11.25 Spinning Profile – Interval Ride

With the holiday, I’m only teaching twice this week – once at each location.  This was my first attempt at creating a “ride profile” with a purpose and not just a playlist.  It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be!

The profile for this class was an “interval ride”.  I went with this because I think it’s going to be the easiest type of profile to put together and it’s probably what most people are used to in any class.  You work hard, you recover, you work hard, you recover.  Instead of just including sprints into the workout though, the work intervals are created by changing position, resistance, cadence or all three!

Warm-Up – Conga by Gloria Estefan

• Explain the ride
  • The goal is recovery, not how hard you work.
  • The class is about burning calories and is more intense.
  • All ratios are 1:1 with exception to the tabata, which is 2:1
• Get heart rates up to 65% maximum heart rate

Cadence and Resistance Intervals in the Saddle – Still Into You by Paramore

• Get heart rates up to 75% maximum heart rate on work phase.
  • Light/Medium Resistance [:00 – :45]  > Medium Resistance [:45 – 1:10]
  • Light/Medium Resistance [1:10 – 1:52] > Medium Resistance [1:52 – 2:18]
  • Light/Medium Resistance [2:18- 2:58] > Medium Resistance [2:58-3:32]

Standing Flats and Inclines – Black Betty (Remix) by Die Hoerer & Atomic Playboys

• Get heart rates up to 80% maximum heart rate on work phase.
  • Light Resistance seated [:00 – 1:27] add resistance before moving > Medium resistance standing [1:27 – 1:51]
  • Medium/Heavy Resistance [1:51-2:20] > Standing Run [2:20 – 3:03]
  • 3rd position Heavy Resistance [3:03 – 3:51] > 3rd position Run [3:51 – 4:21]
  • 3rd position Heavy Resistance [4:21 – 5:20]

Slight Incline – My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark by Fall Out Boy

• Get heart rates up to 80% maximum heart rate on work phase.
  • Saddle with light resistance [:00 – :50] > Push cadence! [:50 – 1:15]
  • Medium resistance [1:15 – 1:47] > Push cadence! [1:47 – 2:12]
  • Medium resistance in 3rd [2:12 – 2:32] > Push cadence! [2:32 – 2:58]
  • Medium resistance in 3rd [2:58 – 3:08]

Heavy Climb – Holy Grail by Jay-Z

• Get heart rates up to 85% maximum heart rate on work phase.
  • Medium resistance in saddle [:oo – 1:19] > 2nd position [1:19 – 1:59]
  • 2nd position Medium/Heavy resistance but slower [1:59 – 2:39] > Heavy resistance [2:39 – 3:19]
  • 3rd position [3:19 – 3:57] > Saddle with same resistance [3:57 – 4:51]
  • Medium resistance [4:51 – 5:38]

Tabata – Jai Ho Tabata by iSweat Fitness Music

• Get heart rate up to 92% maximum heart rate on work phase.
  • 8 sets of :20 hard :10 recovery

Cool down – Gold by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

• Slowly bring heart rate down and stretch

So the ride sounds fun on paper.  It sounds fun typing it out.  It sounds fun thinking about it.
It wasn’t fun to read the paper.  It wasn’t fun instructing it halfway through.  And it wasn’t a very solid class, or so I felt.

I didn’t get any feedback afterwards and I threw it out there at the end of class to come talk to me after, feedback is good, thanks for hanging in there and trying something new, etc. but I had no takers.  I just didn’t feel like the class really got it.  And that’s okay, I’m going to keep working towards it.  I asked if anyone ever wore a heart rate monitor or owned one – one girl raised her hand.  She wasn’t even a regular.  In fact, I’m fairly certain it was her first class with me.

Heavy sigh.

It’s hard to instruct based on heart rate when nobody has a clue about heart rate during exercise.  I tried my best, but I stumbled a lot.  It’s hard to read my writing in the dark and I was far too detailed.  I just lost my entire mojo.  I’m not giving up yet, though!  I think I might buy a cheap non-chest strap heart rate monitor (if anyone has any recommendations on this, let me know) and bring it to class for a new person to check out each class and hopefully motivate people to want to buy them.  Plus, if I show them how easy it is to use a $20-$30 watch, that’s another perk.

Better luck next time…