Hello again! I’m still working on my IDEA World recaps, but we’ve made it to Friday! It was one of the longest days of my life, but not in a bad way! (Well, it didn’t feel so great on Saturday, but that’s a post for another day.)

Friday morning, I woke up at 4:30 and could not fall back asleep. I think my body was so physically stressed from all the exercise the previous day that it was on high alert. Around 6am, I got up and had a Luna bar and half a nectarine before starting the conference.

My first workshop was another Schwinn class, this one on intervals in cycling. The instructor went over different types of intervals, and talked about studies that supported them.

-HIIT: going above the lactate threshold for a short period of time, with varying recovery times.

-This type of interval has been around forever (early 1900s).

-When riders can decide how long to recover between intervals, most self-select 2 minutes.

-HIIT is really hard! It’s physiologically stressful, so only do it 1-2 times a week. Schwinn really emphasizes cross training (weight lifting/yoga), which I think is amazing! When cycling, you’re in a pretty crunched up position, so if this is all you do, there will be imbalances. Sidenote: I never realized how much shoulder/back is used during cycling until I took 3 classes a day, and then got on a massage chair.

-When instructing intervals, make sure the riders know exactly what they’re in for: how it should feel, and how long.

-Some real bike races start with a “cold start,” meaning the bike is not moving. We did a set of intervals from a stopped position, and that was definitely something different!

-For all out efforts, make sure to offer proper recovery. Suggested: sing-a-longs. If not properly recovered, riders won’t be able to sing.

-HIIT intervals are all out efforts. They are usually shorter workouts, and the studies backing them up are of short workouts. An hour long HIIT class is not true HIIT.

-Tabata interval is 4 minutes with 20s work, 10s off. The study only looked at 4 minutes of work, not tabata after tabata after tabata. This is way over applied. It’s not necessarily bad, but the science isn’t there backing this up one way or another.

-Here’s a sample of a workout you can do: the Copenhagen intervals.

5 minutes. Each minute is:

10s anaerobic (breathless)

20s hard effort (edge of breathless, difficult work)

30s moderate (still working, but not crazy)

Rest for 2 minutes, and do 5 sets.

After my fueling issues the previous day, I wanted to be smarter and more efficient with my calories. I immediately made a flapjacked protein smoothie with the mix and some milk. This was absolutely perfect.

My next session was ICG, and the focus was on power numbers when cycling.

Power is a equation of leg speed x resistance in cycling. The ICG bikes calculate different power zones based on your FTP, or functional threshold power. This is the highest average power a rider can generate when cycling for an hour. The bikes can calculate your FTP based on a 5 minute time trial, and then they light up different colors based on the percent of the FTP you’re working at. It’s super cool! The instructor then gives you instructions based on what color zone you should be riding in, and the front of your bike lights up in that color. It seems like focusing on power is the new trend in cycling (more on this later), and in a lot of ways it’s better than training based off of heart rate because the heart rate is your physiological response to the intensity, whereas the power is the raw intensity.

For this session, we did a really extensive (read: hard) warm-up before doing the 5 minute FTP test. The bikes can also estimate your FTP based off a variety of factors, such as general fitness level, gender, and bodyweight. This is great because you wouldn’t have to do an FTP test for every ride, and new riders would have something to go off of. However, my estimated FTG was way higher than my measured FTP (possibly because my legs were already dead), so trying to stay in the color zone combined with an already tough workout was HARD. Finally, we did our FTP test and then continued the ride with our calculated FTP.

After class, I SPRINTED to the cafe at the Convention Center for lunch. Need. Fuel.

I got a southwest salad with chicken and used light Italian dressing and BBQ sauce as dressing. I also had baked chips because I also felt like I really needed salt! (And carbs.)

After eating, I went back to the expo to check out a few more things.

Highlights: cheerios overnight oats and monk fruit sweetened chocolate/hot chocolate.

Then, it was back to the Schwinn room! I broke into my emergency Cheerios.

This session was on how to WOW as an instructor. Basically, how to make your classes love you! Takeaways:

-Know the club culture, know the class culture.

-Know the members and the staff. Learn names!

-Know your brand. I talked about this in my first post that I wrote on my phone immediately after exiting this session. My brand is my passion. My why is getting to watch and help people transform.

-Study motivation speakers and rock stars to see their presence.

-Have a consistent instruction style, do drills that are actually backed up by science and then share that information!

-Change up your coaching language to keep it interesting.

-Pretend the mic doesn’t work and practice commanding the room (you are forced to have a bigger presence without a voice.)

-End with a “mic drop” moment. People are giving you an hour of their lives, bring it home strong and make them feel glad they came.

