Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Can Fit Pro and the song of the weekend

Wow, my legs are still buzzing from Can Fit Pro this past weekend! I taught some hard sessions. Usually I have an easier session in the mix, or I am able to fake it a little bit more, but this time around, it didn't turn out that way. I had two on Friday, three on Saturday (all challenging) and two on Sunday. The final session was called Strategies for Strength, and I was too inspired to fake it! Too into the ride to go easy. Too engaged by the energy of the group to back off. And the music simply rocked...

This session ended at 3:00 and my plane left at 6:30 (international flight) so there was no time for a shower, just a quick wipe down and change out of bike clothes to travel clothes. Both Caroline Dawson (another Spinning MI) and I had to leave for the airport, and fortunately Claudia Lala, a Star 3 Spinning instructor from Argentina living in Toronto gave us a lift to the airport.

Today is my 2nd day of recovery. I was going to go hiking to the top of Vail Mountain, but I think that's too ambitious - it's better to give the legs a little more rest. Heck, getting up the stairs is challenging enough, much less a 7-mile hike straight up!

It will take me a few days to get caught up, but I do want to share my playlists and some other great information from the conference with you, so make sure to check back as I'll be posting them either here and/or over on the Indoor Cycle Instructor site.

But, in the meantime, I think the song of the weekend was a song I used in my last session. I had more people ask about it immediately after class, and had several emails and Facebook messages within a very short time (one within 30 minutes!) asking for the title and where to find it.

So, here it is: it's by Alcatraz and is called Give me Luv (That Kid Chris Tribute Mix). It's 10:28 long - an awesome, awesome climb (ya gotta like electronic music though). The emphasis during this song was that by changing your attitude about climbs, you can change your experience. Hill climbing for some outdoor cyclists is the bane of cycling. Some people H.A.T.E. to climb. It's scary, it's tough, it's challenging, sometimes it hurts, sometimes you fail, it's demoralizing if someone goes way faster than you, etc. Indoors we don't encounter that as much - I think it's because our students always know they have the option of altering the hill simply by turning that resistance knob. But you cannot do that outside!

So if you hate climbing, or you're scared it's going to give you big quads, you must change your attitude about it. Instead of thinking about the hill as an obstacle in your way, think of it as an opportunity. An opportunity to get stronger, to get more fit, to experience and succeed at a challenge, to do something you didn't think you could do. There are so many ways to turn your distaste for climbing into pure love of climbing, and it all starts with you and your mind.

This song is called Give Me Luv, so I asked my class to give me some climbing luv! I asked them to first love themselves, because if you don't, how can you possibly think you deserve to get to the top of that big climb? I also wanted them to love the mountain. "Give Me Luv!" I repeated it several times throughout the long song.

Where can you get this song? There are a ton of versions on emusic, but not this particular fantastic version. The other ones are OK, and if you are a member of eMusic go ahead and d/l a few, but to be honest, if I heard them first, I probably wouldn't be as excited about the song. This version (That Kid Chris Tribute Mix) is really phenomenal. I love the woman's voice in the background saying "Give me Luv" (it's different than on the other versions).

iTunes has it, Napster has it, and if you google it, I think you can find even cheaper versions.

But GET THIS SONG!

And give me some climbing luv!

5 comments:

Shannon said...

Beatport.com has it too. Just got it and I love it!

kelvin newman said...

Kudos, I dunno how intructors keep up doing multiple sessions, especially if you're going for it like you said!

lamspin said...

On iTunes they make you buy the whole album GU10 $9.99 just to get your version of this song! So I am settled with Deep Dish 11hr Remix version 10:14 from eMusic for now. It's good, has slowdown breaks for cueing on incline...mental toughness...
Thanks Jennifer for sharing,
Le

Jennifer Sage said...

At conferences it's a little different - hopefully instructors don't put out this kind of effort on a regular basis. I know I sure couldn't! Whew! I always preface each ride at a conference with the statement that if they are rested, please go for it, but if they have done or are planning on doing a lot of sessions (Spinning or other classes), to please take it easy and "fake it" if necessary. I also really appreciate it when an instructor tells me, "I'm going to take your session, but I'll be going easy and taking notes if that's ok." It's ALWAYS OK!

But sometimes you get so caught up in the energy like I did that final ride. I really was fatigued but I felt so empowered that I think I could have ridden up Mont Ventoux at that moment!

Meg McNeely said...

Thank you again Jennifer for covering all of my sessions for me. I knew how much you wanted to go and am glad you had the opportunity. Thanks SO much and am glad you had a good time!

Meg McNeely