Friday, August 13th, 2010
Victory After the Tourmalet!
By Tom Scotto
One of the traditions for my indoor cycling classes is to simulate stages of the Tour de France during the 3 weeks of the tour. This year we did stages 6, 14 and 17. After the last stage and Tour was over, my riders were left a bit wanting for the European style rides [...]
Saturday, July 17th, 2010
Scoot(er) Over!
By Tom Scotto
It is great how many people are taking alternative transportation to work. Particularly those who travel in and out of the city. I aplaud you! Down near the Longwood Medical Area where I teach, there are stream of 4 to 5 connected bike racks that are busting with bikes to the point where not an [...]
Friday, May 14th, 2010
There’s No App For That
By Tom Scotto
During an email exchange among indoor cycling instructors earlier this week, I was reminded of an odd happening in my class a couple of weeks ago..
Friday, May 7th, 2010
The Beautiful Sound of Squealing Brakes!
By Tom Scotto
I’m one of those guys that likes my bike to purr. The chain needs to sound like silk passing through one’s hand and the wheels just emitting a subtle, steady hum. Shifting should be effortless and almost undetected. I’m sure I’m not alone in this. I’ve been fortunate over the years and have mostly ridden [...]
Friday, April 30th, 2010
How Versatile are You?
By Tom Scotto
As indoor cycling instructors, we each cop a style. We may be the high energy instructor, drill sergeant, mind-body guru or coach. Generally speaking, whatever style we gravitate toward usually determines how we approach our workouts from week to week.
A few of weeks ago, a couple of riders approached me after class and said “wow, [...]
Friday, April 16th, 2010
I Almost Died (For Real!!)
By Tom Scotto
I just finished teaching an indoor cycling class at Fitcorp in the Longwood Medical Area and was heading home on Brookline Ave. It was about 2:15 PM on Thursday afternoon and the traffic was heavy but not ridiculous.
I approach an 18-wheeler double-parked in front of Star Market. Stopped next to the 18-wheeler (and in my lane) [...]
Friday, February 19th, 2010
Goni & Bob – Bike Setup for the Tough Customer
By Tom Scotto
All of us at times has had a rider in our class that is not setup correctly. You’ve tried to approach them about their position (without cringing). Maybe their seat is way too low as if they were riding a BMX bike. Possibly their seat is too high as they appear to tip-toe through your [...]
Friday, January 15th, 2010
They Were In Shock – The Adventures of Creating an Indoor Cycling Certification
By Tom Scotto
You don’t want to continually warn people how hard your certification testing is because it always sounds like you’re just trying to hype things up. That was never our intention. We just wanted to give folks a heads-up that this may not be what they’ve experienced in the past. Despite the warnings and [...]
Friday, January 8th, 2010
Apparently Bicycles are Rare
By Tom Scotto
My biggest issue for this post is bike fit. Is it that stinkin hard to find a real bike somewhere in the world to model these indoor bikes from. Come on!
Friday, January 1st, 2010
Cross Bike, 700×32 Tires and Snow Mobile Trails
By Tom Scotto
2010 has arrived and, as is the Scotto tradition, we are in Rome, NY visiting Carla’s parents. Because of this, it has become my tradition to do my first ride of the year in Rome, NY. The temperatures are often colder than Boston and there is a ton snow.
The key to a successful [...]
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
Who Moved the Finish Line?
By Tom Scotto
What are those guys doing?!?! As we come out of the final turn at full tilt, two guys standing at the finish line grab the poles holding up the finish line banner and pull them out of the ground. They then start running down the road, carrying the banner over their heads. We fly past the original locaton of the finish line and continue to chase them, desparately trying to to bring this race and brutal sprint to a end. We finally catch them. I didn’t win.
Friday, October 9th, 2009
Coked Up!
By Tom Scotto
Well, some of you may or may not know that one of the “sports” drinks of choice, particularly during a criterium, is Coke. Yes Coca Cola. We often would not start with Coke in our bottles but would grab a hand-up in the feed zone.
Friday, September 25th, 2009
A New Concept: Recovery Makes the Workout Harder
By Tom Scotto
A few weeks ago I taught an explosive power workout composed of various types of sprints. We started with a 15-minute gradual warm-up followed by 4 sets of sprints of different lengths. Recovery was provided between sprints and between sets. During a 60-minute class we spent only 15 minutes at sprint intensity leaving [...]
Friday, September 18th, 2009
Nice Feedbag
By Tom Scotto
This was followed by an excalating discussion/argument over functional vs. French Press coffee.
Friday, September 11th, 2009
5:15AM and a Mouthful of Water
By Tom Scotto
I teach a few early morning indoor cycling classes in and around the Boston area. When weather permits (based more on emotion than on weather forecasts), I prefer to cycle to class. Over the last few weeks both the temperatures and available daylight have been changing (diminishing) so my emotional decision of whether [...]
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
How to Safely Launch a Sprint on an Indoor Bike
By Tom Scotto
As Jennifer Sage (IndoorCyclingInstructor.com) and I were discussing Jumps and the safety and movement of the body, another discussion started concerning sprinting in the indoor studio. Here is Jennifer’s questions that prompted this dialog and article:
“With the lack of side to side movement in the indoor bike, you wouldn’t condone the same relative side [...]
Friday, September 4th, 2009
I Stole This Guy’s Bike!
By Tom Scotto
A few weeks ago I biked downtown Boston to teach one of my indoor cycling classes. As I’m locking my bike to the rack in the parking garage under the health club, I take notice of this nice new red Trek mountain bike in the rack. I believe it was a Trek 4300 hardtail. [...]
Friday, September 4th, 2009
Jumping in the Indoor Studio
By Tom Scotto
Recently I responded to an article by Jennifer Sage on IndoorCyclingInstructor.com titled “To Jump or Not to Jump: That is the question”. We joined in to add a USA Cycling coach’s perspective taking into consideration some of the limitations of the indoor bike, safety and purpose.
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
Gun Show, Air Drumming and Some Cycling
By Tom Scotto
A number of my clients have been telling me about this “insane” indoor cycling class and instructor. This morning I decided to check it out (eventhough it caused me to get up early on a morning I don’t teach myself).
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
6..ish
By Tom Scotto
During class the instructor is yelling “seven”. My wife, uncertain to what this means, asked the rider next to her. They don’t know so my wife yells out to the instructor “what is 7?” The instructor replies, “you know….4..5..6..7″.
