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In: Free Articles, New Instructors, Physiology, Heart Rate & RPE
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This is a discussion of a Joe Friel article on a common misinterpretation of a heart rate response to training. DON’T LET THIS BE YOU! Make sure you understand how your riders’ heart rates respond to training! In this post is a list of resources and articles (some free, some books, some premium articles) to help enhance your understanding of heart rate. This is important EVEN if you don’t teach with a HR monitor. It also helps your coaching using RPE and optimizes your use of power training. Read more…

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In: Music Resources
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If you are planning on doing a Giro d’Italia stage, throwing a little Italian pop, hip-hop, a soundtrack classic, or a fun cultural tune will make your ride even more authentic and exciting! Here is a bucket playlist of 175 Italian songs to spice up your Giro playlist. These also work well for an around-the-world theme ride. Read more…

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In: Free Articles, Programming and Management
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Want to organize a ride for victims of the Nepali earthquake? Here is a checklist on how we created a successful fundraiser in three weeks for both the tsunami disaster of 2004 and Katrina in 2005. Whether you plan on a small event for just one class, or want to spearhead a larger more coordinated event several hours long, this checklist will give you some ideas on what to do.Read more…

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In: Communication and Presentation Skills, Free Articles, General Coaching, Instructor Issues & growth
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Alisha Shulter is an indoor cycling instructor who recently taught her first class off the bike. But, she hadn’t planned on doing it that way. The results, however, were magical and taught her a lot about herself and her students. She wrote this blog post about it and gave me permission to share it with you here at ICA.Read more…

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In: Instructor Issues & growth, Software Demos - Tutorials
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Last week I posted a video of my iTunes filing system, a result of years of trial and error to find the best way to organize and categorize songs so that making playlists for profiles will be much easier. Here are some close-up screenshots of my category folders and playlists. In addition to organization, this will give you ideas for naming your profiles as well as many fun theme ride ideas!Read more…

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In: Communication and Presentation Skills, Free Articles, Instructor Issues & growth, New Instructors
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This article on managing a participant’s bad attitude by guest contributor Nancy Korf is very relevant to any type of group fitness class. It is a situation that many of us have encountered in our cycling classes so we wanted to share it with you. There are some real gems in the advice she gives here!Read more…

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In: Free Articles, Music Resources
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I have a 75-year-old rider named Sally who mentioned she didn’t know any of my music (even though I play a lot of classic rock). So I came to class equipped with a song she was sure to know, and it brought a huge smile to her face—as well as my other riders! It’s the perfect beat for a flat road. Do you have any special classics you play for your older riders?Read more…