Stan's class 8/9/10

This entry should have been written a long time ago! Stan is my favorite spinning instructor. Originally I wrote to Stan to see if he is available for coaching, but as he is not certified, he recommended Keith. Since last June, I have gone to as many as Stan's spin classes I could possibly go. I really feel his classes prepare me for outside ride for cardio capacity. Now that I ride outside as well, some advice he says in class make more sense. I am not quite sure if he has a real job besides being an excellent spinning instructor, but I hope he can keep it doing for a long time! He collects students'email addresses once in a while and sends out "Spin to Win" newsletter. There he shares interesting articles, links to ride information and shares his playlist. Then when I send him email for question or thanking, he promptly replies. How sweet! I don't interact him as a friend, but after a while, as I am in a people-dealing business, I start to see what he is like as a person. His enthusiasm towards the sport can't be hidden. He has enough wit and humor to be likeable, yet enough professionalism to get the business done. I don't know cycling, but I do know teaching. He sure knows how to teach. Maybe Lance Armstrong is a better cyclist, but I think Stan is a far better instructor! I don't probably need to say it because his class is packed! On Saturday morning 9:30 class, people know that there is a line outside of the studio as we have to set up spin bike as the gym does not have a dedicated spinning studio. It is a mad house sometimes and if you don't come early enough, you may not even get a bike!

Let me give you a typical picture of what an hour is like. Stan always arrives to class plenty early. He is available to set up bikes for beginners (I can't say how much I appreciated his help on the first class with him!), giving advice to members (I asked for some today!) and just getting ready for an excellent class. Teachers know there is always technical problem and he checks on his microphone and has always battery backups. He often goes over some paper for review, for the course or script for the recovery talk and his music is burnt on CD. At the beginning he tells us to stop talking and to concentrate on the music. His care for picking right music shows. He picks good music to ride with and the tempo is matched with the cadence that you are supposed to be at.

He explains and delivers a program that lets me use as interval training. Heart is just like any other muscle and you need to strengthen it and rest it and repeat that process to make it stronger. He does not necessarily specify heart rate zone, but with his "course" description and when to make the wheel heavier (turn right) or lighter (turn left), you will get beautiful interval training. The graphics below on the top is my heart rate data from July 25 class (with my heart rate range indicated) and on the bottom is from August 2 class. Both graphics will open a full-size version in a new window when you click. Check it out!

He starts out with warm-up song reminding us that slowing it down, taking it easy with about 85 cadence. From there he mixes up with heavier/slower hills, fast/jogging hills and fast flats. He puts us in an imaginary bike race and I feel like I am riding in a team. Today we were supposed to breakaway from Peloton (yeah, I am in Peloton!) and had us look to the right and to the left to make sure I am not making any dangerous move! Unless he does some special program (you will read later), he usually plans a complete recovery as you see in my heart rate data. As if he were not riding hard enough or not talking and encouraging enough during the training, he keeps talking in this recovery and shares some interesting piece of information, be it nutrition, other sport or cycling. Today he was talking about new way of cheating in cycling where people suspected this year's Tour de France stage winner, Cancellara. Here is a NY Times article about it. At the end, he makes sure we lower the heart rate and stretch. Some of my favorite things he does are: with a Kelly Clarkson's tune, where we have to sprint for 15-30 seconds. Recently he has used this scheme of doing heavy hill climb standing up and towards the end, when I am just about in zone 5, getting closer literally to my peak heart rate, he has us sit down for the last so many seconds and tells us to turn to the right. URGH! He says it is not how you start the race, but how you FINISH it!

That is description of his rather typical class, but sometimes he has special programs and contests. There you can win his special edition one-time only CD and other prizes he arranged with sponsors. One time, he had yelling contest. Other time, he had flywheel temperature contest. Sometimes he skips recovery in the middle. Sometimes he is asked to do LSD like training, staying in zone 2. He said he had to look for elevator music. One time, he had time trial looking program.

I keep going to Stan's class anytime I can! I hope Tony can get to go to his class someday. Thank you, Stan and keep up the great work!