Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Ride through the valleys and hills of Gaelic lands


Top 'O the Mornin' to Ya! One of my favorite holidays and theme rides (after Halloween) is Saint Patrick's Day rides. The Irish just know how to have fun, and their joy of life is so evident in their music. But who am I to create the best Saint Patrick's Day ride for you (although I am a quarter Scottish - does that count)? I have something even better.

Meet Brian Greene, a passionate Spinning instructor from Ireland. Brian was happy to share this great ride and playlist with you on my blog. Brian asked me if I could call it a St Patrick's Day ride as 'Patty' has another meaning over there... (a lump of animal dung! lol :) (Actually around here I believe they say St. Paddy's Day, and the local Irish Pub, Paddy's will be hopping on Thursday night for sure!)

Thank you Brian - Slainte!
This is a journey though the Valleys and Hills of Gaelic lands - The Celts are Rising... Happy St Patrick's Day!
1. Promentory - The Last of the Mohecians 104bpm [Seated Flat] (6:13) first 3:30 mins to continue welcome and set some atmosphere, when fiddle starts (last 2:43 mins) when the ride begins (Sampled from 'The Gael' by Dougie MacLean)


iTunes

2. Music for a Found Harmonium - Patrick Street (Album: Irish Times), 112bpm [Seated Flat / Standing Flat] (2:47). Prepare for the climbs ahead cadence <110
(It would not let me upload the video - make sure to do a search on Youtube - it's a great song).

3. Colossus - Afro Celt Sound System (Album: Capture (1995-2010) CD2: Chorus) [Climb into Running with Resistance into Standing Climb] (6:44)Time for a break half way though... at about 2:30 (2 more climbs ahead both challenging), then back into second climb for last section.

iTunes

4. Coconut Dog / Morning Dew - Solas 112bpm [Flat / Standing Flat] (4:07). To allow some active recovery and to spin the legs after the climb, cadence <110 href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/reunion-a-decade-of-solas-live/id165322364">iTunes

5. Warriors - Ronan Hardiman (Album: Lord of the Dance) [Variable BMP surges Climb]. Careful with this one, it surges particularly at the end - Be a warrior, strong, brave, smart... still a small climb to go next.



iTunes (this and the next song)

6. Victory - Ronan Hardiman (Album: Lord of the Dance) [Variable BMP Climb]. (Continued from last song) We won, some recovery but we have to make it to the top of the hill - work in Seated/Standing climb from about 1 min in [Jumps on a Hill if you really want to push] - we have time after to regroup for the night - Up The Celts :)



7. Busindre Reel - Hevia (Album: Tierra de Nadie / No Man's Land) 108 bpm. We light our fire at the top of the hill and regroup for the night, settle and celebrate. Keep hydrated: Slainte! (Cheers in Irish!)



iTunes

8. Mojave Afro Celt Sound System (Album: Capture (1995-2010) CD2: Chorus) 67 bpm [Climb (option into Running with Resistance) into Standing Climb]. It is worth editing this track to remove the first 3:20 seconds (you can use it at the end during the stretch)... This is our final hill, listen and decided if/how you want to break it up... lots of options... judge the class to see how hard they have been working and coach appropriate intensity and movements... do they want stay with the group of their warrior bothers and sisters, or push ahead and lead the pack... I love this song so much :)



iTunes

9. North - Paul Mounsey (Album: NahooToo)

A melodic end to challenging journey... melt into the rhythm and flow... (non guitar version is more relaxing)



iTunes

10. Use the beginning of Mojave to finish up...

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you the inspiration. Thank you as well for imbedding the videos so that we can get a feel for the profile.

I try to inject a bit of fun and humor into my life so that I never take myself to seriously. That being said all I could think of when I say the pic from The Last if the Mohicans is Daniel Day Lewis standing in front of the raging water telling the young girl,"no matter where you go, no matter where you are I'll find you". I always wondered how could she hear him with that huge waterfall in the background. Think about the next time you see that screen.

Happy St. Patrick's day from a former O'Boyle.

Jennifer Sage said...

Ha! I'll have to check that part out. My husband is always getting mad at me for taking movies too literally and tearing them apart for little things like that. It would be just like me to say, "there's no way in hell she cold ever hear him!"

Oh the Youtube videos almost all got trashed - it took hours to embed them! Blogger didn't like #2 or #4 and would load one, then when I'd try to publish the other, it would get rid of both and leave the HTML, then it would mess up the links to iTunes and only leave the HTML for that too. So I finally stopped trying on those two videos! BUT, thanks for noticing Dane O'Boyle! ;-) I thank Brian for actually sending me the links to every Youtube and iTunes link. If it's not here, then do a search on both those links.

Funny, Blogger didn't like that I also tried to upload a picture of Brian! Oh well Bri, next time! ;=)

BTW,some of these songs are also available on eMusic.

Marco said...

Thanks for sharing, Jennifer and Brian!

Great music and perfect inspiration for a new profile!

Le said...

Thank you Brian for sharing and Jennifer for posting the profile. Definitely, I will use it next year.

I have 5 songs out of your list. Yah, That tells me I am on the right track.

I did a similar profile yesterday--early because I don't have a class on Thurs.
I played along all the awesome pics from this link--it free! Check them out:

http://www.pdphoto.org/PictureHome.php?cid=23&mat=&md=cid

Jennifer, there is one CD I sent you long ago, named Celtic songs I think. Some of Brian's songs are on it, plus other good ones from a band just played in the park that I gotta buy their CDs. You would love those songs too.

Happy St.Patrick's Day to all.

Le said...

Would like to share my playlist as my riders enjoyed & asked me for it too:

Journey/Rivertribe
Celtic Dance/?
Morning Prayer/Rivertribe
The Call to Dance/Leahy
Mission/Leahy
Last of Mohicans
Warriors
The silken Whip/Afro/Further in Time
Whirl-Y-Reel1/Afro/Sound Magic
Cry of Celts/?
Riverdance/?Whirl-Y-Reel2
Inion Daughter/Afro/Sound Magic
Si La Vieve/?
Sula Ruin/?

-Rivertribe/Did You Feel the Mountain Tremble? has a lot of great songs. Check it out.

-Some songs I have (?) because they are songs were given to me so I don't have all info.

Happy searching!

Lizzy said...

Lots of thanks to Brian for a beautiful mix of celtic music & lots of thanks to you, Jennifer, for being so patient in attempting to upload/embed all those videos! You go, girl! :)

Jennifer Sage said...

Thanks everyone for the comments and the music ideas. Have a great St. Patrick's Day!

Unknown said...

My favorite part of the Irish music collection was the video for North by Paul Mounsey when in the bottom right corner about 1:30 in, it said, Visit Scotland. hahaha
Thanks Brian and Jennifer

Jennifer Sage said...

lol! Maybe it heard me mention I was 1/4 Scottish! ;-)