Spinning Instructor Amy Pillitteri – Beth Anne Gordley Photography
Meet Spinning Instructor Amy Pillitteri!
Amy is the runner-up in our Ultimate Instructor Class Profile contest!
About Waldo’s Revenge
I wrote this profile for a group of students I was working with during a winter and spring periodization program at a nearby YMCA this year. This particular class was full of enthusiastic triathletes and cyclists training for the Waldo County YMCA Triathlon Festival. We worked through all the various phases of the program leading up to the outdoor season. When it came time to re-test for lactate threshold, nobody really wanted to break away from his or her training regimen. So, in lieu of a field test, I put together a mock time trial, which mimicked the actual race. I encouraged the athletes to take their average heart rate, to see if they were race ready. This is how I came up with Waldo’s Revenge!
Having ridden and raced the course myself dozens of times, it was easy to coach it in class. Writing it in a profile, well that’s another story. I can tell you first hand, though, that it’s a really fun and challenging ride. The terrain in Maine is absolutely splendid. We have beautiful tree-lined roads, which run along the rocky coastline, and twist around the picturesque mountains, hills, lakes, and ponds. The wind, as in many time trials, is the big limiting factor on this course. Some of my really strong students wrote race reports after the triathlon this year, and I have included some of their remarks for fun. These comments will, hopefully, provide more insight, as to what’s going on inside an athlete’s mind during the race.
One of the next most important aspect of executing your research is having a way to accurately and consistently conduct the prescribed drills and record their results. This is the proverbial “before and after”; also commonly referred to as “baseline” and “performance testing”. This is so important that we researcher types typically like to be physically present for all Baseline tests, as well as final and/or intermittent performance tests.
The training that takes place between these before and after events can be conducted without this type of close oversight, provided the subjects have a clear understanding of exactly how the training is to be conducted. If all of the subjects performed the drills in different ways, they couldn’t realistically be compared to each other. Likewise if they performed the drill in nearly the same manner, but then recorded the results differently, we would likewise have a significant problem comparing results.
Consequently, researchers must emphasize how important it is to be true to the method of the training drills as well as the “before and after” measurements. The tools and techniques we use for gathering the results must be defined and assigned clearly.
Indoors vs Outdoors
Fortunately for those of us who are enlightened as to the power and benefit of Indoor Cycling, this is one of the times where the indoor environment really shines. We can control so many extraneous factors, that we are virtually guaranteed solid repeatability in not only baselining and performance testing afterwards, but also the day to day training if it is done indoors.
When working on a bike that doesn’t move, where there are no “imminent dangers” as there are on the road and trail, and where we can control both temperature and airflow, we have a typical “laboratory environment”. Some argue that this makes it also unrealistic, and thus brings any conclusions from the study under question. While there is merit to that argument, it can be put to rest by including outdoor baselines and performance tests along with the indoor protocols if that criticism seems to be worth addressing.
The advantages of the indoor environment doesn’t mean that we can’t conduct any of these experiments or trials outside, it just means we do have an ideal environment inside if and when we need it. If weather or traffic disrupt our consistency or flow in executing the drills prescribed for the study, we simply move operations inside and resume.
Muscular Endurance Baseline Test
Given the fact that we are studying muscular endurance (not muscular strength), we know that we want to have our test be one with a significant time duration. In addition, university researchers use “the point of failure” as an measurement indicator when researching Muscular Endurance, so will also incorporate this into our baseline protocol. Finally we have already defined the parameters of muscular endurance training to fall within a certain cadence range and at a heart zone of no less than zone 3. Thus we have enough details to create our specific Muscular Endurance Baseline Test Protocol.
Protocol Details:
Subjects will be instructed to warm up for 15 to 25 minutes before the test begins
Subjects will hold a steady pedaling cadence at an average of 75 RPM as far as possible
Subjects will find a resistance or gear level that will bring their heart rate into the middle of their zone 3 (using Heart Zones® methodology of zone determination)
The subject will increase their effort by 25 watts every 2 minutes and maintain the new wattage level without more than a 5 watt fluctuation
The test continues until the subject can not maintain the current watt level without fluctuating more than 5 watts, or they feel physically unable to continue increasing wattage.
