SpinDJ

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A quote taken from The Sufferfest. I’m loving that website! How I wish I could be really beating my own ass on the bike. I’m still floored with this foot issue and I’m not happy about it at all. I just feel like I’m completely wasting my time not working out. I can lift weights and put them down but it’s just not the same. I want to put my cycling shoes back on! I want to do jump squats, burpees and get back to my plyometrics training. This is so frustrating!

This is the background image on my iPhone right now. Every time I look at it, I remind myself that I’m one day closer to strapping them back on and hitting the saddle again. That makes me happy!

01. Example – Watch The Sun Come Up (Fred Falke Remix): Strap on your shoes and let’s get this ride going. Fast easy pace to loosen up the muscles and the joints, deep breathing and relaxing the shoulders … pull them away from the ears. After a couple of minutes, add some tension and come out of the saddle for a light standing run, we’re working about 60-70% on the warm up.

02. Darude – My Game: It’s time to get serious! Hit the saddle and pick up the pace! Time trial pace for the first minute then ramp up the tension and come up for a one minute heavy climb out of the saddle. When the music speeds up after that climb, get back into the saddle and time trial pace to the end … I’m talking 110% here people!

03. Ciara – Get Up (Remix): Add tension and come out of the saddle and recover. We are going to play with 30 seconds of 2 count jumps, 15 seconds hovering, 10 seconds seated sprint, 20 second standing recovery. Rinse and repeat but add a little more tension on each cycle.

04. Timbaland – Boardroom (Remix): Slooow it down by turning it UP! Your legs naturally want to move to the beat but the tension keeps getting heavier and heavier. Work it and keep adding on every 30 seconds. The last 30 seconds should be slow motion heavy.

05. Darude – Feel The Beat: Time to flush it out by sprinting at 85% seated. Fast enough to stay out of breath but doable … guess what? Big huge steep hill smack dab in the middle … when the music slows down, you do to. Seated heavy climb but stand when the music starts to speed up and power climb until it builds up before the speed up. Hit the saddle and run it for the last 40 seconds at an all out lung busting pace.

06. Ludacris – Girls Gone Wild (Remix): Your legs should feel like jello right about now. Let’s go back to the windy flats and come out of the saddle. When it slows down, we do too – it’s high speed winds we are pedaling against … (they turn it out, without a doubt) It feels like it will never end but keep pounding on those pedals and adding the tension until it builds up speed and then go for a nice 20 second burn at a lower tension. Recover for 20 seconds and finish it out with some 2 sec jumps.

07. Eve – Tambourine (Remix): Gah! Slow mean killer climbs. You know what to do … settle in and start pounding away. It gets heavier every 45 seconds or so and if you’re feeling sadistic make them do some power climb sets 15/15.

08. Michael Jackson – Smooth Criminal: Back to running against the wind but the punishment isn’t over yet. Annie are you ok? Hear that? SPEED IT UP! 3x total and recovery for the last 20 seconds.

09. David Guetta – Memories (feat. Kid Cudi): What the hell was I thinking? Let’s throw in some HIIT/Tabata rounds. 20/sprint 10/recover 3x and then 30 second recovery before doing it all over again. 20/10 x 3.

10. Janet Jackson – Feedback Remix Feat. Timbaland: Everyone should be feeling pretty tired so let’s do a posture check, roll the shoulders a bit and settle into our last seated climb. Load up the tension every 45 seconds until the end and work hard to keep up with the beat.

11. Darude – Sandstorm: Hmmm … last song for today. What should we do? Tabata training of course! 20/10 twice then one minute to recover then two more rounds of 20/10. Then dig deep, really deep and run your ass for the last 15 seconds.

12. Go Home Productions  – Return of the Weather Episode: Slow it down, re-hydrate and start cooling down.

13. Thievery Corporation – Indra: Stretch and pat yourself on the back for coming out of this alive!

xo

~Gabs

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After weeks and weeks of nursing a sore ankle/foot it has been determined that it is a stress fracture. FML! Just when I was getting into a new exercise program too. It was my fault though … I just don’t know when to stop. I’ve learned my lesson. Now I am off my foot for a minimum of 4-6 weeks. That means no Drill Camp, no spinning, no impact on my poor foot. FML!

This playlist is one of my favourites and I had a blast teaching this class. They were so high-energy that I couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy that I couldn’t be on the bike working my ass off with them too. I’m really looking forward to parking it on the saddle again soon!

