Looking for a motivating, intense hard-driving 60 rpm climb? Look no further! This tune comes from an “industrial band” founded in 1984, featuring heavy guitar riffs, electronic music, samples and terrific female vocals! At 4:34, I use this toward the end of a climbing stage as I am having everyone watch their watts go up and equate it with HR, heading towards AT. Check out kMFDM “Professional Killer” (lucia cifarelli tribute).
kMFDM falls under the “Industrial” genre. While not for everyone, it does have an edgy feel that maybe just what you need to spice things up in you next class. Professional Killer wasn't available but you might find these tracks interesting.
Don’t you just love a good cover? It has to be done well, but there is something about great memories, an old tune and current nuances that make for a great addition to our classes and our members really enjoy them. This one makes for a good climb at 57 rpm’s, but it is pretty “chill” as our daughters like to say. I cue my class to add a good amount of load for an out of the saddle climb that will allow them to work without going to threshold. It is good practice for them to get up and out of the saddle with plenty of load, yet keep their heart rates reigned in. (We still have way too much crazy stuff going on in the cycle studio). I hope you like this flashback, from the early ‘70’s as much as I do. It’s Seal, from his Soul 2 album and “I’ll Be Around”. I included the links for the original group, The Spinners, on a Soul Train episode (fun watching!) and a Hall and Oates cover that has a completely different feel. Happy Memorial Day. I hope you can all get some good riding in this weekend.
I would also like to wish my handsome husband happy 51st birthday 🙂
Another great cover from Hall and Oates:
And of course, the original by The Spinners on Soul Train circa 1972:
It's one of those happy / sad days here at our house. Tonight is our last High School Prom – our baby Carly is all grown up! And her sister Abby drove away at 7:00 am this morning. Day-one of her “big girl” job at Enterprise Car Rental. But again, that's what kids do.
If you have kids you may relate to this; both Amy and I recognize specific traits, behaviors, attitudes in our kids and we tend to want to claim ownership, at least to the good ones, as coming from us. And of course the negative behaviors are obviously always coming from the other 🙂
But what if your kids could have a perfect mix? A mix of only the best attributes?
It's a fun fantasy and it's a little to late for us… but if you have young kids there's no reason not to start trying!
No, you can't make a perfect mix of kids, but it is possible to create a perfect mix of music. In this case a mashup of these two very entertaining songs.
Start with Set fire to the rain – Adele (that link is a cover in Spotify) and mix it thoroughly with We are young from the band Fun.
And you get this awesome Mashup – listen to it and experience something that you don't hear often; the convergence of two different BPM songs where the tempo adjustment happens a third of the way into the song. Let me know if you can pick out the change!
I was in another Instructor's very popular class this week. My main purpose was to experiment with the new Stages iPhone App that works with the FreeMotion console. Review coming this weekend. My secondary objective was to see what I could learn from him, that I could apply in my class.
This class is very popular for a bunch of reasons:
He's been teaching this specific class for years.
8:30 am is a great time slot for the “stay-at-home” moms in the area.
It's a large club with thousands of members to draw from.
He's a very good looking guy, with excellent presentation skills.
None of these I have any control over. But what I do have control over is the music I play… and what he used really surprised me – club / dance music with a lot of energy that included multiple changes in intensity and emotion like this track.
If you don't normally use music like this you may consider experimenting with it to see what happens 🙂
Friday is our music day here at ICI/PRO so it's the right time to tell you that Keith Burnage has re-branded Cadence Revolution and it's is now IndoorCyclingMusic.com
I'll let you in on a little secret – on occasion I've used Keith's 60 minute mixed Podcasts in my class… they're a real lifesaver and my students seem to enjoy them.
For me it's a time and creativity thing;
With family and all my time commitments, I don't have nearly enough hours in my day to do all the things I wish (or need) to accomplish each day.
It's the same for you I'll bet.
The hours needed to creating, fine-tune and then mix a seamless class playlists aren't always available – or you don't want to shell out the $$ for MixMeistersoftware.
Spotify playlists that match our Audio PROfiles are a great solution for those of us who have it, but, as good as they are, these Spotify playlists may not be exactly what you are looking for.
Sometimes I'm just not feeling it 🙁
Tell me if you've ever done this [wlm_firstname]. You feel compelled to create a new playlist, but then find yourself simply going through the motions. Ten minutes into the process and you discover that your only concern is that the playlist is long enough. It may be that you're a little burned out (common in the spring – so don't sweat it) or you just have a lot of “STUFF” going on in your life.
Where ever it's coming from, it should be your signal that your class will be less than thrilled with whatever you've thrown together.
So don't.
I've subscribed to the Cadence Revolution Podcast for years, so I always have their latest mix on my iPhone. I'll sample a few on my way to the club and hit play when I get there. Both the class and I have no idea what's coming next, but I don't recall ever being disappointed.
“Do one thing, every day that scares you”. Words for today and our Friday Favorite. A good cool down…something to leave our class with, is a very effective way to wrap things up. This is a favorite of mine. I first heard it from our national director and she never said a word while cooling us down, rather, she just used visual cues. That is how I prefer to use this as well. This is not a new tune, in fact it is from the ‘90’s, but still true and useful. So….today, do that thing that scares you- make the phone call, send the email, see that person, go in front of the camera on live TV or submit your entry to the Ultimate Instructor Class Profile contest!