Data Collected:
Date, time, location, and type of bike used in the test
Subject name, age, gender and self described fitness level
From minute 00:00 the following parameters are recorded precisely as they read on the bike console:
Time the readings were taken (00:00, 1:00, 2:00, etc)
Heart rate
Power Level
Cadence Level
This is starting to look like a real project now. In the next post we will discuss Sample size for the study, and recruiting those squealers, er… guinea pigs…. I mean volunteer subjects 🙂
Am I alone in feeling there's some real magic in a well constructed Mashup? Next week I'll be publishing Waldo's Revenge – an Audio PROfile from Amy Pillitteri. Amy's profile was runner up in the Ultimate Instructor Class Profile contest. I really enjoyed her music playlist and it includes this Mashup Stayin' Hot (Nelly vs. Bee Gees) that isn't available on Spotify.
The magical part about a Mashup like this; I wouldn't ever consider using either song, in the original form, in my class… but blend them together and I joyfully hit the “Play” button. OK, it maybe that it's because it's a little naughty 🙂 But the connection to the Bee Gees makes it alright, doesn't it?
Fitness and health overlap but sometimes need to be considered separately. You can be fit but not healthy. How often have we seen that with pro athletes? You can also be healthy but not fit. We may see this with our students.
This post focuses on health because teaching our students is typically fitness-oriented. As instructors, we know our health matters, and that just staying fit may not address health issues that crop up as we work hard, feel stressed, get older.
Probably everyone agrees that what we eat affects our health. Nutrition approaches to health are varied. Some people focus on organic foods, some on raw foods, others on herbs, phytonutrients and colorful pigments. There are low-carb, macrobiotic, and Ayurvedic diets, as well as a lot more.
One key, but often overlooked, factor in staying healthy is prostaglandin production. Prostaglandins are short-lived, hormone-like chemicals that are produced by the body’s cells and move from cell to cell, rather than through the bloodstream. They regulate all kinds of cellular activities.
Inflammation has become a hot topic in medicine. More and more research indicates that all disease begins with some kind of inflammation. As it turns out, inflammation is caused by a specific type of prostaglandin. And foods influence prostaglandin production.
There are three types of prostaglandins, made from different fatty acids.
Series 1 prostaglandins control factors that most people recognize as beneficial. They dilate blood vessels, reduce blood pressure, inhibit unnecessary blood clotting, decrease risk of autoimmune disease, improve T-cell function, improve insulin sensitivity, decrease pain, decrease inflammation, decrease the need for sleep, alleviate depression, and much, much more.
Series 1 prostaglandins are made from dietary fatty acids in the omega-6 category. These include black current seed, flaxseed, hemp seed, pumpkin seed, walnuts, borage oil, evening primrose oil, sesame oil, sunflower oil, and more.
Series 2 prostaglandins do basically the opposite of all of the Series 1 functions listed above (as well as the unlisted Series 1 functions). Series 2 prostaglandins promote pain and inflammation, making them a prime culprit in disease.
Series 2 prostaglandins are also made from omega-6 fatty acids. However, high levels of insulin secretion will cause a different enzyme to act on the omega-6 fats, resulting in production of Series 2, rather than Series 1. As mentioned in previous posts, foods that trigger high insulin include sugars, processed carbs (like white bread), saturated fats, alcohol, and others.
Series 3 prostaglandins reduce the negative effects of Series 2. They decrease inflammation and enhance immune function. Series 3 are made from omega-3 fatty acids, which we hear about often these days because of their anti-inflammatory benefits. That anti-inflammatory property is one that can reduce what is presently considered the cause of all disease.
Omega-3 fatty acids include dark green leafy vegetables, fish, black currant seed, flaxseed, hemp seed, walnuts and pumpkin seed.
The easiest way to “bottom line” this and get the benefits is to:
Consume omega-3 fats. You’ll note that many of them also contain omega-6s, so you’ll get the precursors of both Series 1 and Series 3 prostaglandins.
Avoid junky carbs and limit alcohol. Both trigger high levels of insulin, which lead to Series 2 production.
Avoid all-carb meals or snacks whenever possible. Eating protein and healthful fats every time you eat can modify insulin secretion.
Reducing the insulin impact of your diet can reduce the incidence of Series 2 prostaglandin production. This in turn may decrease the incidence of both serious diseases and inconvenient ones, such as colds.
Do you find yourself searching for songs to open your rides with- the perfect tunes to help your class ease into 80-90 rpm’s and a proper warm up? Here is a good one from a Juno Award winning Canadian singer-song writer. It is light hearted, clips along at 86 rpm and is conducive for introducing yourself, your ride profile and anything else on your mind that needs expressing before everyone gets heavy duty into the ride of the day. Feist’s songs have been used in commercials and movies, so her sound may be recognizable to you. Here is Feist and “I Feel It All”, from her 2007 album The Reminder.
Study Controls
By Team ICG® Master Trainer Joan Kent