Why I live here - the 2nd most active in the United States!

Colorado has been found to be the most active State in the US of A, and my county, Eagle County, CO, is the 2nd most active county in the country! (Ha! Take that Aspen! Even more than you!)

I knew there was a huge reason why I live here! :)

It also makes me realize even more that when I am referring to my Spinning® classes and students, we have a particular market demographic, and that what I experience here is not necessarily "reality" everywhere else. No, not everyone in my class is an athlete, or even a skier or cyclist, and some are even a little overweight. But on average I bet our students in classes here are more fit than in many parts of the country or world. And they plan their week around being outdoors, and won't come to class if it's a powder day (translation for you non-skiers: LOTS of fresh new powder snow!) And the women don't generally put on makeup to come to class (unless they already have it and come straight from work. My 6a.m. crowd - no way). In the 15 years I've taught indoor cycling here, I can probably count the women with freshly applied makeup on my two hands - and most were probably from out of town visiting this destination resort. That's Colorado.

In the Spinning® orientation, one of the Four P's of class design is know your Population! Each one has its specific needs.

Because I recognize the difference in where I teach, I try to take that into consideration when discussing indoor cycling students. Instead of assuming everyone experiences what we have here, or that all your students are like my students, I try to draw on my 14 years of traveling around to over 100 clubs in North America (and a few international destinations), certifying and educating thousands of instructors and presenting at 20 conferences over my career as a Master Instructor/coach. I've also got a few "go-to" instructors and Master instructors who teach in vastly different markets whose brain I can pick if I need to explore how to, say for example, work with an inner city crowd, a room of 70 bikes filled with Type A personalities or suburban housewives.

I am always grateful to learn more from you guys and the unique experiences and situations you encounter with your demographic.

What if a student took over YOUR class?

No comment needed! Enjoy...

Eating before early morning hard classes

I teach twice a week at 6 am, and it's a 30+ minute drive to get there, so I get up at 4:50 am on those mornings. I don't do well on early breakfasts - it's just not comfortable putting food in my system that early. I would rather not eat (and sometimes I still don't) but I do understand the importance of eating something before exercising after a long fast, so I usually nibble on a piece of toast or bread, and maybe a banana or a little yogurt. In a rush I'll eat half an energy bar, but most have too much sugar for me (even the low sugar ones).

I've often stressed to my class the importance of eating something beforehand, but I know some of them live very close to the club (it's a neighborhood community club) and they were probably in bed only 15 minutes before!

If I am planning a hard class, at threshold or above, I think it's even more important to eat something. Last week I did a threshold field test, with a 20-minute hard sustained effort (plus an initial 5-min hard effort in the warm-up). In their preparation materials prior to the field test was the suggestion that they should be well hydrated and fueled prior to class, even if they had to set an alarm to get up earlier just to nibble on an energy bar. (Note: this is a 12-week periodized cycling clinic, so I have the same students every class and I send them a coaching email weekly with training tips and that week's goals).

One of my students emailed me afterward that she felt nauseous and light-headed after the field test. There could be several reasons for this, including factors such as illness or fatigue. It could also be because we've only done minimal higher intensity work, and certainly it was the first time we spent that much time at that intensity since the first field test 7 weeks ago. I don't believe in throwing a threshold field test at them after 6 weeks of base building in zones 2 and 3, so last week we did some sub threshold intervals, up to about 2-3 beats below LT.

She is a fit woman who does a lot of skiing and snowshoeing (which are higher intensity sports here in the mountains), so more likely it was either not eating, or what she ate. She said she ate toast with peanut butter about a half an hour before the class. Peanut butter has protein, which is a good thing, but for me, anytime I've tried it that early in the morning, I didn't feel well during my ride either. She said she would try something else for our next field test.

I'm curious. For those of you who teach or train early in the morning, what do you eat, and how early before your workout do you have to eat? Have there been things you've tried that have proven not to work for you? Does anyone have a problem with peanut butter early morning, but not at other times? I'm sure there are those of you who do not eat that early before class. It's probably OK for a more aerobic-intensity ride (as long as you eat soon afterward), but do you feel a difference during higher intensity rides if you've not eaten anything prior?

