This fun yet powerful theme ride is a special profile that honors all the mothers and mother figures in our lives. The muscular endurance and strength-building objective is achieved by scaling two challenging mountains straddled by fast flats. The carefully chosen playlist is composed of songs with “mother” in the title and/or lyrics. Many of these songs were written by musicians as a tribute to their own mothers. The music will serve to guide riders through the 13-minute and 17-minute climbs.
This metaphorical profile exemplifies two critical times in a mother’s life: bringing a child into her life—whether through marriage, adoption, or live birth—and raising that child. The climbs are steep at times, with varied terrain and rollers, symbolic of the struggle mothers endure and the adversity they face. The flat roads are reminiscent of the passage of time—reaching developmental and life milestones (such as walking, first words, first day of school, graduation, etc.) and how quickly the child grows up. The single recovery, which is strategically placed between the two hills, is a peaceful moment of pure joy. The cool-down and stretch contribute to a final period of poignant reflection where riders look back on the ride to assess their strengths, weaknesses, and areas of growth. Ask riders to focus on the lyrics of these songs that deliver the message of love to, and appreciation for, the women who made us who we are today.
If you’re looking for additional Mother’s Day–themed songs, check out our Mother’s Day bucket playlist (with another Mother’s Day profile to explore).
I am sorry, but the playlist is not what I would play. I always listen to the complete list of songs and most times I like them and feel they will motivate my participants. This play list gave me a headache!
I admit I am quite surprised to hear you found the entire playlist unmotivating and headache inducing. The songs are an eclectic mix from a variety of genres (pop, EDM, R&B, rock, alternative, etc) and span five decades (70s, 80s, 2001-2018). I know this doesn’t help, but I used it two years in a row – with some tweaks of course – and my riders really enjoyed it. Mamma Mia always makes them smile!
So here is our chance to make lemonade out of lemons. While I admit I am bumming about our diverging musical appreciation, when I adopt a new profile, nine times out of ten I swap out at least one song from the playlist based on my musical preferences. What is the preferred genre of you and your riders? Use the provided profile organization, song BPM and length, technique/cueing and choose the songs that will keep your riders motivated and headache free.
Then, let me know how it went. You may even want to serve lemonade to your riders after class.
excellent response, Susan! I’ve had people tell me they didn’t like my song selections for some of my ICA profiles. There is no way we could ever please everyone! Sometimes I feel a twinge of “oh no! how could they not like it??!!” but heck, even happens from some of my riders.
The answer, as you suggested, is to switch out some (or all if you need to) of the songs and use the framework of the profile.
To me, music is like art— completely subjective. I would personally never tell an instructor I didn’t like the playlist. For this reason, I tend to make mine as diverse as possible, as Susan did. Unfortunately there will always be people that complain for the sake of complaining. Ugh ????