I’ve got plenty of holiday profiles from past years for you to select from, so this year I wanted to add a different twist to our typical December profile. Shari Miranda, who has contributed an awesome profile in the past (and is the esteemed ICA editor and indoor cycling coach extraordinaire) told me about her Winter Solstice profile and I just knew we had to share it with everyone at ICA.
The winter solstice, December 21, is the shortest day of the year, and is the time at which the sun appears at its lowest altitude above the horizon at noon. The great news about December 21 is that then the days get longer and longer every single day until the summer solstice in June. If you are like most people, you are ready for more light, more sunshine!
That is what this profile is all about. The songs used all pertain to light or sunshine. Shari has a fabulous playlist, and has included a list of additional songs on the same theme if you want some other options.
This ride is perfect for those who may not want to teach a “Christmas” or “Holiday” themed ride this month, but still want to celebrate the season. The profile is versatile as it can be taught anytime during the winter, perhaps during a particular cold spell where you live, when everyone is wishing for more light and warmth from the sun. In that case, don’t call it a Winter Solstice ride, call it a Bring On the Light ride!
Note: The version of CeeLo’s “Bright Lights Bigger City” that Shari references is not available on Spotify, so you may need to rework the timing of the surges.
Also, if you like an interactive class, be sure to check out this article called 10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Winter Solstice. You can add some of this trivia about the solstice to your cueing.
This is an annual profile for me as I love to celebrate moving past the shortest day of the year and being one day closer to SUMMER!
I have a couple of songs to add to the Light/Light It Up…playlist:
Little Lighter – Ripe
Red Light, Green Light – Duke Dumont
In the house of Stone and Light – Martin Page
Light Up the Night – The Black Eyed Peas
Light On – David Cook
In the Shadow, In the Light – Enigma
Chase the Light – Jimmy Eat World
Thanks for this Susan, because I have an hour class to teach and needed the extra music! 🙂
These are great—I’ve added them to my playlist of “Light.” I LOVE that In the House of Stone and Light. I’m making it my warm-up for this profile this week. Thanks.
Shari, I used this today and the class loved it. They even asked that we use it outside of the solstice. Nicely done!
Wow–this makes me feel so good! 🙂
I taught this ride this morning , it was fantastic I called it the pre winter solstice ride. Wow it was so challenging we all loved it .
Thank you Shari for creating it .and once again thank you Jennifer for this amazing community ????
Hooray! 🙂
Very nice again I can’t thank everyone enough for your insights to creating effective profiles.
Glad you liked it! 🙂
An update for 2014: Joe Cocker just passed away, and his song “Long As I Can See The Light” makes a wonderful cool-down. Consider adding it to your playlist!
This is great! Thanks for telling your experience, Laura!
I did this ride on saturday – 21st for an hour….i usually tell the class that is supposed to be 45 minutes I am extending to an hour and advise them if they want to leave at 45 minutes to take some time at 40 minutes to cooldown, but this time I just kept on going and it must have been a christmas miracle because no one looked at the clock and they all made the hour ride…..the music was great and everyone enjoyed it…thanks for the great music and profile….happy new year….
I just found another great song for this profile, Moving Into Light, by Black Fras, 5:12 min. At 128 bpm it’s perfect for a climb.
It will be in my playlist for tomorrow. I’ll report back how it goes!
Phew! I did this ride today and wanted to mention–when you get to “Everlasting Light” (a flat road), you and your participants may find you need a slightly lower intensity than is written. We were pretty winded after passing 3 riders on a hill, so I changed the flat to a moderate effort up to borderline uncomfortable (below threshold). A bit of a break before the hard surges that follow!
Melissa had a great comment on the Facebook post about this profile, adding that the song Bryon just recommended in the Friday Favorites would be beautiful for the stretch at the end. I concur! No words, but, as Bryon put it, hauntingly beautiful and deeply moving.
https://indoorcyclingassociation.com/friday-favorites-deeply-moving/
Can you tell me what song this was? The link no longer works and I am teaching on the Solstice using this profile.
Thanks for pointing that out! I have fixed the link, it should work now. The song is called Dem Worlds, by Emika.
A note about where to find the songs: Pretty much everything should be available on iTunes or Amazon, but a couple of them are different.
Bright Lights, Bigger City (Soap Disco Remix): Here is the SoundCloud link; scroll down a bit and notice they offer an alternate option to download from MediaFire: https://soundcloud.com/trydiscosoap/cee-lo-green-bright-lights-bigger-city-soap-disco-remix
Jingle Jane: This is from one of the Very Bootie Christmas mashups—Google it!)
Thanks Polly! Adding it now!
No Solstice ride would be complete without Jethro Tull’s “Ring Out Solstice Bells” from their Christmas Album.