Levi's & Emerald Eyes: A Big Bang Ride

When scientists announce that a South Pole telescope detects ripples in space that provide a 'smoking gun' for the Big Bang Theory, the reverberations make their way into our spin studio! 



Playlist
1.  Counting Star/Timber Mash-Up -  One Republic vs Ke$ha
2.  King For A Day (Live) - Green Day
3.  Silent - Archive (Levi's & Emerald Eyes)
3.  Animals - Martin Garrix
4.  Don't Bring Me Down Remix (DJ Lucky) - Electric Light Orchestra
5.  Bigfoot - W&W
6.  Eye of the Tiger - Survivor (The original must be played in class at least once a year.)
7.  Face Down - The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
8.  This is War - Thirty Seconds to Mars
9.  Enjoy the Ride - Krewella
10.  We Are The Champions - Green Day Live in Reading
Cooldown
11.  Stanford Professor learns his "Inflation Theory" (something he came up with 30 years ago) is proven to be the "smoking gun" in the Big Bang Theory! Very touching surprise.
12.  Lady - Regina Spektor (with performance by Ukraine's Got Talent)

See video open for Class Profile.

The Big Bang news made me think about forces colliding in the universe.  Coupled with Archive's video for Silent - that shows other kinds of forces colliding in our world - I found myself connecting the two with poetry.  The vulnerability and longing that defines so many pursuits - artistic and scientific - is first and foremost found in love.  Pablo Neruda at his best:

After everything,
I will love you
As if it were always before
As if, after so much waiting,
Not seeing you
And you not coming,
You were breathing close to me forever.

Close to me with your habits,
With your colour and your guitar
Just as countries unite
In school room lectures,
And two regions become blurred
And there is a river near a river
And two volcanoes grow together.

Close to you is close to me
And your absence is far from everything
And the moon is the colour of clay
In the night of quaking earth
When, in terror of the earth,
All the roots join together
And silence is heard ringing
With the music of fright.

Fear is also a street
And among its trembling stones
Tenderness somehow is able
To march with four feet
And four lips
Since without leaving the present
That is a fragile thing
We touch the sand of yesterday
And in the sea
Love reveals a repeated fury.

Week's BEST OF

We've had some great times this week!  And in the spirit of the mash-ups that have defined many music choices, this class profile is a mash-up of our favorite cycling training moments over the past seven days:  Power Techniques, Sprints, Climbing Walls.



Playlist (and Class Profile)
1. Beast And We All Feed It - Jake Bugg [Warm-Up]
2.  Come With Me Now - Kongos [Warm-Up]
3.  Lighting Bolt - Jake Bugg [Warm-Up/Openers]
4.   Betty Got Jacked Mashup - Loo, Placido [Power Technique and your Zeitgeist Moment Of The Day:  the strangers-kissing-for-the-first-time stills that have been all over social media the past few days? Here's the video!]
5.  Sharp-Dressed Man - Nickelback [Sprinter Hell Ya!]
6.  Barracuda (DFuse Hiratzka Mix) - Heart [Climbing Wall]
7.  Heads Will Roll (ATrak Remix/Project X Movie Music) - Yeah Yeah Yeahs [Power Technique]
8.  One For the Money - Escape the Fate [Sprinter Hell Ya!]
9.  Enjoy The Ride - Krewella [Climbing Wall]
10.  Shoot To Thrill (Iron Man) - AC/DC [Power Technique]
11.  Trouble - Neon Jungle [Sprinter Hell Ya!]
12.  Bring Me The New Little Sickness - Evanescence vs Disturbed vs Marilyn Manson [Climbing Wall]
Cooldown
13.  Happiness Has a Hole - Marie Louise, Michael Fragstein
14.  Take Me To You (Social Butterfly Soundtrack) - Rim Laurens feat. Daisy Stoloff

Fun Thought
Today is a finger-snapping kind of day!

Sprinter Hell...Ya!

I started with this name for the class:  Sprinter Hell.  Because a class focused on speed training to develop quickness and explosive power is hellish.   But in an effort to embrace it... to cultivate the craving for it... I opted for Sprinter Hell Ya! 

This is a full-gas, high velocity-level workout.  The challenge is to do various sprint-level efforts with minimal recovery, calling again and again on your anaerobic energy supply until your body is shaken to the core. I expect that after the first set you'll be feeling pretty great. And you should! But the thing about anaerobic training is that you feel it the most after the work is done.

There are three energy systems in the body (ATP-CP, Anaerobic Glycolysis and Aerobic Glycolysis), and two of them are anaerobic energy pathways (ATP-CP and Anaerobic Glycolysis). That means they function without oxygen. These are the two that we're tapping into with this workout in a major way. 

It helps to understand how the body converts energy in order to understand what's happening in your body and to improve athletic performance.

ATP-CP:  Sometimes called the V8 of the energy systems, ATP-CP stands for Adenosine Triphosphate - Creatine Phosphate.  Both ATP and CP are stored in muscle cells.  There isn't much stored, but that's okay because the importance of this energy system comes from how fast the energy is available (immediately!) not how much.  This system gives you the ability for maximum intensity over a short (10-15 second) duration before fatiguing. Our Sprinter Hell Ya! training will help develop this energy  system.

