Superbowl Ride High Intensity Created by Kala Markel Training Type: Interval/Anaerobic Total Class Length: 60 minutes Profile Description This profile is called Superbowl Ride. It is an interval workout consisting of higher intensity workloads through varying cadences and resistances. The fun part is dividing your riders into two teams; it s the Superbowl inside your cycling studio! If you have time to advertise it can add to the fun by encouraging riders to show up in their favorite team s colors, no matter who they cheer for on the sidelines. This ride is a lot of fun to do, but is intense on the coaching aspect because you must coach both your offense and defense at the same time. (It sure would be nice to have some offensive/defensive coordinators to help out!) I will give you the game plays (how to execute the ride) and provide an example playlist at the end. This ride is fairly time-oriented, just like a real football game, with quarters, two minute warnings, timeouts and a halftime show. I suggest having a stopwatch (or a timer of some type) handy so you can make the best use of your football lingo by counting down the clock just like they do at the big game. The Superbowl works like this: The cycling studio should be split into two teams o You can choose how to do this- our bikes are numbered so I do even numbers vs odd, but you can choose to split everyone up however you want. Each team will get to play offense and defense once each quarter (twice during the half) o If you want, you may do a coin toss and have the teams call it to see who will be on offense first and who will be on defense first When you are on offense, you are almost always going to be on a flat road because you want to be quick; you are trying to move the ball down the field to get 1 st downs (and hopefully a touchdown) When you are on defense, you are almost always going to be on a climb/hill because you want to hold that offensive line; you do not want to let the offense score on you. During the warm-up and halftime, the teams will both being doing the same movements; this is your break as the instructor/coach/referee/all other things that you are during this ride! Football Lingo that translates to the indoor bicycle 30 second time-out = just like in a real game where the team may need to regroup, you may call out a 30 second time-out if you see that your riders are struggling/need a recovery period. Copyright 2012 Jennifer Sage and the Indoor Cycling Association Page 1
2 minute warning = The 2 minute warning is called out during the 2 nd and 4 th quarters. This is a great motivator to get your riders to continue because there is only a short time left. They have worked so far, so take it to the end! The Warm-up Song One: Introduction and Initial Warm-up (Total warm-up is ~10 minutes) Played A-Live, Safri Duo 3:13 Get your students on a real road, where they can feel the resistance of the bike under their feet. Encourage your students to start moving their legs easily and increase their cadence to a baseline. These 3 minutes will be the most important 3 minutes of the entire ride, because this is when you get all of the rules out. In fact, if you want to go over some game rules before you start, that is even better. I ve laid it out for you in as much detail as possible above so that you can decide how best to describe it. During this first song, it is all about hype, you want to introduce the ride and get your riders excited. It is the Superbowl, after all. Song 2: Warm-Up Continued We Will Rock You, Queen 2:02 This song is sure to get some smiles, so tell them that it s time to get serious and start to put on their best game faces. Bring them up out of the saddle for the first 30 seconds to raise their intensity and tell them to increase their pace/add a little more resistance. We want to continue to raise the heart rate during this song so that we will be ready for our warm-up drills. Song #3: Warm-up Drills. Space Jam, Quad City DJ s 5:07 This song is all about bringing the intensity up to a working level and maintaining it. The goal of today s ride is to work hard and so there are only small recovery opportunities that we will take as a group, but reminding your riders to do only what they can and taking recoveries when they need it, is always welcomed. I love to incorporate some leg drills into this song; focusing on the pedal stroke and smoothness, focusing on speed, focusing on smooth transitions in and out of the saddle. This is just like when the football players come out onto the field and do their stretches and run some practice plays. We are doing a little bit of everything to make sure we are primed and ready for the game- it s about to begin! Song #4: First Quarter; Part 1. Monday Night Football Theme Heavy Action, Artist 3:25 It s game on, now! By now, during the warm-up, you have decided who will start on offense and who will start on defense. I will stick with Team A and Team B to best describe this. Team A Team A will be offense, so they need directions to get on a flat road; tell your riders to be a little aggressive; there is just a slight headwind (the defense) and you want to start off strong. Copyright 2012 Jennifer Sage and the Indoor Cycling Association Page 2
