Sunshine bicycleReader Fern sent me this ride with a note:

  • Hi Cynthia – I have been following your blog for a couple of years. You used to be so great about putting up playlists. [Cynthia: Gaah, the guilt, the guilt!]  I found such great songs and learned a lot about how to coach them. I have been teaching a really awesome ride. I have taught it a few times and for me it is time to retire it. [Cynthia: Nooo! You could easily pull this one out again in a few months.] But I have had amazing feedback from it and I thought I could put it into a format and give something back to you so other people who come to your blog could be helped. I just really wanted to give something back to you. If you don’t want to put it up it is totally cool. But if you want to, [Cynthia: I do!  I do!  It looks like an awesome ride] all you have to do is cut and paste. I see you haven’t put something up in a while and I just wanted to give you something back for all that I have gotten from you. Please feel free to use it if you want. Happy Holidays!

Commit to Change – Finding Inspiration

This ride has 3 climbs. In each climb you will be challenged.

Most of the climb will build to the lactate threshold and we will hold it there building aerobic endurance.  Then you will be challenged to dig deep inside to find more.

Three important things to keep in mind:

1)    Cycling is an aerobic exercise. The more oxygen you inhale, the more you can fuel your working muscles.  Make your breath mindful and breath from your belly.

2)    Mostly we think about putting resistance on.  On this ride we are going to have some challenges where we are forced to decide how much resistance to take off.

3)    Have fun. Make it your journey. Anytime you need to back off or change something it is totally ok.  Each rider must listen to their own bodies.

This is what I use as a reference for Rate of Perceived Effort

[Fern sent me a fancy graphic that I loved and totally wanted to steal, but it did not like being cut and pasted into WordPress.  I am not doing it justice but here’s the text:]

100%     Maximum effort

90%        Very hard

80%        Hard

70%        Somewhat hard

60%        Fairly light

50%        Light

40%        Very light

30%

20%

10%

Warm Up

          Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine in (70-90 RPM) 4:52 –Peace People – Seated, Position 1 –  Warm Up – This is the first song to get your legs moving. It’s important to take time to let your muscles warm and your joints loosen.  Pick a cadence between 70 and 90 rpm that works for you.  Add 4 increases of resistance.  Make them small changes, but feel the difference through the pedals.  Increases at 1:00, 1:55, 2:51 and 3:25.  At 3:25 stand in position 2.  What is your inspiration to get on the bike?  What brings you here?  Fitness? Training for a race? Burn some calories?  Fit into a new outfit?  Fun?  Your friend dragged you?  Just think about it.

Hold Resistance through song 2.

2)    Castle of Glass (108 RPM) 3:25 – Linkin Park – Seated, Position 1 – Fast Flat – Start out at 100 RPM – this is the first opportunity to decide about resistance.  Take the first 30 seconds to let your body adapt to the speed.  Then after 30 seconds, decide if you can maintain the speed.  Adjust if you need to.  There are 2 changes. The first change at 1:30 increase cadence to 110.  The second change at 2:15 – Stand up – it is ok to let your cadence decrease but try to keep it as high as you can.  Keep your effort up. Option to increase resistance at 2:40. At 3:25 Have a seat – position 1 and slow your legs.

Building to First Climb


3)    Stay the Night (90 RPM) 3:32 – James Blunt – Seated Position 1 – Seated/Standing Intervals – There are 3 intervals where you stand.  Make 3 increases of resistance along the way. We are building to the first climb.  Increase resistance just before the interval and then stand for the duration of the interval, sit at the end.  Intervals 20/20/30 from 1st (:50-1:10) 2nd (1:50-2:10) 3rd (2:50-3:20)


Climb 1

4)    My Love is Not Blind (Vocal) (65-80 RPM) 6:25- Margaret Grace – Seated Position 1 – Climb – Build resistance to the lactate threshold at 8/10. You know you will be at 8/10 because we are going to increase our speed for 20 seconds.  You will know if you are 8/10 because when we increase our cadence for 20 seconds you will feel mild hyperventilation. You will have taken one foot over the line.  Get to 8/10 by 1:36.  From (1:36-1:54) increase cadence to 80 rpm.   Check in.  Did the increase in cadence cause your breathing to become anaerobic?  If not, add some resistance.  Hold 80 rpm once more for 1:40 from (3:06-4:55).  Focus on breathing – staying in control of your breath.

Hill continues – stand in position 2 at the end 6:25

One Thousand Suns (70 RPM) 8:01 – Chicane – Standing Position 2/3 – Working on aerobic endurance stay at 8/10 for the entire song.  Once you are settled into the beat ride in position 3 as long as you can. This is a great song with a really catchy beat. Don’t need to say much here…let the riders have their own space.  Remind them to breath, to stand or sit as they would like but to hold the effort of 8/10 building aerobic endurance.

