If you’ve ever been frustrated about riders who seem to cheat about the amount of work they are doing, or those who take off way too much resistance when it’s time to ease up, or how to coach your riders to add enough resistance to do appreciable work—and get the results they want…then this is your profile! The audio for this profile is a veritable continuing education session, so get ready to learn a lot!
This is a major overhaul of one of the first profiles that appeared on ICA called Pretend You Have Power. I’ve improved on the descriptions and coaching so that it’s easier to explain to your riders. This is the kind of profile that can help your riders truly understand how power output works even if you don’t have bikes with metrics. It forces them to be accountable for their effort, much like power training does.
The audio is on the longer side, much like a continuing education course. So give yourself some time to listen to it. If you have any questions, as usual, please post them in the comments below.
I teach a 45 and a 60 minute class and just set up and practiced this profile to use next week. I am torn though for the 45 minute class, whether to end on the 4th song, or skip that one and end on the last and longer one. Both are great, each just kind of ends the class on a different note. Any thoughts? And thank you for this profile, like Victoria, we have power meters but not everyone uses them and for sure some of my students cheat. I hope they like this one as much as I do!!
Taught this routine this morning. Really good one! We’ve had power meters for about a year now and most of the instructors don’t utilize it. I’ve been trying to ease my members into using it. Good routine to do that with! I teach 45 minute classes and normally shave down the routines a little but currently, I teach 2 back to back classes w/ a 5 min break in between and the 60 min routines are great for giving those members staying for both classes something to do while the first set of riders are cooling down/stretching. Thanks!
I loved this profile! We are fortunate to have powermeters but it still kept us honest. I did this routine on Wed and my class was challenged. When I taught on Thurs. the class commented that if they went below Wed. baseline they felt they were cheating!! I also love that you give alternative songs. The song “Right here, Right now” Right on!! Thank you!
Jennifer, this was AMAZING! Thank you so much. Although I teach across multiple clubs and all the bikes have power meters, I learned so much just by reading this. I can’t wait to listen to your music suggestions and try this in class.
Again…this was great!!
I LOVE the thunder sound effect idea! Thanks Bill!
Oh yes, granny gears are good….especially as one moves further north in the age bracket! 😉
I remember when I first made the switch to “compact gearing”….not quite a granny gear but still a little respite on the big climbs. It was like buying a few more gears. What a difference that makes, doesn’t it?
Which, in the context of this profile, shows you even more how “locked” in you are to whatever your last gear left is…you can’t just decide to turn it down even more like you can inside, like you can indoors, can you? Heck, I’ve even had a granny gear on really really steep climbs and wished I had JUST ONE MORE!
Looks good. Two comments –
1 – Before I had bikes with power meters, I did my own version of a ‘pretend you have power’ profile. I inserted sound effects from thunder when I wanted the riders to increase power, rather than just my verbal instructions. Cheesy but effective.
2 – In reference to your outdoor hill climbing example, don’t knock ‘granny gears’. Nothing beats 34/34 gearing on a long, steep climb. You’ve seen how much they can help us flatlanders.