Cycling music is like none other — it has nutritional value and feeds your soul. But it takes time and effort to find extraordinary tracks, and instructors often become stagnant, relying on the same music they taught years ago.
Back by popular demand, ICI/PRO is collecting a list of your favorite tracks for 2013! While all the songs may not represent your style of teaching, I encourage you to learn the “language” of a different genre — be it the sheer intensity of an instrumental, the verbal play and urban rootedness of mainstream hip-hop, or the beautiful vocals of new Indie artists. In the words of Frank Zappa, “Your mind is like a parachute….it works best when open.”
Feel free to incorporate tips on how you teach each song, including terrain, rpm’s or inspirational cues. As a subscriber to the ICI/PRO newsletter, you’ll receive this highly coveted list once the tracks are compiled and alphabetized. And for you Spotify fans, we'll create a playlist just for you.
Below are 3 of my favorites — Enjoy!
Jaytech/Steve Smith — Stranger (Kyau and Albert Remix)
Beautiful piano just before midpoint is perfect teaching moment…buildup…add gear until legs begin to bog down then powerful standing climb for remainder of song.
Sultan & Ned Shepard featuring Sia/Usher/Martin Solveig — Walls (3LAU Vocal Edit)
Uplifting finish line track with two 30-sec intervals/sprints
I'm not sure if this is the correct version, but it's pretty good – John
ATB – Believe in Me (A&T Remix)
These and more are compiled on our 404 Top Indoor Cycling Tracks list. Grab it by joining as a free PRO-VisitorICI/PRO Member.
I had a rider wearing a Timex HRM in class yesterday and it would not pick up her heart rate on the Keiser console of any of the bikes? It does work on other equipment in the facility (treadmills etc.)
Is there a reason for this? and what she should check if purchasing another HRM to look out for?
thanks
This had me thinking about my Grandfather John Sr. (I'm the third) who could fix anything. Whenever I had a problem with something, specifically a car with issues I couldn't correct, he would advise me to carefully examine any assumptions I was working under. He knew me well enough to know that I had a tendency to see problem “A” and assume it was caused by a failure in part “B”. So I'd start to tear apart “B”, find nothing wrong with it, put it back together and after wasting a few hours bring the problem to him.
Learning to challenge assumptions can be very helpful in situations where someone brings a problem to you. Most people will try to solve their own problem, before bringing it to you. Along the way they may have created a few assumptions that they will expect you to follow.
My response was…
I'm thinking that it maybe hard to trouble shoot this.
Before I'd do anything I would confirm that the strap is actually working at the time. I've had similar situations where a student says; “it works everywhere else” but that's in the past days or weeks ago… only now the battery is dead 🙁
Does the signal show on their watch, but not on the M3? Or if they don't have a watch have them go directly to another piece of equipment and see if it shows there.
If the strap works other places, but not the M3, as a last step confirm that the M3 works with another HR strap.
If everything checks out then I'd connect you with one of the smart people at Keiser.
Learning to challenge assumptions can be very helpful in situations where someone brings a problem to you. Most people will try to solve their own problem, before bringing it to you. Along the way they may have created a few assumptions that they will expect you to follow.
You need to be careful not to sound cynical or condescending when you question assumptions; especially if you're a man talking to a women*. Rather than saying; “are you sure the strap works?” which can come off negatively, I'd suggest something like; “how about we go over to that treadmill over there just to confirm everything?”
*Trust me on this one. I worked for a number of years at a service gas station (remember those?) and have a vivid memory of being accused of insulting a women, who turned out to be the best friend of the owner's wife, because I didn't appear to take her prognosis of her car's problem seriously.
As a follow up to the story, a response from Keiser…
Today's free track is included on Chris Nielsen's Going The Distance Audio PROfile class playlist – but isn't available on Spotify. It also works very well following last week's recovery track = communicates a very intense segment in your profile.
As you listen to Medieval, you may hear yourself telling the story woven into the music. Powerful horses approaching and then running through the village square, then continuing cross-country. Unrelenting in their speed as they cross a vast distance, until finally reaching their destination.
The artist is Etnoscope and you'll find a number of powerful 70ish RPM tracks there on Spotify.
My interview with Douglas Brooks continues with a discussion of RealRyder's class planning – it maybe the exact opposite of how you create your profile.
Listen below to find out why.
Show notes:
During our discussion Douglas references their class planning template – you can download a copy here.
Douglas also described how they teach a method of trimming the length of a song in iTunes (setting the start & stop times) to fit a specific segment. I mentioned that we have specific instructions for trimming the length of a track available here for ICI/PRO members – but it's buried in a video over at the MixMeister Academy.
Here's how to “Trim” the length of a song in iTunes.
Sample the track and record where you would like it to begin and end.
Highlight the track in the list view.
Either go to: File > Get Info, Right Click the Track and select > Get Info or use the shortcut Control i
Tick the box you wish to change and enter your preferred start/stop times.
Finish with OK
Unfortunately this isn't an option in Spotify. Just to be sure I experimented with first trimming a song in iTunes, and then opening it in Spotify – both on my computer and iPhone. It played full length (not trimmed) in both cases.
Here's part two of my interview with Douglas Brooks – enjoy and let me know if this was helpful for you [wlm_firstname].
What constitutes the perfect mid-class recovery song?
For me it needs to combine a mid 90's cadence, something everyone can connect with and a fresh/fun vibe – almost playful maybe?
Nothing too complex, confusing or heady.
A song that says; take it easy, just enjoy your time here right now… because it could will really suck a few minutes from now, once we get into our next effort 🙁
Direct download of the mashup Lazy Boxer & Naive Tales or click the Download button on the player to go to their facebook page, like them and download it there.
Laggard, Noun – def: one who's hanging back, or falling behind.
I admit it. My internal, unspoken motto has been, ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’. I did not walk until I was 16 months old- crawling was fine with me. What can I say?
As you might imagine, John has made fun of my music ‘process’ for years. Here is generally how it went:
Gather CD’s, or order and wait for them from the library
Listen through them on impossibly long commute to day job
Note good songs
Download to itunes
Make playlists on itunes
Burn playlist to CD
Just recently, download playlist to ipod
I started to feel the pain of my laggard like ways. Much like I must have felt when I finally started to walk, I felt the need to update my music process.
My jump into Spotify-land has been so much fun. No more having to order CD’s and wait for them to come in. No more downloading and burning.
The process is so simple. The details on getting started are here. I love to go to Spotify, put in a band or song name and have ALL the titles pop up. I love that my playlist is on my phone. No more CD’s (this is only a problem when I drop my phone in the toilet!) Even more than that, I love saying to my students, ‘If there is a song you would like to hear in class, just let me know and I can pop it into a future ride, no problem!’
Thank you, John, for making fun of me and ultimately making me feel enough pain to update my music process. I am so happy.
If you have not tried Spotify, do. I think you will like it!
