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.
The Ultimate Instructor Class Profile contest winner Allison Santoro
Here's the Grand Prize winning entry to our Ultimate Instructor Class Profile Contest from Instructor Allison Santoro!
Profile Description
Today we will test the law of gravity…what goes up, must come down. Whiteface Mountain is a very challenging 8-mile climb up to a castle at the summit of the mountain. As you approach a toll-house at the three-mile mark, you will be mentally preparing for the most challenging part of this ride with 8% to 10% gradients for several miles. As you ascend to the summit, two switchbacks and an ease in grade will provide you with the perfect opportunity to enjoy the rush of powering-through your threshold to the summit. At the summit, you will surrender to gravity…and be rewarded with an exhilarating 10-minute down-hill recovery.
Instructor Profile – Allison Santoro
I became a certified indoor cycling instructor, after spinning for fitness and leisure since the early 1990s.
As a student, I noticed that there were a wide range of teaching practices and styles, and many instructors were quite obviously not qualified to be teaching an indoor cycling class. Frankly, some classes were so bad, it’s a miracle that I still have my knees and back intact.
Anyway, I decided to take my Spinning® certification so that I could establish myself as a knowledgeable instructor that could provide constructive coaching on performance, technique and safety.
I currently teach a lunchtime indoor cycling class at Fitcorp at the Prudential Center in Boston. I also teach the occasional weekend class in New Hampshire, where I live.
I met my husband and best friend Al, over 20 years ago, and we’ve been married for 7 years. We live in New Hampshire on the seacoast, which is about 50 miles north of Boston, where I work.
Funnily enough, it was my husband’s love of cycling that prompted me to buy a road-bike and venture outdoors. I was quickly hooked on cycling outdoors, and before I knew it, Al and I were signing up for century rides, and I even did the Boston to New York aids ride a couple of times.
When I’m not cycling, instructing, or working, I like all things outdoors — especially golf. I started playing golf a couple of years ago, and like cycling, I was immediately hooked. Allison@AllAboutAlly.com
Congratulations Allison – your class profile is truly the Ultimate!
Note: We'll be running this contest again, between September 15th and ending on October 31st. I've already secured a number of fabulous prizes (think: teaching somewhere warm) so you may want to start thinking about what you will submitting this Fall 🙂
Our latest Audio PROfile comes from Team ICG® Master Trainer Jim Karanas!
PROFILE DESCRIPTION
Timing is one of the most basic essentials of training. I like to think of Timing as “how you interact with what you perceive.” The road is the road. At times, it will come at you in ways that are unpredictable. How you ride your bike depends largely on your sense of timing or how you make the subtle adjustments necessary to maximize your sense of ease. Exhilaration results when you experience effortless power. Effortless power is a result of good timing.
When a novice rides the bike, they are unsure of what gear to use and will at times fight the bike and the road. As their timing develops, their gear selection and shifting improve to where they no longer have to think about it and they begin to sense “flow”. Flow is a feeling of simplicity when you sense no difficulty. The bike rolls over the terrain seamlessly, like a dream.
Developing a sense of timing begins through cadence exercises. Cadence is how fast you pedal. Your RPM. Cadence training makes you more efficient, improves your technique, uses a wider array of muscles and enhances your presence when training. It is a mechanical practice that requires patience and discipline but will eventually help lift you to a level of artistry.
Timing & Cadence Playlist in Spotify and Deezer – please note the substitutions and slight variations in track lengths. You'll need to adjust section times accordingly.
You only get one chance to make a first impression!
While I've taught a lot of classes on Indoor Cycles that display Power/Watts, this morning was the very first Power based class I've ever taught. So what's the difference?
65 new FreeMotion Indoor Cycles with Power meters that replaced conventional Spinner NXTs and very willing participants interested in the value training with power will bring to their fitness.
Sunday mornings are my 90 minute endurance class. I have a very devoted following of endurance athletes in attendance. They are all focused on maintaining and/or building their aerobic endurance in preparation for Spring – in other words, the perfect group to introduce power to. In other classes I've taught where we had Power meters, there is too much variation between students… who we have described in earlier posts as Susan and Bob.
OK, now I have the perfect class to begin teaching with Power, new bikes with Power meters, but no idea what I should do for my first class 🙁
So I called the best person I could think of and begged asked her to tell me what I should do for my very first Power based class.
Subscribe to our free Podcast feed in iTunes and get about half of what we publish or become an ICI/PRO member and get everything 🙂
What follows is Cameron Chinatti's suggestion for your intro class as an Audio PROfile.
Objective: Orientation & Observation
Our ride will consist of two primary objectives: the 1st– to orient ourselves to the console and learn it’s basic functions. Then we’ll observe the cause-and-effect relationship that your actions have on the information you see in front of you. Once we make it through 10 min. of orientation and warm-up, we’ll begin to dive into today’s goal the two components that drive Power: Force and Velocity!
Goal: Beginning in STAGE 2, you are going to get 3 opportunities to best yourself against four-minute efforts. Can you cover more distance with each repetition? This might seem easy on paper, but putting it into practice is very challenging!
After discussing this with Cameron, we decided that we would make the Audio PROfile recording available to everyone. PRO members can click here for the PDF to print out and Cameron's suggested playlist.
Here's the FastFit Guide Cameron uses for bike setup.
Why do we have two versions? It's actually my fault 🙁
Jim Karanas is very passionate about endurance cycling and teaching endurance classes. My job as the producer is to keep the Talent (in this case Jim) focused and on track. Except while we were recording this Audio PROfile, Jim's enthusiasm kicked in and he started to stray from his prepared copy. I wasn't going to stop him while he was on a roll… so I let him continue until he was finished.
Then we recorded the shorter version.
Either way I hope you find this as helpful as I have. 6 classes so far following this PROfile and nothing but positive comments. I even used it during a lunch-time class where the participants are used to a HIT type interval profile.