Hard change comes at 8:01 at the end of the song.  You are going to stand and increase cadence to 90 rpm.  This will be challenging. 

5)    Torn (90-95RPM) 4:05 – Natalie Imbruglia – Standing Position 2 Run.

Take 30 seconds to let your body settle and then decide how much resistance you should take off.  Stay standing with as much resistance as you can.  at around 2:00 ask – Did you take too much resistance off?  A break is coming in 2 mins, are you working as hard as you want to?  As hard as you can?  Do you think you could work just a little harder?  Earn the break?  If you turn the resistance up, you can always take it down.

Recovery

6)    Brother Down (100 RPM) 4:24 – Sam Roberts – Seated fast flat recovery.   Let your heart rate fall. Don’t drop down more than 7/10, the bottom of your aerobic effort.  Think about your breathing, breath deep.  Think about your position on the bike, soften your upper body, smooth pedal strokes.  As you start to recover, add resistance on.  Make sure you are connected to the road beneath you.  Add 3 turns 1:30, 2:30, 3:45.

Climb 2

7)    Get Lucky (60 RPM) 4:08 – Daft Punk.  Power Burst Jumps – Seated/Standing Position 2.  Cyclists normally stay in the saddle.  They come out of the saddle for a reason.  Usually to get some power to speed up or when they are climbing.  Power Burst Jumps are done as follows.  1) Start with enough resistance on the bike to feel like you are working at 7.5. 2) Stand and accelerate your cadence, as much as you can. 3) Slow your cadence down back to 60 RPM. 4) Gently lower down into the saddle.  You will feel your heart rate increase and your quads start to burn.  Continue doing Power Burst Jumps to the end of the song.  Increasing 3 resistance turns along the way. Cueing – Stand, Burst your legs, get some power, slow the legs, gently slide back to the saddle.  Check in along the way and offer any rider the chance to sit one or two out if it is too much. At the end stay standing.

8)    Feel the Love (feat. John Newman( ( 55-90 RPM) 4:05 – Rudimental – Standing Heavy Position 2 Climb – Stand and increase the cadence [Cynthia: I think Fern means resistance here?] as much as possible to slow the legs down to 55 RPM  from (0-1:04).  From 1:04 to 2:34 increase the cadence to 90 RPM decreasing as much resistance as you need but keeping as heavy as you can.  Match the cadence at 90 RPM and hold.  A good break comes at 2:34 – 3:22.  Sit and slow the cadence down.  Recover  50 seconds  – Big deep breaths.  Don’t touch the resistance.  At 3:30 ask could you turn up the resistance just a bit.  One Power Burst to Finish (3:22 – 3:50) Stand and go as fast as you can.

Recovery

9)    Suddenly I See (80/100 RPM) 3:22 – KT Tunstall – Seated/Standing  Position 2 Intervals – Recovery and then 3 intervals 20/20/45 increasing resistance before each one building back to Climb #3. 1st (0:40-1:00) 2nd (1:35-1:55) 3rd (2:33- 3:12)

Climb 3

10)Zocalo (68 RPM) 8:32 – Armin van Buuren – Seated/Standing Climb – Change positions as desired.  Work to effort.  Building resistance from 0 to 1:53.  By 1:53 you want to be at 8/10 perceived effort.  At 1:53, turn the resistance until pedals start to slow just a little and stand.  Hold 80% (1:53 – 5:13) working on aerobic endurance.  2 ½ mins from the top ask for every bit of effort.  Come back to your inspiration. Why you are riding.  Your body is tired but you want to push through the fatigue and ask yourself for more.  Everything you have.  Don’t leave thinking, I could have worked harder. Know, it’s going to be worth it because you did your best.  Keep your thoughts positive and find your inspiration.  Ask for commitment.  at 5:13 add resistance, add speed, add whatever you can to get to 100%.  Don’t talk too much, just count the time.  Let the music move the riders.

Cool Down

11)Say Something (feat. Christina Aguilera) 3:49 – A Great Big World

12)Stay (feat. Mikky Ekko) 4:01 – Rihanna

       Thank you so much Fern, for sharing this ride.  I love the eclectic music – any ride that veers from cheeky disco to Linkin Park to James Blunt, R&B inspired and Top 40 radio hits gets my vote.  I like your profile of three hills with flats, power burst jumps (they are hard, oh so hard) and I like that you included your coaching notes.  Happy holidays!

       Readers, I have three rides of my own in the hopper.  Should get them all posted within the next week (promise!)  Look for one more post before year-end: my sixth annual Top 25 Indoor Cycling Tunes of 2013.  Want to vote for your favourite tune?  Leave it in a comment.

S

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