Thanks for your comments. I might try to get an exercise nutritionist to look at these questions and give some advice that we can all benefit from!

Can Indoor Cycling help save the Middle East?

I bet that title caught your eye!

I have some fun stats to share with you, and one one of them has me perplexed, fascinated and curious all at the same time. One of the very fun things about blogging platforms is that they provide some very interesting stats.

First, in just 5 days since coming back to writing this blog (since March 2) I've had almost 1,000 unique page views. Pretty cool, since I've really only mentioned it on Facebook and Pedal-On and to some friends. Gotta love the power of the internet!

In my stats, I get a listing of the total number of visits from the Top 10 countries in the world. The top four countries that have visited are very understandable: the United States, Canada, The UK and Australia.

The 5th highest number of visits is from China! Also very interesting, but still not the really curious one....

Then we've got Switzerland and Ireland. Greutzi and cheers to you!

But #8 has me bowled over. The 8th largest number of page views has come from Iran! Iran? Wow! If you are from Iran, I want to hear from you - I would love to highlight where you are teaching (or taking) classes, and the unique things that you encounter. Of course, we can do it anonymously and I won't share anything you don't want shared, but I bet readers would love to know more about an indoor cycling instructor (or enthusiast) from Iran. Heck, maybe through fitness and the joy of indoor cycling we can assist the Middle East in its woes! Maybe if more of the oppressive regimes are overthrown, societies will be free to bring in more ways to stay fit and healthy, such as Indoor Cycling. ;-)

Following Iran in the top 10 are The Netherlands and Germany. Bedankt and Danke!

Back when I was actively writing on this blog two years ago, it reached instructors in over 90 countries - I'd love to see it get back there! Please send this link to your indoor cycling and Spinning® friends around the world.

Email me at jennifer@vivatravels.com if you are an instructor or enthusiast from a unique country dealing with some unique situations (such as social or cultural) where you teach or take classes. I'd love to hear from instructors in China as well. I don't think I'm only speaking for myself, but I imagine for us Westerners, we are entrenched in our way of doing things and it's fun to see how other cultures approach fitness, and especially, indoor cycling. I've always had a passion for all things foreign, travel and languages (went to International Business School in the early 1990's and lived in France) so this is yet another very cool way to reach out to other nations - through Indoor Cycling!

I have to say, Korea has me a little worried though. They have an indoor cycling championship which includes acrobatics and dancing on the bike (do a search on Youtube and you'll see what I mean). Any one reading from Korea? Can you assure me that it isn't like that in the regular classes, even in a very modified form, and that there are some facilities that practice safe and effective indoor cycling based on sound training principles?

Don't you just love the global reach of Indoor Cycling? Uniting all cultures through our passion for fitness and riding a bike that goes nowhere! :-)

EDIT: Curious note. Those stats listed above are just for this week. When I look at the Stats for the month - which since I've only been back now 5 days, include mostly hits from Google searches for indoor cycling and Spinning ® information, the Top 10 list is: The US, Canada, The UK, Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Russia, Ukraine, China and Australia. And from the entire life of this blog, Russia, The Ukraine, Denmark and India are in the top 10! Someone had told me recently that Spinning® is taking off big time in India, so it's no wonder.

Heart rate, recovery and aging

One of the most beneficial aspects of using a heart rate monitor regularly is to be able to track your body's response to exercise over time. Your heart rate is a glaring in-your-face notification of what is going on in your body - but its value is of little use if you don't pay close attention to it. Some people just see a number, and don't put two and two together if that number doesn't make sense in the big picture of what they normally see for a given perceived exertion.

I have a personal training client, Alex, who recently purchased a Spinner® bike for home. I also ride outside with her in the summer, coaching her on technique. She has a bicycle tour planned to Europe this summer, so I will be working with her on increasing her endurance and hill climbing ability. Her challenge is higher cadences, and outside her preferred cadence on the flats is mid 70's rpm. I know she will have less muscular fatigue if she could raise her preferred cadence by 5-10rpm, so this is what I've been working on with her indoors. You should know that Alex is 72 years young and is very active.

