When building a playlist, I spend the most time selecting my BIG FINISH track. At times I'll use a song that's obviously the close of the class – typically one that hammers right from the start. Other times, I like to be a bit sneaky. [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|28 Day Challenge']Today's free track No Way – The Naked and Famous is a great example of a song that will lull everyone into a sense of calm and then BAM!!! The music suddenly changes and there's no possibility of missing how you should respond.
Tune-mapped, No Way has two very intense segments. The first hitting at apx 1:00 for 40 seconds. The second comes at the 2:45 and runs for 1:45. I'll cue the Hit#1 as a kind of practice. Here we'll get our resistance set so a 90RPMish cadence has us above the Best Effort wattage (or HR) we established earlier in the class.
STAND & WALK is my cue to recover, without making any changes to load, during the quiet that follows. Then it's a simple standing acceleration @ Hit #2 and you can decide to keep everyone up – or – return to the saddle. Either way we maintain our cadence/wattage/HR until the end 🙂
Here is the 3rd post of my new “The Power of 3 – Keep it Simple and Progress” profile feature on ICI/Pro. My goal with these profiles is to show how easy it can be to create just one profile every 3 weeks and with some subtle changes in riding position, RPM, interval and recovery duration as well as a new playlist each week theses workouts will “feel” different but the similarity of each ride will help class participants increase their fitness in a scientifically proven way.
This week I reduced the rest in the main sets and added two more 1 minute max efforts.
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Trainer Road Profile (If you're Trainer Road Member join my Team to get this and all profiles)
I'm getting into the habit of creating my new playlists on Tuesday. Why? I can't help myself, listening to the latest new music playlist from Spotify has me feeling very… how would I say it? Hip? Cool? In the know? [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|28 Day Challenge']
This new track playlist never disappoints > Look what we've become from Grace Potter is simply awesome – I love a powerful 93 RPM Tempo Flat with inspirational lyrics. I'll introduce the effort, then shut up and ride along with my class… until the chorus where, looking at the class with a big smile, I'll quietly speak the bolded lines into the mic:
And they always told us we would be nothing
But look what we've done (look what we've done), hey
And they always told us we would be nothing
Now look what we've become (look what we've become)
If you like that, you'll love; The Lion The Beast The Beat – I'm not sure I've ever come across a better 5 minute BIG FINISH song. Listen with your eyes closed and see if you can visualise the build up and then let the beast out!
Can't wait to try both of these in an Evolution Cycle class profile![/wlm_private]
Last week I wrote about how my simplest sets and profiles are most often my most popular. I have also found that if I simply progress profiles from week to week, usually in 3 week blocks, my classes enjoy the familiarity of the workout and see progressive improvement.
To add progression to a block of workouts all you need to do is add time to each interval or reduce recovery or increase intensity to each interval set. This allows the body to adapt from workout to workout. Check out this article from Training Peaks about progression, How to Build Workouts.
I inevitably get the response from instructors that their riders like every class to be different or they'll get bored. My response is, “Even class IS different!” I use different playlists and videos from week to week, I may keep similar yet progressive profiles but I'll change around how each set is ridden, for example, seated vs standing or fast rpm vs slower rpm. This makes each week “feel” completely different but is similar enough that the body can adapt from week to week and a progressive training effect can occur.
If you used my profile from last week with your class, progress with this new one below and let me know how it goes.
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Now that it's summer, I like to transition from serious > to fun classes. Not sure exactly why… maybe because when it's cold and dark in the morning, I tend to think if we can't be outdoors we might as well be training with focus.
Summer, on the other hand, causes me to lighten up and try to be more entertaining and fun. Here's a few tracks that I'll be using in the coming weeks.[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|28 Day Challenge']
Not sure where I found this but I remember I Shazamed it the instant I heard it. There's a nice 30 second finish you might use as a final sprint.
I know I heard T-Shirt Weather when I was at American Eagle Outfitters last week.
I'm going to set the mood for my next class with this fun remix – I can't help smiling listening to it 🙂 Doesn't this sound free and easy? You might also use it as an aerobic transition between a pair of intervals.
Here's the MP3 to download Right Click > Save As.[/wlm_private]
