Salt Lake City — By Jared Eborn
Any cyclist serious about getting faster knows there’s magic in that singular word. They may accept that it’s a certain type of dark magic, but there’s no denying the power and benefit that stands to be gained from throwing a regular dose of interval training into your workouts.
With summer coming to a close, some may think the time for interval training is gone for a few months.
Those people would be wrong. And Jim Noble, owner of the new Ride On cycling studio in Sugarhouse wants to make sure people realize the offseason is actually as good a time as any to suffer on the bike.
“Intervals are fun. They get your students excited and involved,” Noble said. “For those who have students who tend to get bored, intervals seem to keep those students engaged and happy.”
Ride On, a cycling-specific workout studio with about two dozen bikes and a handful of trained instructors, is not your average spin class. With performance in mind, Ride On mixes the social aspect of your normal rec center cycling class with some fine-tuned workouts that will give regular attendees noticeable results when in the saddle.
One of the keys, Noble said, is the proper use of interval training.
“Intervals can be very confusing to new instructors and students, but even long-time instructors can get the equation wrong,” Noble said. “There are general rules of thumb that exist as to how long the recovery should be, such as at least 1-to-1 ratio, but this general rule doesn’t always apply. There are so many considerations that determine how hard you should go, how long you should recover and how many total intervals you should do before they become unproductive. The latter is probably one of the more important things to learn about interval training because there are not only diminishing returns to too many high intensity efforts, there can also be some negative fallout.”
Creating a proper interval workout takes education. At Ride On, Noble uses instructors who ‘get it’ and don’t stray from the cycling-only focus the new business specializes in.
“We’ve both been to too many classes that “weren’t doing it right”. This is what spawned the creation of Ride-On Indoor Cycling Studio,’ Noble, who started the business with his wife, Andrea, said, ”Indoor cycling is all we do and paying attention to the details, safety and getting it right is what we specialize in.”
Of course, Ride On won’t require being a Cat 2 racer. Soccer moms, newbies and riders of all levels are welcome. While intervals might be on the agenda for the day, each class participant is able to create their own experience if they’d prefer not to match the intensity of the rest of the class.
Through proper coaching, you can modify the level of the spin workout to match that of your own goals and abilities and not that of the coach.
“At Ride-On a session can be as challenging and rewarding to a world class athlete while at the same time completed comfortably by someone is who is just starting out or trying to regain their fitness. The bikes are all equipped with a well designed resistance knob, which is yours to use as you’d like.”
Whether your goal is to become faster, to win bike races or simply to lose a few pounds and become more fit, Ride On is designed to get you there from the comfort, safety and convenience of its cycling-specific studio.
