Unleash the Power of Group Fitness

We’re back with another Spinning Playlist and profile!  Summer has wound down and as fall approaches, I am encouraging my riders to make a fresh start and look for ways to get something new with each and every ride.  My early morning riders have been riding consistently for over a year, so we are going to work toward a Race Day for the next month.

Today’s profile was built on the concept of a pace line.  According to Jim Watrous’ Cycling Page,

“Pace Line Riding consists of two or more riders traveling in a tight group in the draft of the rider(s) in front of you.  If you are the leader of this pace line, than you are creating the draft for others.  The draft envelope behind a single bicycle is about six feet long and behind a tandem is about eight feet.  The closer your front wheel is to the rear wheel of the rider ahead of you, the stronger the draft.  Riding in a pace line draft can save 20 to 30% of your energy output.  This energy savings is what allows the pace line group to travel at higher speeds.  Concentration on what you are doing in a pace line is essential.  That is, there is no time for sight seeing. “

 It can be difficult to simulate outdoor riding concepts in a darkened room of stationary bikes, but the idea of a pace line is pretty easy to convey.  The group was divided into teams of five riders. Each rider must work with their team in order to stay ahead of the other teams.  Every rider within the team was given a number corresponding to which position in the line they would start.  Position 1 was the leader; 2, 3, and 4 were riding in the middle, and position 5 was drafting at the end of the line.  Riders rotated positions throughout the journey.   The person in the leader’s position is the one doing the hardest work; they are responsible for pulling the group and pushing through any wind resistance.  Their perceived work effort (scale of 1-10) is up near 8 or 9.    Persons 2, 3 and 4 are benefitting from the reduced resistance, but must still pull their share of the weight.  RPE = 7-8.  The person at the end of the line has just completed their job leading and now recovers thanks to the near-0 wind resistance RPE = 6-7. 

After warming up and explaining the process, we rotated through the paceline 3 times.  The first time through, each rider held their position for 1 minute before moving forward in the line.  The second time through, it was 90 seconds, and finally 2 minutes.  The last 6.5 minutes simulated finishing a race with an all out effort.   The best part of the ride was the encouragement and cheers shared by teams as they helped push the leader on through their hard effort and then took the leadership role themselves knowing that their team was relying on them not to fall behind the others.   As the coach, I simply told them when to change jobs, then they motivated each other. 

Since the profile is so loose, all you really need is the playlist.  Be sure to check back tomorrow — I’ll have a link to all these tunes on Napster.

Update 10/22/2007:  Here is the playlist, minus the Chasing Cars Remix (it is a great song, but Napster doesn’t have it.  Try here instead.) and Party Mountain (try MashupTown). 
Warm Up (5 minutes)
-I Feel Love, Blue Man Group and Venus Hum (5:13) 135 bpm

Pace line intervals.  5 person groups, rotate positions every minute, then 90 seconds, then 2 minutes for a total of 22.5 minutes.
 -Rock this Party, Bob Sinclair (4:07) 130 bpm
 -Be Without You Remix, Mary J Blige (4:0 127 bpm
 -Sunchyme, Dario G (3:54) 133 bpm
 -U + Ur Hand, Pink (3:34) 140 bpm
 -Chasing Cars (DJ Mario Remix), Snow Patrol (5:42) 132 bpm
 -Whine Up, Kat de Luna and Elephant Man (3:23) 125 bpm
 -Coqueta, Kinky (3:41) 144 bpm
 -Party Mountain, DJ Moule (4:16) 136 bpm
 
All Out Effort - Sit or stand, just push the tempo to 100 -110 bpm and add resistance to make it challenging.  Don’t wish you had worked harder when you leave!
 -Amma, James Asher (6:34) 142 bpm

Cool Down
 -Send Me On My Way(4:20) 116 bpm

Stretch
-Snow on the Sahara, Anggun (4:19)

 Here are a couple of additional links to information about pace lines and other group riding:

Diablo cyclists guide to group riding (pdf file)

The Science of Cycling: Aerodynamics

Jim Watrous’ Bicycling Page

Enjoy!