My friend Sally Edwards makes an excellent point here that applies equally to any endurance athlete and affirms our discussion from Podcast 368 — Does Intensity Trump Duration?.
It turns out that very fast runs are good for you–and that moderately fast runs (those just above threshold, in the Black Hole) are not. That’s because Black Hole runs are too slow to cause enough stress to make your body want to strengthen itself, and too fast to allow you to go long enough to improve your endurance. Studies of top runners find that they (by design or not) minimize their time in the Black Hole.
How fast is the Black Hole? In terms of pace, heart rate, and the Heart Zones chart, the Black Hole is actually a very narrow band. It starts at threshold, right as you enter Zone 5, and goes about 5 percent higher. So, if your threshold heart rate is 150 bpm, your Black Hole would extend from 150 to 157 bpm. That means if you really want to improve, your fast runs should roughly start at a second threshold: 158 bpm.
**This post is one of several in an excerpt series from the book, Be a Better Runner by Sally Edwards & Carl Foster**
But don't discount fun exercise = running/cycling that you enjoy just for how it makes you feel. Many people have no interest in structured “training”, they exercise because they find it fun.
Whether you’re in training or not, every ride has a purpose–and just about every one is legit
Fun, however, is a legitimate purpose. Stress relief is a legitimate purpose. The fact that you can finally ride outside after being trapped inside by a wall of snow and ice for six weeks, structure be damned, is a legitimate purpose. The only non-legitimate purpose I can think of is if you’re out there joylessly slogging through some self imposed workout because you feel like you need more miles when those miles are not a) making you happy b) making you faster or c) building your reserves, but rather a) making you miserable, b) making you slower and c) breaking you down.
As an A type male, it was difficult to understand the whole “fun exercise” concept. What's the point of taking this class, if you're going to talk through it?
Once I understood that for some folks, Keeping It Funis the objective, it became a lot easier to accept the appeal of SoulCycle type classes… and their wild success 🙂
The FreeMotion S11.9 – Keiser M3 and Schwinn AC Performance Indoor Cycles all require calibration at some point. Ensuring that all of the bikes in your studio are calibrated to factory specs will keep them reading consistently from bike to bike and your participants happy 🙂
Regardless of what you may have been told, my suggestion for a Best Practice is to spend the time to go through all of your cycles monthly. None of these procedures take more than a minute of so to complete after you've done a few.
I felt it would be helpful to have links to all the Indoor Cycle calibration procedures in one place, so here they are:
Free Registration Required — Click Here. Opens in a new tab. [wlm_ismember]
FreeMotion S11 series console calibration: including the S11.9 and S11.0 (home version)
Calibration may not be the correct word to use here as FreeMotion prefers to describe their procedure as Zero Reset – bringing the power meter back to the factory settings after replacing the batteries, making a repair or when something just doesn't seem right.
Schwinn uses what they call “Tilt Calibration” to teach the cycle where the magnet is positioned = it will give you a proper readout of power and distance.
FreeMotion introduced a new belt drive option for their S11 series indoor cycles at IHRSA this year. Bill Pryor and I discussed it on Podcast # 204.
Not being there to ride it, I figured that a belt is just a belt, right?
Well no, in this case it isn't. Instead of using a high tension automotive style v-belt, FreeMotion is offering the Gates Carbon Drive as an option. Looking more like a rubber chain, Carbon Drive is becoming very popular on single speeds and tandem bicycles. You can learn more at the Gates Carbon Drive System website.
I've ridden and taught on belt driven Indoor Cycles from; Keiser, Livestrong and LeMond. All of them offer a club owner reduced maintenance costs and Instructors a very quiet class.
But I've always felt something was always a bit off about the feel of these belt driven bikes. Do the people in your class notice or care? Probably not… but what if there was a solution that had all of the advantages of belt drive, without any of the negatives?
In the videos below Doug Crawford (VP of Product Development at Foundation Fitness and designer of the the FreeMotion S11.9) does a very good job explaining the differences between the two systems and shows how they tested and evaluated the Carbon Drive System to ensure would survive in a commercial setting.
In part three Doug shows how they tested it for thousands of hours.
