About once every two months I get caught in a situation where it's late- close to 6AM- I need to start my workout and my Apple TV is not connected to my media server (a mac pro).
That's what happened today, so rather than waste time fixing the problem, I just did a simple, but hard, workout.
I set iTunes to shuffle my collect of Nickelback songs and started up my spin. here's what I did:
1 song warm-up in small ring 15
shift up to big ring 23
1 song per gear, starting with 23, shifting down to a harder gear 7 times (8 songs total) at race pace tempo
then shift back up 23 and sprint for one song
shift back to small ring 15 for 1 song cool down
This whole workout is under 45 minutes and really makes you work while taking you through all your gears. It doesn't have to be Nickelback, but you should do a random mix. It's nice as you go from gear to gear to have that variability of 3:30-5:00 per gear. Each time you do this, it will be different and I think that was the point this morning, to get something different.
Showing posts with label spinning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spinning. Show all posts
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Today's Spin
Here's another spin that I created on the fly because my Apple TV decided it no longer wanted to talk to my Mac Mini where all my Spinerval sessions are stored.
This is an aerobic or high aerobic workout. It assumes you have ten gears. If you have 9, do two the first rep in each set for two minutes instead of one. If you have an 8-speed, then do the first two reps for two minutes instead of one.
I have 650 wheels and a 54 inch front ring. I also have my trainer tension higher than the tension I face on the road, so understand your cadence might be different. Finally, the middle rep is supposed to be the hardest, bring the majority of the third rep back down even if it seems too easy because when you get to the last couple of gears, you will work hard.
10 minute warm-up in small ring 15
1st set
1 minute big-ring 23 cadence 100
1 minute big-ring 21 cadence 95
1 minute big-ring 19 cadence 90
1 minute big-ring 18 cadence 85
1 minute big-ring 17 cadence 80
1 minute big-ring 15 cadence 75
1 minute big-ring 14 cadence 70
1 minute big-ring 13 cadence 67
1 minute big-ring 12 cadence 63
1 minute easy spin small ring 15
2nd set
1 minute big-ring 23 cadence 105
1 minute big-ring 21 cadence 100
1 minute big-ring 19 cadence 95
1 minute big-ring 18 cadence 90
1 minute big-ring 17 cadence 85
1 minute big-ring 15 cadence 80
1 minute big-ring 14 cadence 75
1 minute big-ring 13 cadence 72
1 minute big-ring 12 cadence 68
1 minute easy spin small ring 15
3rd set
1 minute big-ring 23 cadence 100
1 minute big-ring 21 cadence 95
1 minute big-ring 19 cadence 90
1 minute big-ring 18 cadence 85
1 minute big-ring 17 cadence 80
1 minute big-ring 15 cadence 75
1 minute big-ring 14 cadence 72
1 minute big-ring 13 cadence 69
1 minute big-ring 12 cadence 66
1 minute easy spin small ring 15
5 minute cool down
This is an aerobic or high aerobic workout. It assumes you have ten gears. If you have 9, do two the first rep in each set for two minutes instead of one. If you have an 8-speed, then do the first two reps for two minutes instead of one.
I have 650 wheels and a 54 inch front ring. I also have my trainer tension higher than the tension I face on the road, so understand your cadence might be different. Finally, the middle rep is supposed to be the hardest, bring the majority of the third rep back down even if it seems too easy because when you get to the last couple of gears, you will work hard.
