by John | Oct 1, 2020 | Big Box Instructor, Class Work-Sets, Instructor Training, KEEPING IT FUN, Master Instructor Blog, Training With Power
Better late than never they say. It certainly applies to this season's Performance Cycle classes – now we're in full swing after some initial confusion that came from a sudden change on GFDH's.
We kicked off this past Sunday with an assessment to find the wattage numbers we will be using going forward. I like to use very simple terminology that minimises any mathematical computations.
The week before I described how we experimented with pinning down two numbers;
… Instead I base my Life Time Performance Cycle classes on two numbers; PTP (Personal Threshold Power) and JRAP (Just Riding Along Power — AKA > Base Watts > VT1 / First Ventilatory Threshold Power). From these two rider identified threshold wattages, we can construct three meaningful power Zones;
- Recover zone — watts below JRAP
- Perform zone — watts between JRAP and PTP
- Improve zone — watts above PTP
Today we added one more wattage number – their 20 minute FTP watts. As you can guess, riders should have a lower 20 min average than a 3-4 minute PTP / Best Effort and be above JRAP / Base Watts.
Wait John, you just said you only use the two thresholds in class.
What's the point of adding a third number?
Adding the third point of reference helps you draw a straighter line. At least that's what my high school drafting teacher taught me. It's much easier to draw between two distant points, if you add one in the middle = it helps you understand if you're on the right path between the two known points!
[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']
The process of sustaining a 20 minute effort is helpful to many riders – it validates and reinforces the two threshold numbers and confirms that people are understanding my cuing.
Before/during and after these twenty minute efforts I tell everyone; this effort should fall between the two thresholds. Which you would think I shouldn't even have to mention… until you hear the confusion I heard after the effort was completed:
- I really surprised myself – my 20 min watts was the same as my 3 minute level!
- There must be something wrong with me – I couldn't sustain my base watts for the whole ride 🙁
Teachable moments here
In the first example; my 20 min watts was the same as my 3 minute level! I was able to ask him; “what does that say about your 3 minute effort?” He understood before I completed my sentence; “I'm not working hard enough!”
The women who told me I couldn't sustain my base watts for the whole ride also had a revelation and asked me; “Do you think I'm working too hard at my base level?” I didn't even need to answer her.
Do you now see the value of adding that third number?
A continuous state of observation
I asked my class on Sunday; how many of you are on a specific training plan? None. Not a single hand went up. This is very typical for my very diverse group of middle age men and women. Yes most ride outside – but their objectives aren't structured beyond not rolling over and hitting the snooze button. They come to my Performance Cycle class to get a nice combination of intensity and endurance work, in a fun group.
My object in this class is that everyone learn from observing their performance, make adjustments and observe again. Over time they learn exactly where they need be. When it's time to work hard – they WORK HARD and when they should work easy – it really is easy.
Make sense?
Here's my playlist –
I'll get the rest of the profile up later in the week if you want to try this in your class.
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Originally posted 2018-01-13 09:00:43.
by John | Sep 28, 2020 | Instructor Training
I was sitting in the Airport and started thinking about how useful Twitter could be to communicate with my Indoor Cycling Class regulars. 
Many people set up Twitter to send updates to their phone. I could…
Encourage attendance
Let them know what’s coming next. Give advanced notice of each class profile. Offer words of encouragement. Ask “where has so-and-so been? Anyone seen him?
What are your ideas?
Are you using Twitter to communicate with your class? If so post your ideas for others in the comment section below.
Here is the Twitter site. It’s free to use and you have complete control over who you follow.
Save
Originally posted 2017-09-26 08:00:15.
by John | Sep 25, 2020 | Instructor Training
I sleep better knowing that for 17 cents a night, everything I have saved on my computer is fully backed up. All my Indoor Cycling class music, profiles, playlists, files, pictures…everything. When I see the backup status report below, I know that my three year old Dell laptop can fail tomorrow and I will lose NOTHING!
Makes me happy 🙂 They let you try it for free here.
Originally posted 2009-05-20 06:27:06.
by John | Sep 25, 2020 | Instructor Tech Help, Instructor Training, Product Reviews
LTF Instructors get a 15% discount – are you taking advantage of this?
I could lease a nice car for what I'm paying Verizon Wireless each month. Service and data plans for daughters; Abby and Carly (two iPhone's), Amy's Droid Razr M and my iPhone run $250.00 a month = $3000.00 a year.
It may not be for you, but that's a serious amount of money to me 🙁
So my ears perked up this morning when I heard an interview on Fox for a company that said Americans pay something like $50 billion more than they should for cell services. The guest, the founder of savelovegive.com, explained that they have an easy way for you to analyze your monthly bill and compare the different service plans.
I didn't take the time to look, but I'm guessing there are other companies that do something similar. What makes savelovegive.com unique is that you can choose to simply pocket the money you save using their service or contribute it to their chosen charity – The Seven Bar Foundation.
The Seven Bar Foundation, a 501(c)3, is the brand for the empowerment of women. As a social enterprise it fuels microfinance institutions by driving profits with purpose with cause-marketing brand partners. To reach a critical mass with its ladder symbolic message, the Foundation hosts the top couture and luxury lingerie shows in the world – Lingerie New York, London Miami, etc. Together with the Foundation’s alliances we enable women in need to start or grow their own small businesses, breaking the cycle of poverty for their children via microfinance.
We believe that microfinance is an effective tool to combat poverty and empower women because it fosters self-reliance and encourages sustainable development. As loans are repaid to our Microfinance partners, the funds are then reissued to other entrepreneurs. Investments in Seven Bar Foundation will help countless women over the long-term, constantly growing in size and increasing its impact with every woman that the funds reach.