My original concept for the Indoor Cycle Instructor Podcast back in 2008 was simple and yet unique; use the power of an Internet Radio Show, delivered through iTunes, to provide a platform for the many voices in our industry. The show wouldn't be “about me” or a few self described “experts”, but rather my vision was for a vehicle that would be truly inclusive of the most progressive manufactures and education providers in our industry. ®
Over the past three years we have executed on this vision through partnerships with;
With ICG / Livestrong MI's Dosta Dedic and Kimberly Treadway at Club Industry
To start things off I would like you to meet Jim Karanas, Program Director for the Indoorcycling Group (ICG for short). In this interview Jim and I discuss his 30 year experience in fitness, ICG, their relationship with LIVESTRONG® Fitness and touch on the fantastic FREE continuing education resources available to you from ICG.
The Indoorcycling Group supporting LIVESTRONG® fitness has made a substantial commitment to both sponsor our efforts here and to provide educational articles and Audio PROfiles for our ICI/PRO members. This is going to be a fabulous year 🙂
Of course, those of us at Stages Indoor Cycling believe the opposite to be true, (made you look, didn't I!) but we hear this all the time from people that haven't experienced a power-filled class the way it was meant to be. There exists an assumption that indoor cycling is moving away from fun and silently drifting towards a sterile, personality vacuum filled with muzak and boredom. Fortunately, it doesn't take long to convince people otherwise… just a content-rich, fun-filled ride.
In this two-part exploratory look at training with reliable metrics, we'll first discuss HOW to infuse data monitoring in your classes while keeping things fun and interesting. Then in Part 2 we will dive deeper into the physiological benefits and even the community benefits that these new tools can provide. For those of you that don't yet have immediate access to indoor cycles with data providing consoles, I think you'll find that the tips below apply to you as well.
I'm all about Super-7 lists, so… Here are my Super-7 ways to keep Power-Based classes interesting.
1.) Establish a goal and tell them why: Talking about data for the sake of talking WILL get boring really fast. Choose one particular metric to discuss because it will aid your participants in reaching– as I like to call them– “micro-goals.” Micro-goals can be anything, for example:
“For the next 5 minutes your goal is to give me a thumbs-up at the top of each minute. No thumbs-up means you're suffering and this 5 minute segment is about remaining in a place of comfortable, sustainable effort.”
Based on that particular micro-goal, the only thing they should be concerned with on the console is the TIME. They were not asked to base their efforts on ANYTHING other than a perceived effort. And that's okay!! Which leads us to the next point…
2.) Leave the kitchen sink at home: It's very tempting to talk about all the metrics on the console…ALL AT ONCE! Remember, no one is pressuring you to constantly speak about the numbers- this is unnecessary! In fact, it is rare that I ever focus on more than 2 pieces of data in a typical indoor cycling class, because people get easily overwhelmed. We have to warm them up to these concepts over time. Pick something that supports your micro-goal and stick to it.
3.) Luv ya, Don't ever change!: Did that just remind you of your middle school yearbook signatures? Well, it has merit when it comes to teaching- especially if you're already successful! Don't forget to be YOU! Not only is throwing in the kitchen sink overwhelming for your riders, but it has another dreaded side-effect: instructors forget to be themselves and do what they do best. Don't neglect your charismatic side! Tell them that funny story, sing along with your music (if you dare!), ask trivia questions… Basically continue doing the things that make you the unique leader that you were obviously born to be. The data at your disposal can never replace you: it simply increases your odds for more effective communication.
4.) Reduce the filler: 60 minutes is a lot of time to talk about… nothing. With quality information we can now reduce some of the fillers that creep into indoor cycling classes. I promise you, people won't mind if you reduce the number of times you…
Count backwards from 8. (It ain't Sesame Street folks!)
“Woohoo!” (That gets old quickly)
“How we doing?!” (This come across as a cheap way to get them to respond. It only works once or twice before they tune you out.)
“Give me more!” (More what?)
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing inherently bad about these group exercise idioms, but are they really motivating people the tenth time you've said them? Probably not. Once you reduce the fluff, you give yourself valuable time to discuss the task at hand, ask them work-inducing questions and give them a reason to want to achieve those micro-goals.
5.) Lather, Rinse, Repeat: There's no easier way to feel successful on an indoor cycling bike that measures power than to have multiple chances to reach your goal. Near the conclusion of a stage or interval, ask your riders to look at one piece of information and remember it. Give them ample recovery time and let them know that they get another shot at improving upon last time's performance. For instance,
“Get ready to rumble folks because we have a 5 minute stage coming your way, but don't fret; it's nothing that you can't handle, and I'll guide you the whole way. Towards the end of your 5 minutes, before we press the Stage button, I want you to focus on your total distance for this stage.” 5 minutes later… “How did you do? Do you remember the distance you covered? Great, because we get to do that exact same 5-minute stage again. No surprises from me! However, this time I want you to find a way to go just a little further. Could you increase your distance by 1/10 of a mile? Even more? Let's find out!”