10 minute warm-up in small ring 15
1st set
1 minute big-ring 23 cadence 100
1 minute big-ring 21 cadence 95
1 minute big-ring 19 cadence 90
1 minute big-ring 18 cadence 85
1 minute big-ring 17 cadence 80
1 minute big-ring 15 cadence 75
1 minute big-ring 14 cadence 70
1 minute big-ring 13 cadence 67
1 minute big-ring 12 cadence 63
1 minute easy spin small ring 15
2nd set
1 minute big-ring 23 cadence 105
1 minute big-ring 21 cadence 100
1 minute big-ring 19 cadence 95
1 minute big-ring 18 cadence 90
1 minute big-ring 17 cadence 85
1 minute big-ring 15 cadence 80
1 minute big-ring 14 cadence 75
1 minute big-ring 13 cadence 72
1 minute big-ring 12 cadence 68
1 minute easy spin small ring 15
3rd set
1 minute big-ring 23 cadence 100
1 minute big-ring 21 cadence 95
1 minute big-ring 19 cadence 90
1 minute big-ring 18 cadence 85
1 minute big-ring 17 cadence 80
1 minute big-ring 15 cadence 75
1 minute big-ring 14 cadence 72
1 minute big-ring 13 cadence 69
1 minute big-ring 12 cadence 66
1 minute easy spin small ring 15
5 minute cool down
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Morning Spin from Coach Eric
Today's workout
10 minute warm up
2 X 3:30 High C 54/17 with 30 seconds rest
2 X 3:30 High C 54/19 with 30 seconds rest
2 X 3:30 High C 54/21 with 30 seconds rest
2 X 3:30 High C 54/23 with 30 seconds rest
2 X 3:30 High C 54/12 with 30 seconds rest
5 minutes cool down
Phrases I thought about during the workout (you may recognize the source): 'Anyone can suffer for another two and half minutes', 'this rep can make or break your workout', and 'have some pride'
10 minute warm up
2 X 3:30 High C 54/17 with 30 seconds rest
2 X 3:30 High C 54/19 with 30 seconds rest
2 X 3:30 High C 54/21 with 30 seconds rest
2 X 3:30 High C 54/23 with 30 seconds rest
2 X 3:30 High C 54/12 with 30 seconds rest
5 minutes cool down
Phrases I thought about during the workout (you may recognize the source): 'Anyone can suffer for another two and half minutes', 'this rep can make or break your workout', and 'have some pride'
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
The Nickelback Workout- Dark Horse Spin
Nickelback may be formulaic, the lyrics may sometimes veer into the sophomoric, but the music itself is great for working out. High-tempo, high-energy, perfect for spinning.
I bought the new album, Dark Horse, on iTunes. I have an Apple TV in my basement, but you can do this with an iPod (change the sleep time for the display). You need to be able to see the song time.
There are ten songs on the album. Set iTunes to random so this workout will be a little different each time you do it.
Song One- warm-up, small ring 15
Song Two- big ring 15, one leg drill, change leg every 20 seconds, 5 seconds between legs, 3 times then spin small ring 15
Song Three- big ring 15, stand two minutes to two minutes, thirty seconds tempo pace, then small ring 15
Songs Four through Nine- start with big ring 23, build into time trial pace by end of thirty seconds, shift down one gear every thirty seconds, maintain time trial pace, but in the last full thirty seconds, plus whatever time is left over it, shift to big ring 12 (or 11 if you have it) and stand
Song Ten- Small ring 15, cool down
The idea is to use the first thirty seconds of each song during the time-trial efforts to recover and build. You could also do the same workout as a recovery spin by aiming for a slightly below-tempo pace during the build instead of time-trialing, since you are in relatively easy gears most of the time.In that case, stand in big ring 15 instead of big ring 12.
I bought the new album, Dark Horse, on iTunes. I have an Apple TV in my basement, but you can do this with an iPod (change the sleep time for the display). You need to be able to see the song time.
There are ten songs on the album. Set iTunes to random so this workout will be a little different each time you do it.
Song One- warm-up, small ring 15
Song Two- big ring 15, one leg drill, change leg every 20 seconds, 5 seconds between legs, 3 times then spin small ring 15
Song Three- big ring 15, stand two minutes to two minutes, thirty seconds tempo pace, then small ring 15
Songs Four through Nine- start with big ring 23, build into time trial pace by end of thirty seconds, shift down one gear every thirty seconds, maintain time trial pace, but in the last full thirty seconds, plus whatever time is left over it, shift to big ring 12 (or 11 if you have it) and stand
Song Ten- Small ring 15, cool down
The idea is to use the first thirty seconds of each song during the time-trial efforts to recover and build. You could also do the same workout as a recovery spin by aiming for a slightly below-tempo pace during the build instead of time-trialing, since you are in relatively easy gears most of the time.In that case, stand in big ring 15 instead of big ring 12.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Egg Hunt, or on Being a Parent
I don't usually delve too far into my personal life here in this blog (are anywhere else for that matter ?), but today a completely off-topic event reminded me of a 5K, so here I am, writing about it.