-Know your own coaching style and own it.

This instructor was up for the group fitness instructor of the year award, and I can see why. This class was awesome. The best classes are the ones that make you really dig deep and get emotional. The ones that push you to the place that’s almost magical, where you can feel yourself changing. This was my third cycling class of the day, but as I mentioned in the other post, I hit a crazy high power number.

After class, I typed up the post and drank a (free) LaCroix from the expo.

I didn’t even know this was possible, but I got a nasty and super painful bruise on my ankle after class. The rooms had chairs next to the bikes, and when unclipping from the pedals I hit my ankle super hard on the chair, and it immediately started swelling. LaCroix as a fancy ice pack…?

After the session, I left the Convention Center for my next session and was exposed to the elements. I was inside most of the week, and it was SUPER cold.

I ate a NuGo bar in my next session. I really wanted to wait for food until dinner, but I was dying. It was amazing.

My last session was a lecture only: food myths. It was pretty good, but not amazing. I think everyone has their own nutrition philosophies. I don’t agree with everything she said, but I agreed with some of the things.

-Addictive sugar studies have only shown sugar is addictive in rats. Is this really applicable to humans?

-1% of people have Celiacs, and 6-7% have a non-Celiac gluten sensitivity. However, 20-30% of people have cut gluten from their diet because they think it’s healthier. It’s not unhealthy unless you have one of the above issues.

-Coconut oil? Unsaturated fat has heart protective fats, so if you replace those with coconut oil, you’re losing that protectiveness. Not necessarily bad alone, but bad because it replaces something healthy.

-Most people eat too much protein. You only really need 0.8 g/kg bodyweight per day.

-95% of people who lose weight will regain it in 5 years.

-The “all natural” food label doesn’t mean anything legally.

-Juicing can offer a lot of antioxidants (depending on the juice) but still offers a sugar surge.

-Organic foods are not shown to be healthier for consumers, but better for the health of farm workers and the environment.

After the session, I rushed to the magic baseball room to catch an inning of a game before foraging for dinner. My hotel had a number of restaurants, including sushi. I wanted sushi, but there was a wait so I hit up the buffet since I figured they would have sushi. I for sure didn’t get my money’s worth at the buffet, but a Las Vegas buffet is for sure an experience.

I’m pretty sure the foods were 50% fat/oil.

I made myself a salad bar salad, and then got my sushi. I also tried some “Mexican street corn,” which was super mayonnaise-y and soggy, mashed potatoes (mostly butter), and salmon. I left most of the corn for obvious reasons!

I had a small dessert of soft serve and a few bites of cheesecake.

As far as my night, I actually had big plans! I decided that I’m in Vegas and I’m 23 years old, so I should actually go out an do something! When I was walking around with my sister, I saw a few signs for things. I ended up being myself a ticket to see the Chainsmokers at Encore. *Another note: dress code is enforced. I saw someone get kicked out of line for wearing shorts. Here’s a look at my outfit:

I got there a little bit early and explored Encore, looking for a TV playing the Giant’s game.

I finally found a bar with the game on and watched while sipping a gin and tonic.

Can I just say though, going to a NIGHTCLUB in VEGAS is so intimidating. But I decided I needed to just own it and go for it and have fun.

The club was apparently (one of if not) the best in the country? And it was absolutely incredible.

After waiting in line FOREVER, I was finally in. I grabbed another (CRAZY expensive) drink and walked around a little, exploring. I tried my luck at Blackjack and instantly lost $40. I just got really unlucky, and decided that there was no reason to throw away any more money. I see how it would be so easy to do though!

The thing about going to a club alone is that it’s not a huge deal. I made friends.

I did learn, however, that The Chainsmokers were not supposed to come on until 1:30am. Gulp. It was 11:30pm at this point. Would I stay for them…?

I did. And it was absolutely amazing. The club was really awesome and had great energy. Everything I like about this atmosphere is what I like about a spin class. I honesty think they cane really similar. It’s all about the music and the energy!

Here they are!

There was this cold steam that would sometimes shoot out of the floor.

And confetti.

As much fun as I was having, my energy was majorly starting to drop. Around 3, I decided to call it a night and take a cab back to my place.

By the time I reached my hotel room, I think I was more tired than I’ve ever been in my entire life (except maybe 3 hours later when my alarm was going off).

I almost slept in my clothes, and I was rushing around the room trying to get to sleep ASAP. I realized that I had been hungry around 10pm that night so I should probably eat something, so I literally ate cheerios out of a measuring cup while getting in bed.

It was honestly such an amazing night, and I’m glad I decided to just go out on my own and do something I wanted to do.

More adventures to come!