Have you been enjoying the plethora of music from last week? Please reach out to Peter and thank him when you have a moment :).
Today brings us to a 63 bpm 5:25 driving climb full of surprises from this American rock band from Tennessee. Extra measures build at the 2:00 mark and add nice intensity to coach our classes out of the saddle- we need to know the extra beats here though! I've gotten caught counting it down too early.
A nice chant at 3:25 with just clapping in the background is a great opportunity for some motivational cueing. I like to get off my bike here and walk around.
“Don't go crying to your momma, cuz your on your own in the real world!”….
Paramore and ‘Ain't It Fun….Livin' in the Real World'
Here I am with the newest member of our family, Quincy.
For those of you that don’t know me already, I’m an indoor cycling instructor, a music enthusiast, and I blog about my cycling music finds and profiles over at Chrispins. I’ve been teaching cycling (and blogging) for over 7 years and I love sharing music and playlists with other instructors.
I know that sometimes you’re just looking for that one song that will fit into your profile. Or maybe you’re in a music rut and you need something fresh and fun to motivate you and your riders. Well, I’m here to help with that. Every Friday, I’ll be posting at least one great tune that you can incorporate into your next ride along with a description of how I’ve used it. I’ll even occasionally be sharing some of my latest playlists here too along with links to both Spotify and Apple Music. So check back each week for some inspiration to add to your next playlist!
This week I’m sharing with you something old, and something new.
I love it when I hear a song that I haven’t heard in a while and I remember just how much I loved it. This is one I haven’t used in a few years, but as soon as I heard it again, I knew it needed to make a comeback. And it just goes to show you that you can find music inspiration just about anywhere. I was listening to an orchestra play in a local park on a beautiful summer evening with my family and this is one of the tunes they played. I immediately picked up my phone and typed in a reminder to find a way to use it in my next playlist. If you haven’t used instrumental music in your playlists before, you must try it out. I promise that you and your riders will not be disappointed. Many great instrumental tracks can be found on movie soundtracks. This one comes from Pirates of the Caribbean.
:00-:42 Seated flat (we kept it easy here because we needed a little recovery from the previous song, but if you’d rather use the :42 seconds as a climb, that would work too).
:42-seated fast flat road 1:47-standing climb 2:30-standing acceleration
2:48-seated climb
4:20-standing heavy climb
5:10-standing acceleration to the finish
*The instrumentals end at 6:05 and then there is about 40 seconds of applause following. You can cut that part out, but I like to tell my riders to revel in the well deserved applause and take a short recovery.
I’m always looking for a mix of different genres for my classes so I try to add in at least one newer song into each playlist. One of my favorite new artists is George Ezra and I love his song Budapest, but I wanted to explore his music a little more and I found that this one is great to use for a seated flat road at around 94 RPM’s. (Sorry, this one does not seem to be available on iTunes.)
I hope you enjoy both of these songs and find a way to use them in your classes! Feel free to comment on how you used these songs or share your current favorites!
I don't own an iPad (my birthday is soon Amy – in case you need an idea) but if I did I would want to use it in my class now that Spotify has an official iPad App! The biggest reason I would prefer it, over my iPhone, is the font size. The “Time Remaining” is nearly unreadable by me. My class is frequently laughing at me as I sit there, arm extended at full length, trying to read the @#$%^& time remaining in a darkened studio. Yes I know it would be much easier to just bring my readers… I'm just not quite ready to admit my age related vision impairment 🙁
Here's the video that shows the new Spotify iPad App.
We are less than 60 days from our ride around the Cabot Trail. The group has been very active – increasing distance to 55 km for morning rides, grades to 7+% for hill repeats and making lots of connections between the indoor and outdoor efforts in my classes.
We closed the opportunity to join us last week so that we’d have a consistent group with whom to train over the next two months. Twelve people will ride the Trail. At a maximum we had 17 people on one of our Sunday training rides. As word got out, friends of friends started to attend and we welcomed their interest. They will be invited to re-join us for some weekend jaunts this fall.