I love anything that empowers people to become productive 🙂
Using savelovegive.com was free, really easy and took me all of ten minutes to set up. Eight of the ten minutes was consumed by trying to remember which of our four lines was the Primary # and then resetting the forgotten password.
That $102.00 a year could go somewhere better than Verizon. If you choose to spend on on yourself maybe a Spotify premium or ICI/PRO subscription?
You create a user and password at savelovegive.com and then confirm the email they send. The actual tool that analyses your service is called Vera. Enter your cell # and password and Vera goes to work. I was shown four plan options and the potential change in costs. Plan option 1 showed I can save $102.00 a year just by making a simple change to my service.
Now to be fair, Amy watches all our expenses like a hawk (she was a CPA when I first met her), so we were already pretty close to optimal. But the conformation was both comforting and a bit depressing… I was hoping to see some huge, untapped savings we could take advantage of.
If you opt to make the suggest change, savelovegive.com generates an email to send to your carrier this the new plan data. Hit send and hopefully they will respond. It's when your carrier responds that the changes will be made – savelovegive.com doesn't make any changes directly, just shows you which changes to make.
If you're concerned with savelovegive.com having your personal info, I suggest running the test and then you can go back and change your password.
If you try this let other's know your results below.
P.S. savelovegive.com is a great example of a website built using HTML5 – the new hypertech markup language that we were discussing earlier in regards to iPads and how they won't display the Flash audio player that uses the old/current version of HTML.
Originally posted 2013-01-24 08:49:06.
by Joey Stabile | Sep 25, 2020 | Best Practices, Class Work-Sets, Creativity Indoor Classes, Instructor Training, KEEPING IT FUN, Master Instructor Blog, Training With Power
Welcome to the The Weekly Ride by Cycling Fusion
No more hunting for new music or counting out cues to develop your ride profile. Here is your ready to ride profile for a fully choreographed ride, that can be displayed from your phone, or printed out onto cue cards for your class. This ride is timed out, down to the second, to make your life as easy as possible!
(more…)
Originally posted 2018-05-09 08:10:21.
by Jim Karanas | Sep 22, 2020 | Instructor Training, Master Instructor Blog
By Team ICG® Master Trainer Jim Karanas
Indoor Cycling has always been about engaging students face to face, in a setting where member safety is enhanced and the specifics of riding an indoor cycle can be communicated effectively. This requires educated faculty to deliver the classes. It also creates additional expense for either the club operator or the instructor to pay for the education and additional time for the instructor to travel to and attend it.
Although online education can impact any instructor’s teaching knowledge, it hasn’t been widely accepted in Indoor Cycling. Currently, only two education companies offer online training: the Indoorcycling Group (ICG®), partnered with LIVESTRONG® Fitness, and Mad Dogg Athletics®, which provides Spinning®.
In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education published “Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning.” The study found that students who took all or part of their instruction online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through face-to-face instruction. Further, those who took “blended” courses, combining elements of online learning and face-to-face instruction, appeared to do best of all.
At ICG®, we saw that the greatest advantages of online learning, as suggested by this study, were time spent and expanded curriculum. Students spent additional learning time because an online module is self-paced. Expanding knowledge is simplified for the student through an extensive online curriculum because it’s easy to offer. Online learning is far more conducive both to increasing learning time and to learning a diverse program of study than is face-to-face instruction because it removes the two greatest barriers to instructor development — inconvenience and finance.
We’re not suggesting that it’s simply better to switch to online learning only. Others studies have shown greatest effectiveness through the use of online learning for advanced study, while keeping the basic practices face-to-face. This makes a good deal of sense with Indoor Cycling. Initial certifications should be in the form of live practicums to give new instructors the most saddle time.
Based on a growing number of studies, however, review, re-certification and the learning of advanced theory might best be done online. Self-paced online education provides as much time for study as the student needs, which can be particularly helpful when covering new material.
So, considering how important and expensive certifications for indoor cycling professionals can be, what might it be worth to you to be able to earn CECs online at your convenience and at your own pace, free of charge?
ICG® offers the most complete, internationally accredited program of continuing education — and we offer it for free. This support is available for ALL instructors through our online education platform. You can take the tutorials all at once or individually, as your time permits. What could be easier?
Just go to http://www.ic-pro.org/en/account/signin and create your own personal account. Your account will be immediately activated with all of our FREE CEC courses that are approved by ACE/AFAA and other certification organizations.
Our free curriculum includes:
Cyclewell: Circuit Format
Dri-Tri®: An express triathlon workout and teaching plan for the busy schedule
Continuing Education: 9 topics
- Aging and Adaptation
- Stretching
- Nutrition
- Competitive Cycling
- Training the Cancer Survivor
- Music and Motion
- Overtraining
- Periodized Training
- Heart Rate Training and Zones
I.C.G. Archive: 2 topics
1. Nutrition Periodization
2. Sportif Seasonal Training
The indoor cycling instructor is a prime candidate for advancement through online learning. The number of ICI-PRO website members and visitors demonstrates that a good percentage of indoor cycling instructors are online frequently. ICI-PRO website information is, as we know, genuinely useful for the indoor cycling professional. However, we still need to maintain certifications, which are costly and somewhat inconvenient, depending on instructor schedules. It’s for this reason that we invite you to take advantage of the ICG® online courses — some of which are of equally high quality as postings on this website — when you next need CECs.
We welcome the opportunity to serve you in this way.
Originally posted 2012-02-20 16:37:44.
