority of the class in ZONE 2. There is where she can maintain the highest level of intensity for the longest period of time, without feeling exhausted, needing to recover and eating everything she sees after class.
With few exceptions, the majority of our classes are made of students are more like Susan than Bob… and arguably the #1 reason people come to class is for weight management.
Does it then make sense that we design classes much more for Susan?
Are we boring/alienating Susan when we sit there and proudly explain how our class is scientifically designed to help Bob?
In her post about not teaching to the squeaky wheel, Cameron Chinatti lays out some excellent points on how no one at your facility should be valued higher than anyone else. Easier said then done. I find myself wanting to teach to a class of Bob's, even while smiling back at Susan.
Today is our day of Thanksgiving here in the US… only problem is the whole concept of being “thankful” tends to be forgotten – overshadowed by food, football and the anticipation of Black Friday sales.*
Not in the Macgowan family 🙂
Amy won't allow us to forget. She has insisted, beginning on our very first Thanksgiving together, that we focus on who we are truly thankful for. Late this afternoon we'll all sit down for dinner and before we eat, Amy has us pass around a burning candle. We each take a turn where we tell everyone who we are thankful for and why.
Notice that I said “who” and not “what” we each are thankful for. It took me a while before I really understood the distinction of what Amy was insisting…
While we all can agree that being thankful for what we have is important, Amy's point has been that beyond our own efforts, it's the actions of the people in our lives who we should be most thankful for.
So, for example, being thankful for your job (a “what”) changes to being thankful for the person(s) who are actually responsible for providing you with a place to teach…
Maybe its your GF department head, who saw some initial talent in you and was willing to look past the fact that you had no certification and still hired you, all those years ago – thanks Kym. Or there's a good chance the reason you have a job at all is because of the enormous personal and financial risks the owner of your studio has taken. As I write this I'm struck with this question; does this mean I should be thankful for someone like Bahram Akradi who started LifeTime fitness? Yes, I think it does.
So while I was up early getting the “bird” prepped, I started to think through my list of people for whom I'm most thankful this year – which motivated me to create this post so I could express my thanks for them publicly. I don't have time for details but please know that I'm truly thankful for each person on this list – which beyond the obvious is not in any particular order – and if someone is missing please forgive the oversight:
Have I told you how proud I am of all the ICI/PRO members who have taken the leap and started their own Indoor Cycling Studios? Well I am, and it's so awesome to see when the local media recognizes them!
Kathy Ehrlich-Scheffer opened Cycledelic Indoor Cycling Studio this fall in Rochester, NY. Her studio features FreeMotion s11.9 indoor cycles with power. I see that Kathy is offering Winter Training from Cycling Fusion, which should be a big boost to the cyclists in her area.
She lost everything, then she got back on the bike
Kathy Ehrlich-Scheffer and her husband bought a modest ranch house in San Diego in 2006, expecting to settle there for a long time. But when they grew disenchanted with the area and decided to move back to the Rochester region, they couldn't sell their home and ultimately lost everything in the 2008 Southern California housing crisis.
“It was humiliating, it was humbling and it was definitely game-changing to go through something like that,” she said.
But in three years, Ehrlich-Scheffer went from being down on her luck to the owner of the Cycledelic Indoor Cycling Studio in Brighton, which features state-of-the-art equipment with special effects, a club-style lounge area, towel service and showers.
“I figured I'd use my failure to fuel my fire instead of having a pity party,” she said. Read the rest here.