I'm not your typical parent- at 42, pushing 43 pretty hard, my son is just 3 years old, and we have only a few friends with young (or any) kids, and I would not say those are friends we spend much time with. I'm not exactly tapped into the kid nation either. I had sort of an odd childhood in that my parents were even older than I am compared to my son and I'm not sure they were dialed all the way in either, although they tried pretty damn hard and on scant resources. As a result, there's an awful lot I don't know about what is typical family activity.
Take the egg hunt. Branford sponsors a town-wide egg hunt and this is a pretty well-attended event. My wife was swimming out in New London until 9AM, and really wanted me to go to the egg hunt. For this and other reasons I was left with getting my workout (and shower) in between 9 AM and 10:40 AM. I went long on the bike yesterday (in my basement) and in honor of the EH crew being out in Arizona, did another part of the virtual reality Arizona DVD from Coach Troy- the Mt. Lemmon climb (yesterday was Gates Pass). If you really want to work your backside off on the trainer, get this DVD. If half an hour straight in Big Ring 13 is not to your taste, then this is not the DVD for you (or you're not working hard enough, pal). There's the workout related, on-topic part of the blog.
At 10:30 I was in the shower, and at 10:40 we were in the car for a 5-10 minute drive. This was still probably a little bit too late to leave the house. We pulled down the side-road to Foote Park wedged between minvans and Jeeps, grabbed one of the last parking spaces in the park, and headed over to the start. We ran into a number of Ian's friends from school- children that had been in his pre-school class at day care until recently when he moved up. We happily settled into line with them and snapped some pix as the VFW volunteers waited for everyone to get into place for the 'hunt.'
Now, as hunting goes, this is a step above hunting with Dick Cheney (how a guy shoots you in the face when the birds he's supposed to be shooting are basically stationary until the moment of they are flushed and he knows where the birds are going to be, in other words in the air, not at ground level, in other words, accident my ass), but a step below English foxhunts. The 'eggs', hundreds of them along with store-bought candy bars, are laid out on a relatively flat patch of grass in corrals, divided into different age-groups. Meanwhile, the Eastern bunny was roaming around- costume perfect except for some pretty beat-looking basketball shoes that kind of ruined the illusion for me.
The problem was that Ian, standing with his friends, was in the 1-2 corral. We moved over to the 3-5 corral and I smelled trouble. First of all, we couldn't even get to the line, second, their was a slew of parents blocking the way and hovering over their kids. The VFW crew announced that parents could follow their kids. I determined not to do that, but wow.
The whistle went off and I finally knew what it was like to be on the wrong end of a 5K. The locust went up the grass and with the machine efficiency of terminators, they eliminated every egg, every piece of candy, every wrapper. It was a horde lurching up over the Urals, while I watched it retreat away from me. Even the grass browned under the press. Ian got a decent amount of candy, but was not exactly the high earner.
He happily scooted over into the 1-2 corral, where he had half the area to himself and filled his basket without depriving anyone else of their candy.
Man, being a parent is weird.
I'm not your typical parent- at 42, pushing 43 pretty hard, my son is just 3 years old, and we have only a few friends with young (or any) kids, and I would not say those are friends we spend much time with. I'm not exactly tapped into the kid nation either. I had sort of an odd childhood in that my parents were even older than I am compared to my son and I'm not sure they were dialed all the way in either, although they tried pretty damn hard and on scant resources. As a result, there's an awful lot I don't know about what is typical family activity.
Take the egg hunt. Branford sponsors a town-wide egg hunt and this is a pretty well-attended event. My wife was swimming out in New London until 9AM, and really wanted me to go to the egg hunt. For this and other reasons I was left with getting my workout (and shower) in between 9 AM and 10:40 AM. I went long on the bike yesterday (in my basement) and in honor of the EH crew being out in Arizona, did another part of the virtual reality Arizona DVD from Coach Troy- the Mt. Lemmon climb (yesterday was Gates Pass). If you really want to work your backside off on the trainer, get this DVD. If half an hour straight in Big Ring 13 is not to your taste, then this is not the DVD for you (or you're not working hard enough, pal). There's the workout related, on-topic part of the blog.
At 10:30 I was in the shower, and at 10:40 we were in the car for a 5-10 minute drive. This was still probably a little bit too late to leave the house. We pulled down the side-road to Foote Park wedged between minvans and Jeeps, grabbed one of the last parking spaces in the park, and headed over to the start. We ran into a number of Ian's friends from school- children that had been in his pre-school class at day care until recently when he moved up. We happily settled into line with them and snapped some pix as the VFW volunteers waited for everyone to get into place for the 'hunt.'
