I'm like a kid in a candy store now that I have power in my Sunday 90 minute endurance class 🙂
Much of it, I'm sure has to do with the purity of the participants – which is to be expected from participants in a 90 minute anything… but there is more to it than just transitioning a 90 minute class without Power, to one with Power.
They get “it”
The people in my class are really smart! Once I explained everything they quickly understood how valuable the combination of magnetic resistance and power indication would be to reaching their fitness goals. Now when I talk about maximizing their time in class; get in and setup early, don't wait for me or waste 10 minutes talking to your neighbor – start your warm-up as soon as possible, as soon as your breathing calms get back to a flat road wattage, etc… they nod in agreement. Don't get me wrong, Heart Rate training is still important, but the instantaneous and member specific, information that comes with Power, makes Heart Rate training so 2000's.
They get “me”
“John, now it's all starting to gel together…” And gel it has! Being able to discuss Power and it's correlation with Heart Rate training zones has been very freeing and immensely satisfying, to me as an Instructor.
Today for example, I did my Nice Pull! ride. This is a simulation of working through a pace line of a group riding into a heavy headwind. Tucked in nicely, shielded from the wind, everything is manageable. Until BAM!  The last rider in front pulls left and now you're hit hard with the force of the wind. Cuing / describing that feeling, to someone who's never ridden in a group, is very difficult. The challenge for the indoor rider is to immediately add load, at a level they can sustain for 2-5 minutes, without losing cadence. Tough to do on a conventional IC bike, working off of RPE or Heart Rate, but very easy and understandable when you have taking your class through some 5-8 minute intervals where you establish an estimate FTP – Functional Threshold Power. In an outdoor ride your pull at the front needs to be at a consistent pace. As soon as you can no longer maintain the pace you need to pull off… those who can sustain the pace, for an extended period of time, get a simple Nice Pull! as they slip toward the back. Having an average wattage number to maintain, for the whole 5 minute interval, replicated the feeling of pulling into a headwind more realistically than ever before. And the multiple, positive comments I received after class were just awesome. This could make a fun Audio PROfile 🙂
I don't have to feel like I need to compete with anyone, anymore!
And neither does Amy – and neither will you [wlm_firstname]. Lorrinda takes both of our classes and she told us both this weekend; You guys need to train all the other instructors! We are so far out ahead of all the “entertainment on bikes” crowd it's not even funny. Not everyone will want to make the transition, there will still be still be goofy housewife classes at 9:30 on Tuesdays, but the tide (at least where we teach) is a changing.
Where have I been? Why didn't I know about this artist? I was talking to a friend today and she told me that she was on-line last night trying to get tickets for this concert. It was nearly impossible!!! OK, I'll bite. Who is this band that sells out almost immediately? It's Florence + The Machine and I'm kicking myself why I didn't know about them before now. What The Water Gave Me is their longest track – And I'm always looking for 4:00+ tracks so this is perfect! 🙂
Both the FreeMotion S 11 series and Schwinn AC Indoor Cycles have the ability to record your ride data using a USB Thumb Drive.
This past Sunday I asked Alan ******, one of my regular students, if he would be willing to have his class performance data recorded so I could share it with you. Al is a long time cyclist and we first met back in 1998 while I was leading group rides for a local bike shop. He agreed and the process for collecting his information was a simple as plugging a Thumb Drive into the USB port before turning on the FreeMotion computer.
The data that's collected is:
Time – it takes a snapshot every second.
Miles traveled*
MPH*
Watts
Heart Rate BPM
Cadence RPM
My understanding is that Miles traveled and MPH are estimates based on research done by FreeMotion's engineers that measured the amount of power needed to sustain a given speed. As I type this I realize that I need a more comprehensive understanding so I can explain this better. You can download the .xlsx spreadsheet here.
Here's why both FreeMotion and Schwinn use a “Stage” button during class.
There is an enormous amount of data collected during a 90 minute class… Four Thousand, Eight Hundred and Thirty Nine lines of data to be exact.
The reason for only 116 minutes of total time is that we had a 14 minute warm-up, where no data is collected. More on this as I learn and experiment in the future.
When you ride a bicycle, you must master four major skills — climbing, descending, sprinting, and riding on a flat road.
Climbs are like books, with a beginning, a middle and an end. You shift your position on the bike as the gradient changes. Hopefully, you enjoy the middle — although you might at times look forward to the end.
Descents require you to master grace and control and to understand gravity.
Jumps and sprints are about power and acceleration and are over quickly.
