Are you looking for a motivating mid-tempo climb? Look no further! This week’s Friday Favorite, at around 72 rpm, is just the thing. This band is well known by all of us, but perhaps this song will be new to you. Still it is fun for our class, because everyone knows the distinguished voice of U2’s Bono. “The City of Blinding Lights”, from the album “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb”, gives us 1:15 before vocals come in, so I like to let my class know we are going to stay in the saddle for the first two minutes and establish our pedal speed at a load that keeps us at T1. I also let them know that at 2:00, (the music builds here, but our class doesn’t need to know that, they will just think we are awesome….) we will come out of the saddle for the rest of the song (3:45 – totaling 5:45), emphasizing that we will stay calm and competent between T1 and T2.
Here is the video:
And here is a remix of Vertigo for your free download this week I love Bono's line; Turn it up loud captain 🙂
As far as I'm concerned Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Page and Sergey Brin all deserve a big hug! Without their fantastic companies; Microsoft, Apple and Google none of what we do here at www.indoorcycleinstructor.com would be possible 🙂
That's not to say that these services aren't without their problems… Much of the Free and ICI/PRO Premimum content we produce here is delivered automatically to you via an RSS feed to iTunes. So when I get an email stating that “My Podcasts aren't updating in iTunes” I'm always quick to respond.
But I've learned that not everyone feels comfortable asking for help*, so here is a quick; I can help tutorial – Forcing iTunes to refresh. *Your questions are always welcome – I'm here to help you 🙂
If you see this in the Podcast section of your iTunes.
I don't know why this happens... but here is how to fix it.
And the Refresh button in the bottom RH corner doesn't update all your Podcasts. Right Click on the Podcast Header Title (it has the little horizontal triangle next to it) and you will get this dialog box.
Click on the Update Podcast link. You should see the podcast update and if there are any new episodes you will see the orange status icon.
This week’s Friday Favorite flat tune is from a Canadian singer-songwriter, producer and actress. The song was released in 2002 and it caught my ear then. I had completely forgotten about it, but heard it the other day and have incorporated it back into my class. The crickets in the first 30 seconds of the song give us time to cue our members to add the appropriate load (a lot), light up their HR monitors and go “out of their heads” to a relative happy place as they ride. It is perfect for that. The BPM is 60 90 RPM and we have 4:36 to crank it out. Here is Nelly Furtado and “Turn Out the Lights” from The Best of Nelly Furtado CD:
Update: Thanks to Moritz I see now that I'm trying to do too many of these ahead of time and had a “Blonde moment”. Yes, this track is at 90 RPM 🙁
This week’s Friday Favorite is just a groovy little tune by a British funk and acid jazz band that got their start in 1992. Please don’t get scared, because they also do a little pop, rock and electronica.
The cadence is a perfect 90- right where “the experts” tell us we work most efficiently on our bikes! And at 4 minutes 33 seconds, I like to insert this song by Jamiroquai in between a couple nasty hard climbs. Not for a recovery, but for a nice aerobic flat. Here is Jamiroquai singing, “Feels Just Like It Should” from the High Times Singles: 1992-2006 CD:
Every once in a while, an artist comes along that blows me away…grabs me with their extraordinary talent and I cannot get enough of them. That describes this week’s artist from Fargo, ND (although I like to consider him from Minneapolis – that's where his band and first album release is from). His voice is rich like none other and his guitar solos are smokin’, which also happens to be the name of his first album.
Two tracks from Jonny Lang’s most recent CD Turn Around are today’s Friday Favorites. “One Person At A Time” is a great climb at 60 rpm’s, 3:03. The lyrics are great, Jonny’s voice is gravelly and he rocks the guitar as usual. Here is a live video from the Des Moines Rib Fest, but his studio track is much better:
I then roll right into “The Other Side of the Fence”, which is the next track. At 80 rpm’s, I ask my riders to hold the resistance/load they had while they were climbing to “One Person At A Time” and go anaerobic for approximately 3 minutes. The song is 3:04. Here is another live video, and again, the studio track is much better and the CD is well worth the money! I hope you love this guy because I will be featuring him again down the line. He is just so good and started the music scene at age 15.
Who said the Midwest doesn’t make Blues musicians?
In my mind there are two categories of music: fake and real. Fake music is synthesized and real music is human beings playing instruments and truly singing, not just pretending to. For those of us that have to endure our kid’s music, the distinction is necessary and appreciated. Today’s Friday Favorite is “The Big Money” by Rush. These three Canadians know how to make music and this 5:35, 74 rpm climb is multi-layered for great coaching opportunities. At 2:50 the vocals pull back for a full minute and give way for introspection.
Here is the video:
I wasn't able to find anything from RUSH but I used this Moby remix last night in a class I subbed and they loved it! We watched the new Epic Planet DVD: Epic California Mt. Baldy use discount code ICIPRO30% for a 30% discount. This video has a number of very long climbs where a song with a strong beat @ 70 RPM like this track is awesome.
