Vegas: Rest is For the Dead (Chainsmokers)

Date: July 24, 2017

Author: astottler

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!

Vegas: All the Cycling, All the Food, None of the Sleep

Date: July 24, 2017

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I hope you enjoyed my first true Vegas post! Next, I’m going to recap day 2. Let’s just say, things kicked up a notch. So….as a cycling instructor I signed up for a lot of cycling sessions. And then I realized that from Wednesday-Sunday, I would be essentially taking 11 50ish minute spin classes. DEAR LORD.

Thursday was the first real day of the conference. My morning started with a 7am session, so I rolled out of bed just after 5:30 and shoved a granola bar in my face.

My first session was just a ride with Stages. This was called “The Power of the Dork Side.”

They used a big screen to take us through a science fiction movie themed ride. My favorite part was the Back to the Future themed part, where they showed scenes from the movie and forced us to pedal fast enough to travel through time. The screen also had our bike effort level. We did a time trial at max effort at the start of class, and the computer on the bike calculated different work zones based off of this (i.e.: work at 70% of max, and it would flash up a particular color).

It was pretty cool! The screen is definitely a fun distraction.

This was for sure my hardest day in terms of exercise, partly combined with a late night prior. After my 7am session, I quickly drank chocolate milk before heading into Schwinn for my next workshop.

At this point, my metabolism was definitely humming along, and I broke into cheerios during the lecture portion of the workshop. Sidenote: I brought an entire box of Apple Cinnamon cheerios and this was an amazing decision. I ate a bag or two every single day of the conference.

Schwinn: Teaching Tips from TED

This workshop was really interesting: they speakers compared leading a cycling class to doing a TED talk. This session really focused on how I, as the leader of a class, should present myself. Here are some takeaways:

-TED talks are great because they are passionate, entertaining, educational, humorous. We want cycling classes to be the same. We have to draw the students in, and try to make class feel like no time has passed.

-The big parts of presentation (just like any persuasive essay from high school) have logos (logical appeal), ethos (credibility) and pathos (emotional appeal). A cycling class is no different. You obviously want to establish credibility (NEVER lie to your students about what’s ahead, i.e. “Sprint for 30s….JUST KIDDING ONE MORE MINUTE). Your riders need to trust you. You establish this not just through credentials, but based on how you look, act, and lead class.

-The first 30 seconds of class are incredibly important, like a TED talk. Draw the class in, command the room, and let them know what’s in it for them!

-Tell stories (emotional appeal), but be relevant and have a point.

-End class with a bang, because this is what students remember. It could be a high energy push, but it could also be a slow hill, with a carefully selected song to pull on the heartstrings (I love doing this too. Their suggestion was OneRepublic’s I Lived, but there are a few the Fray songs I like for this.)

The format of the cycling workshops was to do a lecture, and then a full ride to see how the information is applied.

After the ride, I was exhausted and famished. I downed a mini-protein bar before heading to Opening Ceremonies back at my hotel (it was literally right next to the Convention Center where most of the conference took place.)

At the opening ceremonies, they present awards and have motivational speakers. It’s always so inspiring! Admittedly, I left before the keynote speaker because I was STARVING. I grabbed another Greek salad from the hotel cafe and headed up to my room because I had a break.

Plus a bar.

Because there was a break, I had time for a short but much needed nap.

My first afternoon session was Olympic Lifting! This was mostly about coaching Olympic Lifting. I love Oly, and honestly would love to coach it, but it’s just not a priority right now and probably ever. We learned different progressions for the lifts, though I am familiar them.

Progressions for basic movements (start at one and move on when the previous movement is mastered)

Squat: Bodyweight squat to back squat to front squat to overhead squat.

Press: push up, strict press, push press, power jerk, split jerk.

Clean: hang power clean, power clean, hang squat clean, squat clean.

We practiced the progressions with a PVC pipe equivalent, and then worked with partners giving cues.

The biggest takeaway: FORM is so important! Spend a lot of time working with lighter weights an perfect technique, and only a little time working with heavy weights. I can attest that this is important. In my experience, you can instantly PR if you make a technique adjustment.