Here are some highlights relevant to the indoor/outdoor cycling interface.
We did a quick reconnaissance of the route last weekend and some of the descents are daunting. As I negotiated the road in a car I became painfully aware that no amount of indoor cycling can help people learn how to descend. We have been working on those skills outdoors but can’t reproduce the Trail experience nearby. I have contracted a Can-Bike educator to give the group a lecture and clinic. Meanwhile we’ll content ourselves with the knowledge that less prepared people ride the Trail every year and none of them have ended up in the ocean.
The transformation of individuals from bikers to cyclists is noticeable. I am most thrilled by Judy who panicked and bailed on her first attempt at a road ride last fall. She was the first to buy a new bike this spring, always turns in her training logs and is now one of our strongest riders. Better yet, when the group organizes its own trips during the week, she consistently chooses the one that will give her the greatest challenge. I am writing up an interview with her which I think will interest you as she describes the indoor to outdoor experience.
I teach in a facility with a mixture of non-power and power bikes. That precludes classes which are entirely focussed on power. Recently, though, I have been able to let everyone re-visit their FTP (60 min). The numbers range from 1.4 to 1.9 watts/lb (measured over 20 minutes and corrected for 60 minutes (x .90)) for the group who is doing the Trail. Remember – these were non-exercisers/non-cyclists a few months ago. They have all seen a huge increase in their power over that period. Better yet, their results are completely consistent with what they see in one another on the road. The power info has really helped the weaker riders understand the connection between indoors and outdoors.
You can read my earlier posts about preparing a group of Indoor Cycling students for our trip to ride the Cabot Trail here.
Long climbs have you bumping up against your power ceiling.
I prefer to limit the mathematical computations many Instructors typically ask of their classes. For example you'd never hear me say;
“now I want everyone at 85% of their FTP” or… “this next interval is 30 seconds in Zone 5B which is 103 to 106% of your LT/AT heart rate followed by 2 minutes in Zone 3 = 90%-93%”… everybody got that? Then let's GO!!!
I'll admit that part of this is due to my phobia of math. It's also because I recognise that there are a wide diversity of personalities riding in front of me. Sure, I've got a few engineers who could probably spit out the square root of their FTP between pedal strokes if you asked, but it's my impression that the majority of folks in your class would prefer that you leave the math for times when they have a calculator handy 🙂
Just this past Sunday I had two women in my Performance Cycle class cheer when I mentioned that I wouldn't be requiring any percentage figuring that morning.
But we still need to communicate intensities, right? That's where establishing Floors and Ceilings comes in. They're simple concepts everyone will understand – we all know what's below a floor or when we're up against a ceiling!
Master Instructor Dennis Mellon using this same Floors and Ceilings concept in his classes, except a little differently. We discuss how we each use them to (hopefully) communicate effectively, in this ICI/PRO Podcast episode.
[wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus|28 Day Challenge']
Please let us know your questions.
You can read more about using VT1 Aerobic Threshold and VT2 Anaerobic Threshold to create easy to understand Floors and Ceilings here.
Master Instructor Tom Scotto delivers our latest Audio PROfile Climbing Strength Intervals. PROFILE OVERVIEW
This profile is called Climbing Strength Intervals. It is a simple profile that focuses on four 3- minute climbing intervals designed to test and develop muscular strength. Riders can track their heart rate and/or power during the class to gauge their individual climbing efforts. The beauty of this class is that it takes a simple look at one concept of heart rate and power training and reduces the risk of overwhelming people. This profile can be introduced without any previous training on heart rate or power. It is a simple way to explore and learn.
Here's your Spotify PRO/Playlist!Deezer. We have made every attempt to replicate the original playlist. In some instances the tracks specified were unavailable in Spotify. When necessary we have substituted individual songs of similar length and tried to maintain the Instructor's intent.
