SPIN CLASS KICKED redux

02-12-2005, 03:47 PM

Okay, Spin Class usually kicks my ass, but today's was a hummer.

Heather, the instructor, played an interesting game that's
akin to indian runs*:

She broke the 24-bike room into 6 pursuit teams. While the
other 20 people were doing a circuit (sprint for 2 minutes,
upright running spin for 2 minutes, seated hill-climb for
2 minutes, standing hill-climb power-surge for 2 minutes)
the team that was "on" had to go through the same circuit
in 2 minutes (30 seconds per skill), then got the next 2
minutes to recover seated at race-pace while the next team
took its turn breaking away.

It got pretty wild. She was calling out the names every
30 seconds and stoking people to get up, sit down, change
resistance, etc. People were popping up and down and
everyone was pounding as hard as I've ever seen a full
class go. Totally steamed up the room. Super impressive
piece of work by a trainer.

Oh, and my team "won". Although, Heather picked the
winner by closing her eyes and selecting one of her
post-it notes with the team members at random...

But hey. Free Buzz-Bar[tm] as a trophy. Almond-Date.
Sounds tasty. I may frame it.

--Blair
"Maybe just the wrapper."

* - a training techique using an echelon formation,
sending the rearmost rider to the front at a sprint, then
the next one, through the entire ride. Not like rotating
the line, because only one bike is out of position at a
time, and it moves forward rather than dropping to the
rear after pulling.

02-18-2005, 11:47 AM

Blair P. Houghton <b@p.h> wrote:
>
> Oh, and my team "won". Although, Heather picked the
> winner by closing her eyes and selecting one of her
> post-it notes with the team members at random...

The engineer in me cries out to fix this 'problem'. I have no doubt
this could be solved with some magnets, some reed switches or
inductive coils, a passle of AD sample boards and a modest PC chassis
for computing the totals and various statistical deviances for later
analysis.

What? Stop looking at me like that.

--
Dane Jackson - z u v e m b i @ u n i x b i g o t s . o r g
Confidence is simply that quiet, assured feeling you have before you
fall flat on your face.
-- Dr. L. Binder

02-18-2005, 11:47 AM

Blair P. Houghton <b@p.h> wrote:
>
> Oh, and my team "won". Although, Heather picked the
> winner by closing her eyes and selecting one of her
> post-it notes with the team members at random...

The engineer in me cries out to fix this 'problem'. I have no doubt
this could be solved with some magnets, some reed switches or
inductive coils, a passle of AD sample boards and a modest PC chassis
for computing the totals and various statistical deviances for later
analysis.

What? Stop looking at me like that.

--
Dane Jackson - z u v e m b i @ u n i x b i g o t s . o r g
Confidence is simply that quiet, assured feeling you have before you
fall flat on your face.
-- Dr. L. Binder

02-20-2005, 04:51 PM

Dane Jackson <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:
>Blair P. Houghton <b@p.h> wrote:
>>
>> Oh, and my team "won". Although, Heather picked the
>> winner by closing her eyes and selecting one of her
>> post-it notes with the team members at random...
>
>The engineer in me cries out to fix this 'problem'. I have no doubt
>this could be solved with some magnets, some reed switches or
>inductive coils, a passle of AD sample boards and a modest PC chassis
>for computing the totals and various statistical deviances for later
>analysis.
>
>What? Stop looking at me like that.

I've been thinking about spin-rooms with PowerTaps
networked to displays so you can see your output and
everyone else's on the front wall.

But spin class isn't about competition. That'd just drive
away the people who need it most. The closest it should
get is what Heather did. Mock competition with no way to
decide who's winning or losing.

If the display was just on the bike, and accurate, it'd
go a long way to calibrating your resistance.

--Blair
"I also want an odometer."

02-20-2005, 04:51 PM

Dane Jackson <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:
>Blair P. Houghton <b@p.h> wrote:
>>
>> Oh, and my team "won". Although, Heather picked the
>> winner by closing her eyes and selecting one of her
>> post-it notes with the team members at random...
>
>The engineer in me cries out to fix this 'problem'. I have no doubt
>this could be solved with some magnets, some reed switches or
>inductive coils, a passle of AD sample boards and a modest PC chassis
>for computing the totals and various statistical deviances for later
>analysis.
>
>What? Stop looking at me like that.

I've been thinking about spin-rooms with PowerTaps
networked to displays so you can see your output and
everyone else's on the front wall.