Now, as hunting goes, this is a step above hunting with Dick Cheney (how a guy shoots you in the face when the birds he's supposed to be shooting are basically stationary until the moment of they are flushed and he knows where the birds are going to be, in other words in the air, not at ground level, in other words, accident my ass), but a step below English foxhunts. The 'eggs', hundreds of them along with store-bought candy bars, are laid out on a relatively flat patch of grass in corrals, divided into different age-groups. Meanwhile, the Eastern bunny was roaming around- costume perfect except for some pretty beat-looking basketball shoes that kind of ruined the illusion for me.
The problem was that Ian, standing with his friends, was in the 1-2 corral. We moved over to the 3-5 corral and I smelled trouble. First of all, we couldn't even get to the line, second, their was a slew of parents blocking the way and hovering over their kids. The VFW crew announced that parents could follow their kids. I determined not to do that, but wow.
The whistle went off and I finally knew what it was like to be on the wrong end of a 5K. The locust went up the grass and with the machine efficiency of terminators, they eliminated every egg, every piece of candy, every wrapper. It was a horde lurching up over the Urals, while I watched it retreat away from me. Even the grass browned under the press. Ian got a decent amount of candy, but was not exactly the high earner.
He happily scooted over into the 1-2 corral, where he had half the area to himself and filled his basket without depriving anyone else of their candy.
Man, being a parent is weird.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
300- Spinning Movie Review
I don't usually watch movies when I spin, but I rented 300 on the iTunes store and had- you guessed it, 2 hours left to watch the movie before it expired- Apple only gives you a month. Sad.
The movie actually starts out a little on the slow side, to be honest. A lot of talking, a boy and his dog victim, politicians, and so on. But that doesn't last and anyway, when I started spinning I had 1 hour and six minutes left to watch.
Now, there's no sense talking about history here. First of all, the real Xerxes was probably a little over six foot tall, not seven-eight feet tall and oddrogynous. Then there are the particulars of the stand of Leonidas and his men, many of which followed him and his to the grave and certainly were at odds with what you saw in the movie. And let's not even talk about how the Spartans were just as often the worst Greece had to offer as the best. Nevertheless...
300 really turned out to be a guilty pleasure. Because it's always a little guilty for me, as someone who generally thinks that war and killing are exactly the sorts of things the human race should have figured out by now how to do without, to really sit down (on my bike in this case) and enjoy- really enjoy, a movie that at its essence, is about the most brutal, most violent sort of conflict.
This is a great movie for when you're trapped on your bike looking to generate some intensity. The fight scenes are top-notch, graphic, but well done. The slower parts still carry the right sort of music and storyline that you'll find yourself cranking out a nice steady high-aerobic effort while watching the movie. A good movie to spin to immerses you without being distracting.
And let's face it- while the Spartans are standing to the last man against Xerxes you feel like the least you can do is suffer a little spinning...
The movie actually starts out a little on the slow side, to be honest. A lot of talking, a boy and his dog victim, politicians, and so on. But that doesn't last and anyway, when I started spinning I had 1 hour and six minutes left to watch.
Now, there's no sense talking about history here. First of all, the real Xerxes was probably a little over six foot tall, not seven-eight feet tall and oddrogynous. Then there are the particulars of the stand of Leonidas and his men, many of which followed him and his to the grave and certainly were at odds with what you saw in the movie. And let's not even talk about how the Spartans were just as often the worst Greece had to offer as the best. Nevertheless...
300 really turned out to be a guilty pleasure. Because it's always a little guilty for me, as someone who generally thinks that war and killing are exactly the sorts of things the human race should have figured out by now how to do without, to really sit down (on my bike in this case) and enjoy- really enjoy, a movie that at its essence, is about the most brutal, most violent sort of conflict.
This is a great movie for when you're trapped on your bike looking to generate some intensity. The fight scenes are top-notch, graphic, but well done. The slower parts still carry the right sort of music and storyline that you'll find yourself cranking out a nice steady high-aerobic effort while watching the movie. A good movie to spin to immerses you without being distracting.
And let's face it- while the Spartans are standing to the last man against Xerxes you feel like the least you can do is suffer a little spinning...
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