Anaerobic Glycolysis:  If ATP-CP is the V8 engine of the energy system, then consider anaerobic glycoloysis as the V6.  This system produces a lot of power, but not quite as much or as quickly as the ATP-PC system.  And because the fuel supply from this system is bigger, it doesn't conk out as quickly as the ATP-PC system.  This energy system uses carbohydrates to create ATP for energy.  Glucose is broken down to make ATP and lactic acid. Training this system is aimed at increasing tolerance to lactate, the removal of lactate and improving the rate at which glycolysis produces ATP.  Developing it is going to increase anaerobic power, local muscular endurance, speed and muscular power.


Playlist
We Will Rock You - Britney Spears, Beyonce, Pink
House vs Rock 2012
Gorky Park Electro House Rock Agosto 2012 - Nivana, Red Hot Chili Peppers
House Electro Mix 2013 (April)
Cooldown
I Wanna Be Sedated - Ramones
Tous Les Même - Stromae

Class Profile
Warm-Up
:30 Sprint / 1:00 Recovery x5 [Z5/Z6 Power - that's 5-25% above Threshold (Z4) Power, 95/100 RPMs in Sprint, whatever you want in Recovery]
Full Recovery
:20 Sprint / 1:00 Recovery x5 [Z6/Z7 Power]
Full Recovery
3:00 Lead Out [Z4] / :30 Sprint [Z6/7] / 2:00 Recovery x4
Cooldown

Great Quote
...to those of you who have ever felt injustice because of who you are or who you love, tonight I stand here in front of the world with with you and for you.  - Jared Leto, Oscar Speech

Party With Me

There are all kinds of ways to motivate yourself when you've set fitness goals.  One of my favorites is to participate in group fitness classes because of the the human connections that are formed, and the shared experience of pain and triumph. In the group fitness environment, you're not only learning new techniques that will increase your fitness level, you're also meeting like-minded friends, staying accountable to yourself (and others), and working harder than you might flying solo.  And with lots of people exuding energy and enthusiasm, you're bound to have more fun.

That's why I'm dubbing this workout video "Ain't A Party Without You!"  Together - we instructors and all of us fitness seekers - are on this incredible journey together, to support one another and to believe that tomorrow we will be even better than we are today.

As is often the case with my videos, there are many zeitgeist moments here thanks to Tonight Show clips (isn't Jimmy Fallon rocking it?!), the latest baby-pandas-caught-on-tape-acting-adorable video, and just-released music from Kid Cudi, Bayside, Markus Schulz and Grouch&Eligh.



Playlist
Jimmy Kimmel, Paul Rudd Lip Sync Battle (Warm-Up)
Never Gonna Wake Up (Mashup) - Avicii and Rick Astley
Pigsty - Bayside
Love Don't Die - The Fray
Hit It - American Authors
Laila - Blue System
Turn Me On - David Guetta ft. Nicki Minaj
All These Lights - The Grouch and Eligh
Return of the Moon Man - Kid Cudi
Ain't a Party Without Me - David Guetta
The Race - Thirty Seconds to Mars
Mango (Sunburn Afterparty in Goa) - Markus Schulz
Invisible (Live on Tonight Show) - U2
Cooldown
Siren's Call - Cat on Trees
Best Day of My Life (Acoustic) - American Authors

Class Profile
I used this video/playlist for an Optimized Speed Workout.  5 Sets.
First Set:  4-min at threshold (Zone 4, RPE 7, ~90RPM), 1-min power increase of 20-30 Watts (accomplish this spike in power output by going faster, increasing your tension - or both)
Second Set:  4-min at threshold (Zone 4, RPE 7, ~90RPM), 1-min power increase of 20-30 Watts
And on and on...follow this pattern throughout the class.  The 20-30 Watt increase every 5th minute will push you into Zone 5 (RPE 8).  It's a lot like a time trial workout as we do our best to have high power output throughout the class.  stay at threshold or above for the entire If you've done Functional Threshold Power Training to determine your threshold number (also referred to as Zone 4), this is where you'll start and where you'll recover. Yes, recover. It is incredibly difficult, and it can only be done with training.   There are 3 Goals for this class:  (1)  Stay Low and Narrow: Aerodynamic.  (2)  Optimize Your Leg Speed.  (3)  Train To Recover in Zone 4 (RPE 7).

This workout combines the tension and low RPMs from our muscular endurance classes with neuromuscular coordination and strength that will eventually turn into greater power production and efficiency at your goal speed.  Also important to this workout is that Zone 4/5 (RPE 7/8) training is near your Lactate Threshold.  The Lactate Threshold is the point in a workout where your aerobic respiration is replaced by anaerobic respiration - a change that is defined by an increase in lactic acid.  When you train near LT, you improve your body's ability to process lactate (i.e. get rid of the garbage that's accumulating in your body), and you teach your muscles to conserve glycogen and glucose fuel sources.  Upshot?  It'll take you longer to poop out, and you'll get faster at higher power outputs.  Now that sounds like a plan!

Thought of the Day
That's something that I think is growing on me as I get older:  happy endings.  - Alice Munro, Pulitzer Prize Winner in Literature (2013)