But a flat can seem endless and is the greatest teacher of the endurance athlete. Many virtues come from riding a bicycle on a flat road: discipline, connection, rhythm, patience, consistency, economy. Cyclists who have ridden many miles know that flats can be the most challenging terrain. Lacking the drama of great climbs, they may appear mundane. As a cyclist who has ridden many long and ultra-long distances, however, I can say that the flat has required the greatest application of my focus and commitment to the bicycle.
Although the seated flat road is the most basic ride position in indoor cycling, I’ve found that most instructors don’t equate that position on an indoor cycle with the beauty of riding a bicycle on a flat road. It holds the greatest potential for student experience but is typically relegated to warm-ups, cool-downs, beginners’ workouts, and recovery. As a result, the seated flat road is the least interesting facet of many instructors’ classes.
What follows are personal thoughts and experiences from riding my bicycle that will hopefully give you ideas and words to make the seated flat road position more exciting and even elegant.
It’s on a flat road that the greatest connection with the bicycle occurs, due to the consistent and unchanging terrain. Fidgeting, shifting in the saddle, unnecessary standing, or sitting up are all indicators of a novice, not a cyclist. Train your students to commit to the saddle and always keep at least one hand on the handlebars. They’ll begin to feel the bike like never before. The subtleties of the bike are felt only when the rider becomes less restless.
Cyclists share a greater understanding of nature and of the elements. The most important element to understand is the wind, which is best studied on a flat road. Riding with a tailwind offers a feeling of exhilaration as the elements give you the sensation of effortless power. Riding with a crosswind may require the efficiency of an echelon in diagonal formation.
Riding into a headwind requires commitment to the saddle and reverence for the power of nature. Adding resistance in class does not only have to simulate a climb. A headwind is arguably the most forceful resistance you can experience on a bike. Imagine descending a 5% grade, pedaling furiously in your easiest climbing gear to maintain 15 mph as you ride into a 20 mph headwind. On a climb, you can change position, but there’s little you can do while riding into a headwind to mitigate the effort. You must stay glued to the saddle in your drops. The wind is the greatest teacher of acceptance. Your connection with the bicycle is complete.
Turning out of the wind, you feel the acceleration. Organize the breath and sense the speed; the effort becomes bliss. Spin the legs at high cadence; recover at 30 mph.
The flat affords another opportunity for one of the greatest sensations you’ll ever experience on a bicycle: the peloton, French for platoon. The peloton separates on a climb because of weight and fitness. It separates on a descent because of skill and nerve.
The peloton stays together on a flat, since a wide range of abilities can work together.
A rider in a peloton spends 30-40% less energy to maintain pace with the group than if riding alone. A synergy takes place that makes you want to contribute, want to ride harder, want the sensation never to end. No one talks; it’s about harmony, speed, fluidity, passion.
Referencing the peloton, or a rotating pace line, is a powerful experience to bring to your students. Many instructors have developed indoor-cycling exercises and choreography around the sensation of being in another rider’s slipstream and the shared consciousness that cyclists feel when riding in a group.
Every class you teach offers a peloton experience.
Riding a bicycle is more than just a workout. Knowledge enables you to transcend a ride position on an indoor cycle and make it something experiential. You don’t have to ride a bicycle to express the beauty of a flat road. All you have to do is find the right music and an appreciation for your indoor bike — and ride the way a cyclist rides the flats.
A two-person song, with a two-person perspective for today with some meaningful lyrics to boot! This 65 rpm climb has beautiful instrumentals and harmonies that build, with call outs at 1:38 and 3:00. These two cue spots are a perfect time to have your class add load, but hold cadence at 65 rpms. Now that we FINALLY have power at our club, my class can see whether or not they really do hold cadence steady after adding more load.
Woulter “Wally” De Backer, professionally known as Gotye, wrote this gorgeous song, “Somebody That I Used To Know”, featuring Kimbra. It is from his Making Mirrors album and has had over 57 million You Tube views, so a few others like it as well. Enjoy!
Will you be in or around Dallas TX on March 17th? If so, I suggest you make plans to be part of this huge class Life Time Fitness is planning with the intent of breaking their own World Record Indoor Cycling class.
From a Club Industry email:
Life Time Fitness Chanhassen, MN, will attempt to break its Guinness World Record for the largest static cycling class with a Ride of a Lifetime event on March 17 at AT&T Plaza at American Airlines Center in Dallas. The two-hour cycle studio class will be led by Life Time CEO Bahram Akradi and top Life Time cycle instructors, with music spun by Roberto Costa, an internationally renowned DJ. The current record of 1,052 riders was set on March 7, 2010, in Minneapolis.
I recorded this video of the 2010 World Record event where they had 1052 participants.
Both the FreeMotion S 11 series and Schwinn AC Indoor Cycles have the ability to record your ride data using a USB Thumb Drive.
