Amy's swamped with work after her time at the MINDBODY BOLD convention – so I've stolen one of her favorite remixed tracks to use for this week's Free Music Friday.
Here's the original Imogen Heap — Hide And Seek which you could use as your cooldown/transition track at the end of class. The remix below is from White Panda:
The White Panda formed when two boyhood friends discovered they had independently embarked on mashup careers in college. Chicago-based Procrast (Tom Evans) first blended Rick Astley snippets with 2 Live Crew grooves as a way to avoid productive activity in 2008, while DJ Griffi (Dan Griffith) embarked on the same mission, for a similar purpose, in Los Angeles. Their combined effort, the White Panda, launched in 2009 with a single that topped internet radio charts days later. They’ve since had 30 singles reach #1 on Hype Machine.
On October 10th my sons, Christian and Seth, and I participated in an indoor cycling charity ride called The Roadless Ride which benefits a local charity named Brent's Place. This event consists of 12 one hour indoor cycling classes where participants donate $45 or more for each class they choose to participate in. There is also a group of “Century Riders” who ride all 12 hours. Christian, Seth and I joined 22 other endurance junkies for this challenge. It was an awesome day! Most of the classes sold out and all the Century Riders completed their 12 hour endurance journey. The event organizers are predicting we raised over $100,000!
I participated in 9 classes and led 3. For the final 2 hours I team taught with fellow instructor, Collin Catel. Colin and alternately taught 3 song sets. We have different teaching and music styles, but when we were organizing our playlist I fell in love with this set that Colin put together, so I thought I would share it with you.
I also included the video we used with this 3 song set. I hope you enjoy it!
3 song harmonically mixed track, to download Right Click > Save As / Save Target As to download. Open in iTunes and then you'll see this in your Spotify Local File folder.
I recognize that there are a lot of people in my classes who, while not actually want to be “beat”, do want music that will give that general feel 🙂
Track 1. wasn't familiar to me – but a quick listen on Spotify told me Dropkick Murphys — I'm Shipping Up To Boston would make an awesome closing track. I typically will have everyone replicate (or improve on) their earlier “Best Effort” threshold interval. The only trouble is that this track is too short at only 2:34. I'm looking for a three minute + finale to empty the tank.
This 72 RPM instrumental remix is HUGELY motivating and @ exactly 4:00 is the perfect length. The composition of this remix is such that your riders will have no idea what they have coming at them and a nice, abrupt ending that will signal the end of the interval. Nice.
Michael's second suggestion isn't bad either Laidback Luke — Turbulence has a perfect cue right at the 4-to-go point.
Not only do I think there's something special about 3 song mixes I also think there is something powerful about 3 interval sets. One of my favorite 3 interval sets is to go HARD, HARDER, HARDEST. This teaches pace and control but also forces riders to “dig deep” on the third interval. If you are lucky enough to have bikes with power these sets are easy to teach, simply finish each interval with a higher average wattage. If you do not have wattage you can use more gear\resistance and the same cadence or the same gear\resistance and a faster cadence for each interval.
This 3 song mix is perfect for this type of interval set. All 3 songs are about 4 minutes long so you can simply have the riders go hard for 3 minutes and recover for 1 minute and repeat 3 times. This HARD, HARDER, HARDEST interval can be done in a variety of ways. I sometimes teach it in the same position for all three intervals, other times I teach it: seated with a fast cadence, seated with a slow cadence followed by standing. Other times I let the riders choose their position, but I remind them that each interval has to be harder than the previous one.
These types of intervals are both fun and challenging. Let me know how it goes.
Over the next three weeks, I'll be sharing three great flat road mash up tracks. I've been using them consecutively, this first one as the intro of class, next week's second and the following week's third, building to a leg speed of 104 and bringing on a good sweat :).
My classes really love the mash ups, combining new and old tunes. I've been using a lot of them lately and they comment every time how much they like the music.
Today's track is a blend of recognizable songs. At 3:46 and 87 rpm's- it's perfect for getting peeps warmed up and engaged in class. Best of all, thanks to the great DJ's on Soundcloud, it's freeeeeeee!
Here's a mash up of Friction, Bob Marley and POD (gotta love it!) by DJ Schmolli:
There are some very talented DJ's on SoundCloud! My classes have especially been enjoying the mash ups I've been using lately. It blows my mind how these guys can hear how two or more songs can possibly blend together so well!
This week brings us a 66 bpm, 3:35 climb, blending two of my favorite artists: Bryan Adams and Metallica…I know- I would've never put those two together either!
I've been using this tune in the last third of our ride to push intensity before cool down.
Here is Wax Audio's ‘Enter You' and the free SoundCloud download:
week's Free Music Friday.