Just recently I have been having her focus on pedal stroke technique drills as well as cadence drills from 70 to 90rpm. This post is not about those drills or their effectiveness - although I can write another post about that because I have been successful at raising both her and her husband's comfort level with higher cadences by teaching them to pedal more effectively. Rather, I want to tell you about her experience this past week with her heart rate response to exercise.

I had planned to take her through the cadence drills. After she warmed up, I noticed she seemed to be working very hard and was breathing very heavy. Her cadence was about 70rpm. I looked at her monitor expecting it to be pushing 140 judging by her breathing (Alex's threshold is 142). But her heart rate was only 113!

I asked her what her perceived exertion was. She said 6 (just below "hard"). Hmmmm, that's up there. So I suggested she try a lower resistance and higher cadence. There was no change in her perceived exertion, breathing rate or her heart rate. Nothing she did raised her heart rate (even standing up, which normally spikes it) or lowered her perceived exertion relative to that HR of 113. She was flat out tired.

After only ten minutes I said "Stop! This is not the day for you to ride!" She had been cross-country skiing several days in a row, plus pilates twice a week, plus traveling the week before with not one day of rest. (That is kind of a typical week for her, often with a snowshoe thrown in). Also, she hadn't been sleeping well and felt a deep fatigue even going up stairs. This was a Tuesday and she had a cross-country ski lesson on Thursday that she was looking forward to.

So I put the nix on the cycling and told her to completely take Wednesday off - NO EXERCISE! And if she still was that fatigued I suggested she pass on the skiing on Thursday as well. (Knowing her, she wouldn't do that - she's pretty committed to her skiing and to constantly moving).

This can happen to anyone who is very active. The heart rate response to doing too much physical exercise or to excessive stress without sufficient recovery can be either a suppressed heart rate (as in Alex's case) or one that is much higher than it usually is for a given perceived exertion. Everyone needs rest and recovery. If you balance hard days with easy days you are much more likely to avoid a response like Alex's.

But I want to make another point here about age. After age 40, the human body simply cannot do what it used to do. It's a slow steady decline. I don't mean that in any kind of pessimistic attitude like "it's all downhill after 40"! But most people do not want to admit that they can't do what they did before. Heck, I like to pretend I'm still in my 30's! ;-) But I noticed a tremendous difference as I moved into and through my 40's in my ability to put in multiple days of exercise. This need for rest and recovery is even more pronounced every decade.

It's just reality, and we can't ignore it!

Chances are, you have a few people in your classes that are over 40, right? Over 50? How about into the 60's and 70's? Make sure to stress the importance of recovery to them even more than your younger population. You don't have to directly address them (unless you feel very comfortable with them); as you are well aware, some people are quite sensitive to the fact that they are aging. Alex can get very depressed when she focuses on her inability to do as much as she used to do. That's when I try to focus her on the fact that she is so much more fit and able than 99% of the population her age. When she is rested, she realizes she is able to enjoy her cycling and skiing and snowshoeing and golfing much more than when she is not rested.

I know my situation is unique with Alex, being able to train her one on one in cycling and Spinning and being able to see her HR response and to ask her immediate questions about what she's been doing. Of course, this is unlikely in a class situation, especially if it is a large class. But some of the things I learn from working with Alex and her husband Bob (who is 79 going on 25) have been instrumental in helping me coaching at one club where the age range is 50's to almost 80. After this happened with Alex, I gave a lecture to that class on the increased need for recovery for older populations. They too are more fit than the average person their age, but many are also exercise-aholics. After I explained it to them, one woman in class announced out loud, "So THAT'S why I'm always so tired!" She also thanked me after class for the information.

So, the key points here:

• Pay close attention to your heart rate response to exercise
• Remind your students that everyone needs recovery
• Balance hard days with easy days
• Recognize the increased need for rest and recovery after age 40, and especially 50 and above

Do any of you work with older populations?