Team B Team B will be defense, so they need directions to get on a climb; remember they are the defense and they need to be the Steel Curtain (if you re a Steelers fan!) and not let anything through your line. Tell them to start off on a slight grade, we have the whole song to increase resistance. In this song, tell your riders that there will be 3 plays; one each minute. So, minute 1 is your baseline (what I ve described above) and then minute 2 you will tell your riders to increase modestly (cadence if you are offense, resistance if you are defense) and again on minute 3. Near the last 15 seconds of the song, ask your riders to give you all they have. That offense is trying to score and defense, hold them tight! It s up to you if you decide if the offense scores or not, but I usually always let the offense score. ;) Team B= 0 Song #5 First Quarter; Part 2. Allegretto, Bond 3:53 Team A moves from offense to defense - Increase resistance and back off on cadence; catch your breath, but still remain at a working level. Team B moves from defense to offense - Decrease resistance, allowing your legs to quicken; catch your breath, but remain in a working level. During this song, it s a fight to tie it up before the quarter ends; keep your riders at the same intensity for the entire song; switch it up by throwing in 2-3 short, out of the saddle segments to make sure they stay at the same intensity the whole way through. (Usually, I don t allow the offense to score on this one because everyone is working at the same level.) Team B= 0 Song #6 Second Quarter; Part 1. Remember the Name, Fort Minor 3:49 Team A moves back to offense; taking resistance down and increasing cadence Team B moves back to defense; increasing resistance to start climbing During this song, I like to bring both teams into an out of the saddle position during the choruses. Encourage both sides to increase their pace (even if it s just slightly) during these intervals to increase heart rate. No scores on this song either. Copyright 2012 Jennifer Sage and the Indoor Cycling Association Page 3
Team B= 0 Song #7 Second Quarter; Part 2. Renegade, Styx 4:30 Team A moves back to defense (increase resistance, settle into a slightly slower, but working pace) Team B moves into offense on an aggressive flat road; there s some headwind (that defensive line!) and you want to move that ball to tie it up before the half. When there are 2 minutes remaining, give the 2 minute warning and encourage your riders to increase their resistance and pace (both in the flat road [offense] and climb [defense]) to fight for the score! I always let Team B score here, so we move into the second half with a tied up game. Encourage your students to push hard, because halftime offers a recovery that they will need. Team B= 7 Song #8 & #9: Halftime (Recovery) Die Another Day, Madonna 3:32 Party Rock Anthem, LMAFO 4:22 Let your players breathe easy! They made it into halftime. The game is tied up, so it s important to recover and regroup for the second half. The two halftime songs can be changed every year to reflect who will be performing. For 2012 Madonna is set to perform and it s rumored that LMAFO will join her on the stage. Once the second song starts you can repeat some of the pedal drills and cadence changes from your warm-up prior to game time. Use small, out of the saddle segments to start to drive the heart rate back up into the working zone. Song #10 Third Quarter; Part 1. Get Ready 4 This, 2 Unlimited 3:25 The second half should start out with Team B on offense (or whoever lost the coin toss, if you decided to hold one) so get your teams back into the action. Team A defense, adding resistance, but leave room to increase Team B offense; add resistance, leave room to increase cadence Just like the first quarter, hold 3 accelerations; one at minute 1, 2 and 3. Encourage your riders to hold the new pace/resistance without backing down. Team B will score at the end of the drive. (Allot a 30 second time-out at the beginning of the next track, if needed.) Copyright 2012 Jennifer Sage and the Indoor Cycling Association Page 4
Team B= 14 Song #11 Third Quarter; Part 2 Rock This Party (Everybody Dance Now), C+C Music Factory, 4:01 (Allot a 30 second time-out at the beginning of this song, if needed.) Team A back to offense, reducing resistance, allowing cadence to pick up Team B back to defense, increasing resistance, lowering cadence Coach intervals of coming out of the saddle; do 30 second intervals; when offense is standing have the defense sit and when defense is sitting have the offense stand. You should aim to complete 3 intervals (a total of 3 minutes) within this track. No scoring for Team A. Team B= 14 Song #12 Forth Quarter; Part 1 Rock You Like a Hurricane, Scorpion 4:14 Team A defense; add resistance Team B offense; reduce resistance, increase pace Hold the teams at the same pace for 2 minutes, then for the final 2 minutes do 15 second surges (15 seconds of a quicker pace, 15 seconds of their base pace that they set at the beginning of the song) for a total of 8 surges. We ll hold Team B/offense, so no scoring will occur. Team B= 14 Song #13 Forth Quarter; Part 2 Heart of a Champion, Nelly, 4:35 Last chance to make a score and win the game; all the chips are down this is the last 4 minutes of game and Team A is down by a score Team A back on offense; aggressive flat road to begin (will increase into climb) Team B back on defense; aggressive flat road to begin (will incrase into climb) I love having everyone together on the last song; in fact sometimes I tell them to imagine we are all fighting for the underdog and we want to score! (Or you can keep it up with Team A vs Team B) 4 increases of resistance over the course of the song (about 1 per minute). Remind your riders of the 2 minute warning tell them to work as hard as they can within their limits. You want to get the WIN! Copyright 2012 Jennifer Sage and the Indoor Cycling Association Page 5
I always have the team score at the very end; I try to push them the last 15-20 seconds of the song regardless of if I am coaching us as all being on the same team or keeping them separate. Song #14 Cool Down/Stretch/Outro Fly Like an Eagle, Seal 4:15 We Are the Champions, Queen 3:02 The Winner, Coolio 4:03 Congratulate your riders on completing the Superbowl! Encourage them to take deep breaths and listen to the lyrics of the songs you ve chosen as they bring their heart rates down and start to bring the ride to a close. Lead your students through stretching; making sure to spend ample time on the stretches as they worked very hard and should be rather fatigued after the class. Copyright 2012 Jennifer Sage and the Indoor Cycling Association Page 6