The Power of 3 - "Close the Gap"
"Talk Dirty to Me" by Poison
"Tainted Love" by Soft Cell
"Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen
Last Saturday my outdoor cycling group had their last organized ride of the season. It was a beautiful day in Denver, no wind and the temperature ranged from 50-70 degrees. This group has a wide range of abilities, there are men and women, young and old, husbands and wives, parents and children, $700 and $7000 bikes. As a group we ride well together we often split apart on hills, but the faster riders wait at the top so we can continue the ride together, no one is ever dropped. Though our routes are often different we always end up at the Starbucks in downtown Golden, Colorado, for a latte break. This day the ride had a bit of different feel to it. With it being the last ride of the year I think everyone wanted to test their hard fought fitness and every tiny bump in the road to every longer climb was an all out race to the top, man was it fun! The faster riders knew that at the top of every hill they would have time to recover as they waited for the slower riders to catch up. This recovery time just added to the intensity of each and every climb. Needless to say, by the time we made it to Starbucks in Golden some of us were already "cooked" and we still had 20 more miles to go. As we ride out of Golden there is a long stretch of about 8 miles of fairly flat roads with no "Stop" signs or traffic lights. We usually don't race every hill, like earlier in the ride, but we ALWAYS race this section. As we slowly rolled out of Starbucks we merged with two other groups and got caught at the last traffic light before the long 8 mile stretch. It was so cool to see about 40 riders all waiting for this light, everyone enjoying this beautiful day and knowing the "race" was about to begin. When that light turned green "it was ON"! Unfortunately I was not in front when the light changed and I could see the leaders start pulling away, but I thought "no problem, I can close that gap." Well, I'm sorry to say that after a few "overflown sinks" I was never able to "close that gap".
While I was out there "filling up my sink" for 8 miles and never getting closer than 50 yards to the lead group I thought that this would be a great indoor cycling set. The goal of my "Close the Gap" set is to ride below threshold wattage for a 2-3 minutes then spend 1-2 minutes bringing the average wattage back up to or "on the wheel" of the riders threshold wattage and repeat. When I coach this set I like to keep the timer running so it becomes increasingly harder to elevate the average wattage the further into the set the riders go. This teaches the riders the importance of pacing, if the average wattage drops too low it will take harder and/or longer efforts to bring it back up, as there is a limited amount of time anyone can maintain an above threshold effort the rider may never be able to bring the average wattage back up to threshold levels. Similar to the way I was never able to catch or "close the gap" to the leading group last Saturday.
A detailed set profile to print
3 song harmonically mixed track, to download Right Click > Save As / Save Target As to download. Open in iTunes and then you'll see this in your Spotify Local File folder.
Recording of me teaching this 3 song set in a class on a Stages Bike, Right Click > Save As / Save Target As to download on PC or Download Linked File As on Mac. Open in iTunes and then you'll see this in your Spotify Local File folder.
Recording of me teaching this 3 song set in a class on a Spinner NXT, Right Click > Save As / Save Target As to download on PC or Download Linked File As on Mac. Open in iTunes and then you'll see this in your Spotify Local File folder.
Recording of me teaching this 3 song set in a class on a Spinner Blade Ion, Right Click > Save As / Save Target As to download on PC or Download Linked File As on Mac. Open in iTunes and then you'll see this in your Spotify Local File folder.
3 song harmonically mixed track AND video, to download Right Click > Save As / Save Target As to download.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
- Keep it Simple and Progress – Profile Week 2 At or Above Threshold - December 17, 2023
- Warm Up or Cool Down Video – Landscapes - December 14, 2023
- Stages and VismoX Team Up to Create Indoor Cycling Power Based IOS App. - December 8, 2023
Dennis, nice job. What is the name of the song at the 10 minute mark used in teaching with the spinner blade ion?
Pat here’s an iTunes link to that song – https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/heart-upon-my-sleeve/id677375839?i=677376061&uo=4&at=10lmzK
Thanks
man I still wish I lived in Denver so I could come ride with that group! I have a question. I am a new instructor and starting next month we will now have bikes with computers. YAY!! I was wondering when you talk about below threshold wattage how do I have my riders find that? Does that question make sense?