Seriously, nothing is more motivating then knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are capable of besting yourself!
6) Games, games and more games!: We've all done games in our classes: front row busts a gut for 30 seconds while everyone else is recovering, then the 2nd row goes, then the 3rd row…etc, but in order to truly be playing a game there must be an objective and there has to be a way to win or at least achieve said objective. The objectivity piece was always missing prior to bikes with consoles. Let the games begin! We'll do an entire post on games in the near future, but for a few examples of games you can check out the BIG RIDE that Pam Benchley and I taught on Saturday night of the ICI/Pro conference. Just remember, competition can get overly fierce very quickly amongst your participants. For this reason, consider integrating games as team efforts first.
7) Deliver Measurable Progessâ„¢: For those of you familiar with the Stages Indoor Cycling method, it will come as no surprise that I really, I mean REALLY stand behind this mantra. At Stages Indoor Cycling we Deliver Measurable Progress via Benchmarks. By assessing where you are today, you now have a means by which to achieve where you want to be 6-weeks or 12-weeks down the road. Functional Threshold Heart Rate testing is wonderful, but what if you could compare that alongside your ability to generate Power at Threshold?! Surprisingly it's very doable even in a large group setting. Of course, FTP/FTHR testing isn't for the Day-1 newbie off the street, but there are many other initial assessments that we can provide our participants that will show them where they are today and what to shoot for tomorrow.
Once benchmark assessments become a regular part of your programming, magic takes place! Participants start planning their workouts around these benchmarks as if they were training for an event, even if participating in a race or organized outdoor event has no appeal to them personally.
This all boils down to the “Susan and Bob” conversation from a few weeks back. It's true people come to your classes for a plethora of reasons, but I think it's safe to say that NO ONE would be disappointed if by coming to your classes they were able to do more work with less effort, endure more physically and emotionally, travel farther and go faster. If this helps them achieve their weight-related goals, what a wonderful side effect! If this breathes new life into indoor cycling as we know it – PRICELESS! And that, my friends, is far from BORING.
I'm so excited for Part 2! Your feedback regarding the Super-7 reasons above will dictate the direction of ‘Power Is Boring: Part 2.” Think of it as a “Choose Your Own Adventure” novel! Speak now or forever ride in silence. 😉
Sally Edwards with Heart Zones Fitness has teamed up with Gene Nacey's Cycling Fusion to produce Hooked on Training Heart Zones Conference: Saturday, March 29 2014.
THE 2014 CONFERENCE OVERVIEW:
“Hooked on Training”
This, the 12th year for the Heart Zones Conference, bring something entirely new to the health and fitness industry – 4 ways to attend – live or streaming virtual. And, you choose the best way to participate to gain the most from your experience. This high-impact, one-day, seven-hour education and workout event is co- presented by Heart Zones USA and Cycling Fusion. The 2014 Conference includes workshops, workouts, discussion groups, keynote presentations, live and digital workouts, and more.
Here are the Details:
Who Should Attend? Anyone may attend . If you are an indoor cycling instructor, group X instructor, coach, PE teacher, athlete, or fitness enthusiasts you are encouraged to participate too.
How to Attend? It is your choice and there are 4 different ways to attend.
CONFERENCE CENTER LIVE: From the YMCA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this is the live conference; web-broadcast to the Official Host Sites and to the At Home participants. You will be the live televised audience.
OFFICIAL HOST SITES: Locations across the USA are joining the Conference remotely-simulcast with a combination of our live certified instructors supporting and leading workouts.
AT HOME: Participate from your home or wherever there is an internet connection. Attend the Conference as it's happening.
Anytime: Delayed broadcast at times of your choice on the internet and/or watch up to 30-days post event.
Where to Attend? Official Host Sites are in the following areas: Peachtree City (Atlanta), GA; Bellevue (Seattle), WA; Lakewood (Denver), CO; San Francisco, CA; Milwaukee, WI; New York City, NY; and PNC YMCA (Pittsburgh) PA. More locations to be announced.
Click here for more information and registration details.
