by Christine Hawthorne | Jul 1, 2017 | Instructor Training, Music
Summer is in full swing and with Independence Day coming up, you may want to consider a theme ride for your next class. While it may be difficult to collect enough themed songs for a Fourth of July playlist, you could definitely include some summer themed songs as well. Here are a few great ideas for you to include along with suggestions on how to use them! Hope your summer is filled with sunny days and full classes!
Love in America (Radio Edit) by JTX/ seated or standing climb (61 rpm)- iTunes link
Fourth of July by Fall Out Boy/ seated flat road or seated climb (80 rpm) iTunes link
And two tracks with the same title:
Freedom by Pitbull /standing climb (60 rpm) iTunes link
Freedom by Pharrell Williams/seated flat road (97 rpm) iTunes link
by Christine Hawthorne | Jun 25, 2017 | Instructor Training, Music
Instructors: It's been one of those weeks for new music. Some really great tracks that you'll want to use in your classes right away have dropped and I'm going to share them along with how I'll be using them in this post!
To start, Imagine Dragons album Evolve is now released in it's entirety. If you haven't been using the early releases (Believer, Whatever It Takes and Thunder) you should definitely give those a listen. In addition, here are a few more that will come in handy:
I Don't Know Why (climb 61 rpm) iTunes Link
Rise Up (flat road 96 rpm) iTunes Link
Yesterday (faster hill 78 rpm) iTunes link
Mouth of The River (flat road 98 rpm) iTunes link
Fallout Boy has a few new pre-releases and my favorite is this one with it's motivational lyrics (“I've got nothing but dreams inside……If I can live through this, I can do anything”).
Champion (flat road 95 rpm) iTunes Link
Not sure how I'm using this one yet, but I had to include this one by The Killers:
The Man iTunes Link
I hope you enjoy these new tunes to help you officially kick off the summer indoor cycling season! Feel free to share your favorite new tunes in the comments!
by Christine Hawthorne | Jun 18, 2017 | Instructor Training, KEEPING IT FUN, Music
This week's track will bring your class up a slow, steep hill as the rpm remains the same, but the gear becomes more intense with each minute. Bishop Briggs‘ song, River is one that will get stuck in your head long after this hill is over and you'll want to use it again and again. It would also make a great standing climb. (64rpm)
River by Bishop Briggs iTunes link
by Christine Hawthorne | Jun 10, 2017 | Instructor Training, KEEPING IT FUN, Music
This new release from Harry Styles‘ self named album makes a great faster hill at around 74 rpm. It's a totally different sound than you're used to hearing from the One Direction star, and it will definitely rock your next class. Here is Kiwi:
Kiwi by Harry Styles iTunes link
While you're checking out the newest releases, don't overlook this one by Robin Schulz and James Blunt called OK. As with the Harry Styles song, this is not what you're used to hearing from the You're Beautiful singer. It has more of a house beat to it that lends a strong beat to pedal to at 62 rpm.
OK by Robin Schulz, James Blunt iTunes link
by Christine Hawthorne | Jun 4, 2017 | Instructor Training, Music
Every instructor needs to have songs like this week's favorite track in their library. Keep this one in your flat road folder and take it out when you are looking for a longer flat road to ride on. Though they've been around for quite a while, I've just recently found Nahko and Medicine for The People and their song Black as Night from their 2013 album Dark as Night. I love the lyrics: “I believe in the good things coming…”.
Riders will even out at around 97 rpm. *If you edit, watch for a few explicit lyrics at
1:19 and 5:09 (nothing a little ‘talking over' won't fix!)
Black as Night by Nahko and Medicine for The People iTunes link
