I rarely provide the backstory for my rides, because it is rarely necessary.  You can take the profile and the music and get on a bike and have a great workout and all is well.  But this ride is unique, and I can’t explain it without telling you how it came to be.

As is true for many great things in my life, this ride was born on accident and took on a life of its own.  It started out neatly structured, well-planned and thought-out:  a circuit ride combined with a time ladder for increasing sustainability and challenging our abilities to work hard without blowing up…

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This is an out and back that models riding out to the beach, playing in the water for a bit, then riding home. I showed IMAX: Coral Reef on our projector screens while we were riding to add to the fun! I also erred on the side of variety when choosing music, because I have an amazingly disparate group of riders in my new Wednesday 6:30 time slot. A little something for everyone, especially the gents this time.
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After nearly 9 months hiatus, I finally returned to teach my first Spinning class. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to — scheduling just never worked in my favor. I am also fortunate to work in one club where sub requests are snatched up instantly, but the flip side of that is that I have been too slow to pick up extra classes! Eventually (and it was bound to happen sooner or later), the fine gentleman who replaced me in my early morning spot decided to take a vacation, so I stepped in to teach the folks I had the pleasure of leading for almost two years once again. What a great group of folks! They welcomed me back and took away any of the nervousness I was feeling as I got my bike set up. We had a great ride, and, naturally, I want to share it with you!
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This is the third ride in a series that started with my post about a teaching plan I used for the month of January, 3 Weeks of Intervals.  Ride #3, which I affectionately refer to as “Even Stevens” was my favorite ride.  The music was a super-fun mix of Hard Rock and Retro Pop that was inspired by a mix I got from a CD Tree. 

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This is the second in a series of posts of profiles I used for my 3 Weeks of Intervals in January.   The first ride was 1-1 Intervals.  Today, we continue with the “Attack and Sustain” idea, but we double the time spent sustaining.  Much more challenging than Ride #1. 

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This Intervals ride was used as part of the lesson plan I described in an earlier post, 3 Weeks of Intervals.  It is the first ride in a series of increasingly difficult Intervals rides that were designed to get my group into some harder Strength Rides.

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