A quick word about tension: I never refer to quarter turn, full turn or any of those terms when it comes to tension. Everything is paced to the beat of the music so, if the music slows down it means you have to turn it up until your legs slow down to the beat. If the music speeds up, you do too and depending on the drill, we lower the tension or leave it where it is. Perceived rate of exertion is different for everyone and the bikes are not all at the same level of wear and tear. Judge by how challenging the ride is and how much you have to focus to get through it. If you can have a conversation with your neighbour then you’re probably not working hard enough. If you put in the time, it might as well be worth your while. Your body will thank you for it!

Here’s the class for this playlist:

01. Fatman Scoop – Electro Bounce: Warm with a nice flat run, very little tension. Stretch and get ready to hit the road!

02. Lady Gaga – Bad Romance (Skrillex Remix): After the flat run we come to rolling hills with Lady Gaga. Starting out with a heavy climb to the top out of the saddle. You should really try to pedal to the beat but it should be tough – always lagging behind and heavy feeling on the legs. On the build up to the chorus, park it in the saddle, lower the tension (BUT NEVER TO ZERO!) and run down to the bottom.

03. Timbaland – Give It To Me: Running against the wind with medium tension. Alternate 4 and 2 sec jumps with hovers. For the hovers, DO NOT stand tall … hands on 3 and hips to the back is the only way I will ever let anyone do a hover. Standing upright places too much stress on the knees.

04. David Gahan – Dirty Sticky Floors: We’re on a muddy incline now. Turn up the tension until your legs start to feel heavy … think about trudging through thick mud and start pounding on those pedals. We’re going to do some breakaways on the chorus to try to get out of this muck. On the chorus, hang on to those handlebars and double time the pace on the pedals. This lasts about 10-15 seconds but should leave your legs feeling rubbery. Stand up, recover for 15 seconds, hit the saddle and get ready for the next one.

05. Darude – Feel The Beat: Now we’re out of that nasty mud and onto a nice flat … lower the tension but make sure YOU are still the one moving the pedals. People, if you rely on momentum it’s a waste of time! Alright, settle into 80% of your max and hit the road maintaining the pace. Halfway through we will come across a steep climb, the music stops, you crank up the tension to slow motion levels and come out of the saddle for a slow ass climb. As the music starts to speed up try to speed up your legs too, even with that heavy tension you are still capable of putting out a little more effort. As it starts to build up speed, hit the saddle, lower the tension (BUT NOT TO ZERO!) and pedal your ass off for the remaining 30 seconds!

06. The Big Pink – Dominos: Guess what? We are back to the muddy roads! See the Dirty Sticky Floors drill and repeat here. By the way, I love this song so I tend to sneak it into a few of my playlists.

07. David Guetta – Memories: Whew! Out of the muck and back to the flats. Stand and recover while pacing to the beat. The tension is lower (BUT NOT ZERO!) and the pace is to the beat out of the saddle, a moderately fast run. The chorus speeds the music up so you will speed up your legs to just below full burnout for the duration. This one is longer so we don’t want 100%, we want 90% maintained. Recover and hit it again on the chorus.

08. Ludacris – Girls Gone Wild: Time to slow this run down a little bit. Add more tension to feel like you’re pedaling against a moderate wind. Come out of the saddle and alternate upright runs with 4 sec jumps and hovers.

09. David Guetta – Love Is Gone (The Real Club Sound Remix): Time to run your ass off again. This is a sustained pace from beginning to end, all endurance at a moderately low tension. BUT NOT ZERO!

10. Usher – So Many Girls: Tension up, out of the saddle and climb! Alternate between seated, hovers and standing upright. Add a bit of tension every 45 seconds. Your legs should be feeling like jello. Don’t worry, one more song and you’ll be done!

11. Pitbull – Midnight: Lower the tension a bit, recover while standing and prepare yourself for some in the saddle burns from hell. Breakaways at breakneck speed on each chorus until the end. There should be a huge puddle of sweat under your bike and you should have a huge grin on your face once you finish this beast of a ride.

12. Thievery Corporation – Right Angles (Remix): You made it! Take a couple of minutes to slow down the legs and the breathing. Drink up, stretch and pat yourself on the back!

xo

~Gabs

After losing my entire blog, I have to admit that I really haven’t felt like re-building it again. Google no longer has the cached screen shots so it would mean starting from scratch and I just don’t have the time for that. My playlists are all saved but the class write ups are long gone.

I’m just going to pick up from where it all got deleted.

Here’s one of my March playlists. The only song I couldn’t find was “She Wants to Move” by N.E.R.D. The version I use in my class is the Jason Nevins remix. It’s fast-paced and perfect for Tabata training. My classes love to hate it!

xo

~Gabs