There are some very talented DJ's on SoundCloud! My classes have especially been enjoying the mash ups I've been using lately. It blows my mind how these guys can hear how two or more songs can possibly blend together so well!
This week brings us a 66 bpm, 3:35 climb, blending two of my favorite artists: Bryan Adams and Metallica…I know- I would've never put those two together either!
I've been using this tune in the last third of our ride to push intensity before cool down.
Here is Wax Audio's ‘Enter You' and the free SoundCloud download:
I'm a huge believer in the concept of including a “Best Effort” in every class I teach. “Best Effort” as in; what is your sustainable power over 3-4 minutes? The reason is simple – I want every participant, in every class I teach, to have an understanding of their estimated threshold wattage. Why? Because when I teach with power (always) I feel knowing where you should be is super important. It makes my cuing much more understandable to even the first-timer. I can then ask for efforts Below/@/Above threshold and there's no confusion.
And I'm not the only one doing this. In his upcoming Audio Class Profile, Master Educator Dennis Mellon uses these “Best Efforts” for exactly the same reason 🙂
But my regulars would get a bit bored if I did the same class every week, so I mix up how we do these… Climbing, Fast Flats and occasionally we'll even do them out of the saddle! Regardless of the cadence or position, these are very popular (OK, sometimes I get a few groans) with my class. Throw one in at around the 20 mark, and then as the “Big Finish” at the end of class – except during round two your expectations are for even a BIGGER “Best Effort” as a close.
A fun “Best Effort” takes the right music and I'm providing a few remixes from Instructor/DJ Peter Gonzalez, better known as Peter G, that should work nicely for you to add in to your next playlist.
65 RPM “Best Effort” track – at 4:37 you'll start with the first spoken lyric and ride for 4 minutes.
The music wars are starting to heat up between Apple/iTunes and Spotify. Last week Apple added (without your permission) the new album Songs of Innocence to every iTunes account in the world. Some people weren't happy with either the free music… or the part about Apple adding it without telling anyone what they were doing. So Apple has created a free tool to remove all of the tracks if you don't want them.
From a marketing perspective this was very cool. In one day something like half a billion iTunes users had the songs in their possession, making this the largest ever album launch in history.
Except this has effectively locked this album out from Spotify and Deezer, neither of which have access to these tracks. One article said Apple paid U2 $100 million > I don't know about you, but I'd grant Apple an exclusive for that amount of zeros.
But you can add them to a Spotify or Deezer playlist 🙂
In iTunes go to your Library and if you search by date added you'll see the list of tracks from Songs of Innocence, but they'll be light grey because they aren't actually downloaded. What you are seeing are just links to the Apple iCloud. You'll need to click the little cloud icon next to each track to download it to your computer.
In Spotify or Deezer you'll see all your new U2 tracks listed in the Local Files section.
A cadence build climb, broken into three parts is included in my latest profile. The first four minute portion of the cadence build is at 62 rpms's. It's here that everyone sets their load to a challenging, but doable load. The next four minutes is at a cadence of 68- no touching load- so power output goes up! The last 4:15 is at a cadence of 72 and where our Free Music Friday helps us bust a move and put up big watt numbers!
Have you been enjoying DJ Peter Gonzalez? Whenever I use his mashed tunes, my classes love it! He does such a good job of mixing and matching seamlessly and today's tune is no exception.
Enjoy ‘MashUptight'- a remix of Guns & Roses vs. Stevie Wonder.
Adirondack Climbs profile is loosely based on a series of hikes through the beautiful Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York. There are 46 peaks that make up the Adirondack High Peaks, and some folks take on the challenge of hiking all 46 of them. This ride is based on one of the smaller scale challenges, which involves six of the peaks and is named the Saranac Lake 6er —for the 6 Adirondack mountains that surround beautiful Saranac Lake.
This is a great ride if you do a lot of visualization with your classes. Take your class to the top of each peak and describe the beautiful landscape along the way. Describing what the view will be like when they reach the summit will motivate riders to reach the top.
This video has additional information you can use to add more flavor to your profile.
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As I was bouncing between Indoor Cycling sessions at IDEA, I kept Shazam qued up on my iPhone. It came in handy for when I heard something fun… and there was a lot of great music at the conference!
During Nothing But the HIITS! (a Schwinn Cycling presentation from MI Tatiana Kolovou) she played Juno Reactor — Pistolero – Astrix Remix which I thought would make for an awesome long 7:16 climb @ 70 RPM. It includes a fabulous intro that you just know will lead to something challenging.
Here are the workshop notes for Nothing But the HIITS! you can download if you didn't get the chance to attend IDEA.
The same version is available as a free download 🙂