Down but not Out!

To my dear indoor cycling and Spinning® instructor friends and colleagues,

It's been a challenging couple of weeks, but I'll be back! ;-)

As most of you know, I am no longer posting for ICI/PRO. First I want to say I am humbled and blessed for the incredible amount of love and support I have received from so many instructors around the world - on Facebook, via emails, phone calls, text messages, comments on ICI and posts on Pedal-On. Please know that I am so grateful for all of you.

As many of you know, I left Spinning® 18 months ago to help create ICI/PRO. I am not at liberty to discuss the details, but for those of you who followed me there and learned anything from my 18 months of educational content that I provided, I am very hopeful that you will follow me back. I have to get my "riding legs" (so to speak) back underneath me. I have so much more to give to instructors - so bear with me as I regroup. Educating and inspiring Spinning® and indoor cycling instructors has been my passion for 14 years! It is my chosen career, and I will continue doing what I love, and what I know I've been able to do effectively for the past 14 years.

I won't be posting anything at ICI anymore. No more training articles, no more physiology or science, no more cueing, no more motivation, no more audio profiles or other profiles, no more videos, no more music, no more interval profile evaluations (I was planning on doing that again this spring - it was so successful last year), no more fun stuff. I have over 300 total posts/podcasts at ICI, and a full 80% of the members-only content was provided by me; the other 20% was divided up between 11 people. Hmmm, with those stats one might say I was a crucial part of membership...

Please sign up for my mailing list here so I can keep in touch with you when I figure out where to lay my hat (this blog will be temporary). I promise you, I will continue to be there for instructors around the world. I promise that I won't disappear. I promise that you will be extremely excited with some of my new ideas: for profiles, for content, for inspiration, for teaching you to be the best indoor cycling instructor you can be! I have a whole host of eBooks on various aspects of instructing, eBooks that have been stifled in their growth that I will be unveiling over the next few months. eBooks are an excellent and inexpensive way to learn a lot at one sitting.

And if you were an ICI/PRO member, you know that I was preparing a series on Power to help you understand the concept of power even if you do not have, or may never have, bikes with power. When you understand these basic concepts, cueing effective resistance and cadence will be so much easier. I will soon find a way to make that information available to you.

And please, if you have a question about teaching Indoor Cycling, please feel free to leave me a comment here - I'll do my best to answer it in a post.

Please follow me on Facebook (it's always helpful if you leave a short message when you "friend me" so I know where you are coming from): www.facebook.com/jennifer.sage.

You can contact me by email at jennifer@vivatravels.com.

And please leave me a comment below.

Love and peace,

Jennifer Sage

What can indoor cycling instructors learn from wine?

I am reading a fascinating book called The Widow Cliquot, about the widowed woman in the late 18th century who made Veuve Cliquot the powerhouse champagne that it is today (”Veuve” means widow, and when widowed in that age, one always kept the title, unless one remarried). It’s a wonderful story about this entrepreneur, one of the few women business owners of the world at that time (widows were given a lot more freedoms than married women back then). But it’s also a mesmerizing story about the world of wine and the development of the champagne industry from around the French Revolution and into the post-Napoleonic period.

The author describes how the really great vintners of today are truly scientists. They are very skilled in the chemistry of winemaking, and are master technicians in selecting, storing and blending varietals to create the magical elixir you bring to your table. Sure, Mother Nature plays a role, especially in a vintage year where everything comes together exquisitely, the perfect blend of arid soil, sun exposure, the right amount of heat but not a heat wave, the timing of the rain, and a dry harvest. But even when everything is perfect, it’s the skilled and knowledgeable winemakers who set themselves apart from the others, creating a true masterpiece. These skilled scientists can charge more for their wines. And when everything isn’t perfect (like most years – vintage years only come once every 10-20 years), that skill can make or break the end product. Some years they will need a little more of this varietal, some years a little more of that one. If it’s a one-varietal wine (like a cabernet), they might blend more or less from different vineyards to arrive at that perfect combination. Sometimes they must age it longer, some years the alcohol content is higher, there is so much behind every glass you pour.

