Posts from — December 2007

If you are looking for Christmas music to play over the next couple of days, I recommend the Lonely Siberian Winter mash by DJ John.  You can also download a whole CD of Christmas Mashups called Santastic II: Clausome.  Mashups are a fun way to add a little Christmas Magic to your classes without going all out on the Bing Crosby. 

 Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!

update:  The playlist has been added to Napster!   Songs will have to be burned and edited to match these times, otherwise, just jump from song to song when necessary. 

Typically, and intervals ride goes something like this:  Elevate your heartrate up as high as you can stand it; suck it up and fight through until the instructor says stop; Collapse into the saddle and gasp frantically as you try to chug water and hope that there aren’t any more.  Or, at least that’s what they look like quite frequently in classes I’ve taken and taught before.  While there is some merit to the usual formula, the emphasis is frequently placed on the “Hard, Harder, Hardest” parts of the ride, with little to no attention given to the recovery portion.  That’s not surprising — most folks don’t have to be encouraged to slow down and take it easy for a few minutes.  However, for this intervals ride, borrowing from the Active Intervals Profile posted on Pedal-On as originally presented by Master Instructor Luciana Marcial-Vincion at the DCAC conference, we place the emphasis not on the hard work, but on the smooth transition into recovery.  Our goal is to improve our fitness in a way that provides us with the shortest recovery time possible, leaving us ready and eager for the next interval to begin. 

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You’ve been given this advice many times from me, from your Directors, from other sources….  If you need more bodies in your classroom, go out and pull them off of the cardio equipment!  Talk to the folks in the weight area and drag them in.  Make an announcement on the PA system — that’ll pack the room!

I laugh out loud even as I write these pieces of advice because I know exactly the thoughts and feelings I had at the prospect of trying to persuade someone already into their workout to stop what they are doing and come into my class.  My thoughts amounted to something like, “#@&*#@ That!”  Yours do too, I’m sure, unless you happen to be one of those unique and quite amazing individuals who could sell running shoes to a paraplegic.  In this post, I’m going to attempt to help you find real ways you can talk to strangers and get them to take your class.

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