But spin class isn't about competition. That'd just drive
away the people who need it most. The closest it should
get is what Heather did. Mock competition with no way to
decide who's winning or losing.

If the display was just on the bike, and accurate, it'd
go a long way to calibrating your resistance.

--Blair
"I also want an odometer."

02-23-2005, 01:16 PM

Blair P. Houghton <b@p.h> wrote:
>
> I've been thinking about spin-rooms with PowerTaps
> networked to displays so you can see your output and
> everyone else's on the front wall.
>
> But spin class isn't about competition. That'd just drive
> away the people who need it most. The closest it should
> get is what Heather did. Mock competition with no way to
> decide who's winning or losing.

Bah!!!

"Conan! What is best in life?"
"To crush your enemies -- See them driven before you,
and to hear the lamentation of their women!"
>
> If the display was just on the bike, and accurate, it'd
> go a long way to calibrating your resistance.

True, I suppose the varying resistances would make it hard anyway
to have any kind of meaningful comparison.

Though, if you added some cranks with a powertap...

--
Dane Jackson - z u v e m b i @ u n i x b i g o t s . o r g
Star Wars is adolescent nonsense; Close Encounters is obscurantist drivel;
Star Trek can turn your brains to puree of bat guano; and the greatest
science fiction series of all time is Doctor Who! And I'll take you all
on, one-by-one or all in a bunch to back it up!
-- Harlan Ellison

02-23-2005, 01:16 PM

Blair P. Houghton <b@p.h> wrote:
>
> I've been thinking about spin-rooms with PowerTaps
> networked to displays so you can see your output and
> everyone else's on the front wall.
>
> But spin class isn't about competition. That'd just drive
> away the people who need it most. The closest it should
> get is what Heather did. Mock competition with no way to
> decide who's winning or losing.

Bah!!!

"Conan! What is best in life?"
"To crush your enemies -- See them driven before you,
and to hear the lamentation of their women!"
>
> If the display was just on the bike, and accurate, it'd
> go a long way to calibrating your resistance.

True, I suppose the varying resistances would make it hard anyway
to have any kind of meaningful comparison.

Though, if you added some cranks with a powertap...

--
Dane Jackson - z u v e m b i @ u n i x b i g o t s . o r g
Star Wars is adolescent nonsense; Close Encounters is obscurantist drivel;
Star Trek can turn your brains to puree of bat guano; and the greatest
science fiction series of all time is Doctor Who! And I'll take you all
on, one-by-one or all in a bunch to back it up!
-- Harlan Ellison

02-23-2005, 07:06 PM

>> But spin class isn't about competition. That'd just drive
>> away the people who need it most. The closest it should
>> get is what Heather did. Mock competition with no way to
>> decide who's winning or losing.

>Bah!!!

>"Conan! What is best in life?"
>"To crush your enemies -- See them driven before you,
> and to hear the lamentation of their women!"

ummm. that's a paraphrase of Genghis Khaan
except that he also mentioned riding their horses.

--
mac the naïf

02-23-2005, 07:06 PM

>> But spin class isn't about competition. That'd just drive
>> away the people who need it most. The closest it should
>> get is what Heather did. Mock competition with no way to
>> decide who's winning or losing.

>Bah!!!

>"Conan! What is best in life?"
>"To crush your enemies -- See them driven before you,
> and to hear the lamentation of their women!"

ummm. that's a paraphrase of Genghis Khaan
except that he also mentioned riding their horses.

--
mac the naïf

02-23-2005, 07:59 PM

On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 22:16:30 -0000, Dane Jackson wrote:
> Blair P. Houghton <b@p.h> wrote:
>>
>> I've been thinking about spin-rooms with PowerTaps
>> networked to displays so you can see your output and
>> everyone else's on the front wall.
>>
>> But spin class isn't about competition. That'd just drive
>> away the people who need it most. The closest it should
>> get is what Heather did. Mock competition with no way to
>> decide who's winning or losing.
>
> Bah!!!
>
> "Conan! What is best in life?"
> "To crush your enemies -- See them driven before you,
> and to hear the lamentation of their women!"

Hey that's the motto of my rides! :-) Except that Gina tends to out
last some of us so it's the guys who quietly lamemnt. ;-)

Actually it should be worded:

"To crush your enemies -- See them dropped behind you and the hear their
lament slowly fade in the distance" :-) Now if I could only keep up
with the real racers!

--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
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