The result? The people drinking the wine may not know (or even care) what has gone into the creation of this wine. All they know is they like this bottle! They savor the enjoyment it brings, the pleasure of sipping it, and the masterful way it melds with their meal. The science is behind the scenes, but without it, the wine wouldn’t be as enjoyable or successful.

You, the knowledgeable instructor, are like the wine maker. You know there is so much behind every class you teach. You eagerly learn the science so that you understand the why behind everything you do. The more you know about physiology, the better your product will be. You blend the elements of a class masterfully to create the perfect profile. On some days it's higher intensity, on some days it's lower intensity with a mental focus, some days it's right at threshold; but each application is with intention, your intention. Your focus and attention to detail allows your students to train smarter, not necessarily harder. You blend the elements of mindfulness, motivation and music to create a class that wows your students. You add that secret ingredient that gives your class the "fizz"!

The result? Your profiles make sense. Your students love the product, and they enjoy the resulting increase in fitness. They may not really understand the science behind the effort, but there's just something different about your class, that savoir faire that you have, that sets you apart from your peers. You have them intoxicated!

Not every class will be perfect - you can't have a "vintage" class every single time you teach! But that's when your skills are even more important, so that your students have a great experience every time.

The science? Sometimes it's fun to teach them that part too. It's like going to a wine tasting or lecture where you learn about the the vinification process, the residual sugars in the different wines; what it is that gives them their characteristic aromas and taste; the choice of casks that impart entirely different flavors; why they use oak barrels or stainless steel. Did you know that champagne is fermented twice? After it ages in casks and goes through the first fermentation, additional yeast and sugar is added when it is bottled. The yeast "eats" the sugar (fermentation) and the result is carbon dioxide. This was originally a "mistake" in the 17th century, one that the monks fought hard to get rid of - no one wanted bubbles in their wine for God's sake!

Wine tasting is fun, and it actually improves your understanding of why you like or dislike a certain wine, and can even teach you how to appreciate that varietal that you normally pass over in the wine shop.

The class where you educate your students about what you're doing and why you're doing it is like that wine tasting. You give them just enough information to pique their interest, to get them to nod their heads in understanding. In the process, they expand their own knowledge, they appreciate their workouts even more, they appreciate you even more. How lucky they are to have an instructor who serves such delicious treats, and occasionally explains how to do it! You may hand out additional information for those who want to learn more - just like you'll receive at a wine tasting.

In the process you may teach them that they really can enjoy an endurance ride, because now they know and appreciate what is going on behind the scenes (in their bodies).
And then on other days, you just let them enjoy that glass and savor the delicate flavors without complicating it with too much information.

Here's to you and your vines...er students! Chin chin!

[A little background: As a bicycle tour guide in France and Italy since 1989, I've had the great fortune to not only ride through some of the most famous wine regions of these countries, but also to experience their wines and often take my groups to wine tastings in each region. I also love to ride and taste wine in Napa and Sonoma in California. But my favorite experience is from Alsace, a wine growing region in the northeast of France, on the German border. I have friends who own vineyards in Alsace. I met this couple, Martial and Catherine, while on a solo self-supported bicycle odyssey in France in 1988, and we've remained friends every since. Their wines are Reislings and Gevurztraminers, normally not my preference for varietals, but when I'm there, I love them; they go so perfectly with the food of the region, and I believe there's an "energia magica" (there's that expression again - maybe I should say it in French in this case - une energie magique) when you're in a vineyard that attracts you to those wines. I was lucky enough to experience a harvest one year, actually going into the vines and picking, then watching the whole process from pressing to storing. The incredible body of science behind it is mind-boggling. Before they selected vines for harvesting, Martial showed me how he measured the residual sugars in the grapes. "Nope, this vineyard needs one or two more days. We pick those over there." The best part of the harvest? The celebratory elaborate dinners they have each evening, of course opening up a couple of bottles from some previous vintage years. I hope you can have this same amazing experience one day; it is one I will never forget. Kind of like a Master Spin class that stays with you forever!]