Here is a bucket playlist of over 180 tracks about shining lights, turning on/up the lights, or lights out. Use them for your Winter Solstice profile or create an entirely new theme ride playlist at any other time of the year.Read more…
This interval profile is based on the concept of negative splits, a training and racing strategy that involves completing the second half of a training effort or race faster than the first. This profile uses song pairs where we set a baseline in the first song and then we “beat” the baseline in the second song. Read more…
This replay of my virtual ride practice session will be up for 48 hours only, so I hope you can ride to it! Read more…
In the midst of the craziness we currently find ourselves, why not an entire playlist about things that make you happy? I put some of my favorite happy songs into a profile of three rounds of fast flats to climbs. I also recorded a virtual version of this ride—enjoy! Read more…
One of our more popular series on ICA is a set of articles with various strategies for inspiring your students up long climbs. The series was called Strategy for Strength, and is one of the favorites we’ve done on ICA. One of the strategies was to inspire students to come up with a mantra that they repeat over and over to themselves as they climb. Of course, mantras aren’t just for climbing. I was inspired recently to come up with some for sustained tempo pace.Read more…
I put together this ride for instructors to use as a first class after studios and clubs open back up following the coronavirus lockdown. All of the songs are chosen to make you smile and to reflect; some are there to inspire you to push harder; some may even bring a tear to the eye. You are going to have a wide range of fitness levels when you first come back after many months off, so this profile provides ample modifications for the varying fitness levels in your class.Read more…
Meet Jennifer Kaplan, owner of the PeloDog Indoor Cycling studio in Avon, Colorado. Like most studios around the world, she had to shut down in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. I interviewed Jen about the meticulous steps she has taken to reopen the studio to ensure the health and safety of her riders, her instructors, as well as herself and her family. Read more…
Every instructor should have a large pool of short recovery songs to choose from. There shouldn’t exist a profile that doesn’t have a need for a mental and physical break somewhere in the profile (except perhaps an endurance-intensity training session.) Here are 3,000 songs that work perfectly for your recovery tracks, broken into two large bucket playlists. One is for short songs and one is for when you need some longer (over 3:15) songs for easier segments.Read more…
Here is everything you need to perform two FTP tests with confidence: the ramp (MAP) test and the 20-minute test, including how to coach and motivate your riders to stay committed and how to add the most motivating and energetic music possible. You’ll learn not just the theory but also the practical skills to leading these two important functional assessments. If you have a bike, you can ride along with the two videos and test your own FTP. If you don’t have a bike, that’s OK; just imagine yourself at a conference session and view them with pen and paper in hand.Read more…
In part 4 of this series I gave you critical information about how to cue resistance so that students find the amount of load or gear they need to meet the goals you set for that segment of your profile. In part 5, we manipulate the variables of that vital equation. I also give you 7 drills that you can use to create your own awareness exercises, solidifying the concept in your riders’ minds.