Cycling Class Profile and Nike.com Gift Card Giveaway

Hey-hey, my fitness gang! How is that week going?

Here is the weekly Indoor Cycling Class Profile and Playlist for ya! I hope you’re riding outside today and come back here later to check this post out and let me know what you think.

So I keep experimenting with the format of these posts, and today is going to be another experiment. I am open to feedback and suggestions if you have any – just let me know in comments.

I’m going to post a .pdf cue sheet of the ride from the Class Builder™ App by Cycling Fusion, post the usual iTunes Playlist for the ride so you can quickly click through to buy a song you like from the playlist (or the whole playlist), and add some notes below it all to explain the ride in a little bit more detail.

Indoor Cycling / Spinning® Class Profile and Playlist #7 – Get Interactive! – 45 Minutes

Here’s the Playlist for the ride:

And here’s the Cue Sheet: Ride 25 – Get Interactive!

And here’s the fun part – notes, decoding clues and glossary.

So first, let me tell you – I don’t enter every single cue into the Class Builder™. Most of the time I don’t enter every single move for my students to make either – and you’ll notice that when you look at the .pdf above.

That also makes those heart rate zones (and even cadence ranges sometimes) that you see on my profile pretty “conditional”.

Example: you will see the cues marked on the cue sheet telling me when I want my riders to transition from seated to standing position, but you won’t see the cues for them to get down most of the time. That’s just my laziness of entering an extra cue. 🙂 Once I see the “Up” cue on my screen during class, I take a note of time and get them back in the saddle when I need to on that day and that particular star alignment. You have to keep safety in mind. Use your best judgment and the guidelines of your certification type to decide how long your riders should stay out of the saddle.

Also, you will probably need a glossary to “decode” my cues, you can find it here.

And…that should cover it – at least for this ride’s profile. I’ll be adding to this glossary with time.

Just want to be clear on this though – the terminology I use as my cues is nowhere near the conventional terminology for Spinning® or any other Indoor Cycling program, and I don’t claim it to be. Please, believe me, I know all the right terms 🙂 I use my own terms in my Class Builder™ for convenience purposes only and so they fit into my iPhone screen 🙂

So, back to the interactive ride. I’m going to define “interactive” the way I see it here. I’ve been a student for a long time, and I personally dislike the classes where the instructor makes it “too interactive”. Trying to keep track of which team I’m on and what my team is doing now on every song of the ride is not my idea of a good workout. To me cycling (indoor or outdoor) is about tuning in and finding that “zen” inside. So. This interactive ride I’m talking about gets interactive at the end of it with the class being divided in 2 teams for one song. That’s it. That’s interactive enough for me.

I like doing it at the end of the class when everybody is tired and could use some motivation for that extra push I’m asking them for. Being part of the team is a good motivation. So, read on – below are some notes for each of the songs on the profile.

1: “Save Me, San Francisco”, Train – Warm up. I had my riders accelerating and doing some running on a flat to warm up their legs. My warm ups tend to be a little too intense for a warm up – and the only reason why is because by the time we start my class has been in the saddle for good 10-15 minutes. If that is not the case, I change the routine to make it a slower warm up for them. If that’s not the case with your class either – feel free to change it up to allow for a sufficient warm up.
2: “Paparazzi”, Lady Gaga – Climb 1. The first, moderate hill with some surges out of the saddle – you will see that rare occasion where I actually marked the time when they have to return to the seated position. I kept them standing for 15-20 seconds.
3: “4 Minutes (feat. Justin Timberlake & Timbaland)”, Madonna – Jumps. This is a perfect song for 4-count jumps. I had my riders stay both up and down in the saddle between jumps. New riders can just add more resistance and do standing climb intervals instead of jumps here.
4: “Call Me”, Skyy – Running on flat intervals. The biggest effort here is in the saddle, getting up to run is a break from the seated surges.
5: “The Power”, Snap! – Seated climb, resistance loading. Return to flat in the beginning and take a 1 minute recovery. 4 resistance increases with an effort to keep cadence constant. New riders should take smaller increases of resistance and should be advised that they can just work on the climb without trying to maintain cadence.
6: “Old Time Rock and Roll”, Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band – Running on flat intervals. Make it as easy as needed after that resistance loading, or make it a recovery if needed.
7: “Stronger (Glee Cast Version)”, Glee Cast – accelerations on flat/active recovery. Have your riders accelerate at their own pace. Don’t give them a number for this one. Short acceleration efforts of 10-15 seconds.
8: “Rumour Has It”, Adele – Seated/Standing climb. Adding resistance throughout this segment, alternating seated/standing climb.
9: “Objection (Tango)”, Shakira – Cadence consistency drill. Return to flat road in the beginning, recover for 1 minute. Towards the end of the recovery period, have your riders choose comfortable cadence and maintain it till the end of the song. Call out cadence consistency checks throughout the segment.
10: “Centuries”, Fall Out Boy – Seated/Standing climb (interactive).  This drill has to start pretty close to the beginning of the song, so explain it at the end of the previous ride segment. Divide your class into two teams/groups. Group 1 starts climbing seated, Group 2 starts climbing standing. Switch every 30 seconds. This is a wonderful song for it – very high energy and motivating. Being part of the team on this drill really complements the music.
11: “The Cave”, Mumford & Sons – Cool down. Gradually decrease resistance and start cooling down.
12: “Defying Gravity (Glee Cast Version)”, Glee Cast – Stretching off the bike.

There you have it, my dear instructors 🙂

If you’re still looking for ideas, check out my other profiles and playlists.

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And! Because you’re such a wonderful person and read to the end of my post, I’m giving away a $20 gift card and free shipping code for Nike.com. You can enter to win below, and I will randomly select a winner on 10/29/2014. Good luck!
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DISCLAIMER:

Please note that while I make every effort to capture and present these indoor cycling class profiles accurately, the class profiles and class descriptions posted on this blog do not constitute complete instruction for teaching the indoor cycling class.

No statement is made to the suitability or otherwise of the indoor cycling profiles presented on this blog. Care must always be taken when riding an indoor cycle. Please, consult your physician before starting an exercise program.

The indoor cycling class profiles presented are not meant to be exercise and/or personal recommendations, but only examples of workouts that the author completed in the past. The owner and authors of these class profiles will not be responsible or liable for any injury, illness or death resulting from the use of the information contained in this article.