At this point, my body was HURTING. I was tired from a late night, and my legs were DONE from the back to back mooring cycling classes. I had another break before my last session, so I went to the Fitness and Nutrition Expo in hopes of finding some free samples with magic energy.

I didn’t try a ton. These things are a lot less fun when you’re allergic to EVERYTHING, but here are a few fun finds!

Cottage cheese with blueberry at the bottom. SO delicious. I love sweet with cottage cheese (I love pumpkin butter with cottage cheese!), and the protein was much, much needed.

Dried figs.

Yogurt-like cheese that was delicious. Like less-tart yogurt.

Super good bars that are literally just bananas.

And finally, life:

Coffee. I know I don’t do caffeine because I don’t do well with it, but this was so necessary. And freaking amazing. They had samples on tap, and I figured a small amount was just the right amount! These canned lattes from La Colombe are super frothy, which I loved. And caffeine.

Finally, it was time for my last session! Another cycling!

This was run by Keiser, and I was pumped to walk in and realize these are the bikes I teach on! This workshop was a really fun one, thankfully, because my legs were done. This was cycling karaoke! Yes, it’s literally exactly what it sounds like, and it’s amazing. I loved the instructor, who was full of personality, and who doesn’t secretly love karaoke? In this class, we cycling to all karaoke music, meaning we listened to popular songs without lyrics, and had a screen with the lyrics displayed. Everyone sang at once, but we also passed the mic around so one person would be projected over the speaker. The instructor walked around the class offering the mic. Fun fact: it’s a lot harder to cycle when you’re singing. It’s hard to breathe. Know that instructors have the same problem when speaking while teaching: it’s harder work to talk/sing while exercising!

i had such a blast I literally didn’t notice I was exercising. I definitely needed that!

Then, I got cleaned up for the IDEA conference party. I didn’t really make friends this year and I didn’t know anyone, so I felt a little weird going solo, but there was food! The first thing I did was get a beer at the hotel bar, because after 3 cycling classes it was much needed.

I’m going to show you my outfit of the night because real people clothes!

For my meal, I had a salad and chicken stir fry over rice.

I decided to not really spend time at the party and call it an early night after a long day. Instead, I got froyo at the 24 hour froyo place (!) in my hotel and carried it to the room with all the Sports screens to watch the Giant’s game.

Chocolate and cheesecake froyo with butterscotch and chocolate chips.

Back in the room I watched some TV shows and ate a Bobo’s chocolate chip banana oat bar. It’s my first time trying this flavor and it was so good!

One thing I do want to mention was the interesting challenge of fueling myself properly. On this particular day, I had a stomachache most of the day. I was constantly hungry and full, because I was burning SO many calories. And the unfortunate fact of the matter is, while my stomach condition is way better than it used to be and is rarely an issue, I still have trouble digesting large amounts of food. So going over my normal daily calories, despite the fact I needed fuel, left me feeling sick, especially at night after froyo+granola bar. After that day, I had to be smarter about what my calories were and when I ate them, and it definitely helped!

Coming up next: actually one of the longest days of my life!

Vegas: Schwinn and the Craziest Drink

Date: July 23, 2017

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! I’m currently blogging at you from the Las Vegas airport! I have….a while…before my flight, so I’m going to knock out some of my recap posts from this weekend. If you didn’t know, I went to IDEA World, a huge conference for fitness professionals. I’m going to go in chronological order and share some of the information from the sessions, as well as Vegas adventures! My heart is full and my metabolism is blazing (seriously, constantly hungry). I also want to share as much as I can about what I ate during this conference, because what you eat during something like this is an interesting new challenge.

My flight landed right around dinnertime Tuesday night. The Vegas airport cracks me up. Thanks to slot machines right at the gates, you instantly know you’re in Vegas.

Balloon at check-in, because why not? I was staying at the host hotel for IDEA World, which was SO SO SO nice. Also, not a terrible price!

(View from my room.)

I went to this conference 2 years ago and had an absolute blast. The energy actually felt life-changing. On the way to my hotel, I was thinking about where I was 2 years ago versus where I am now. Had 2 years ago Aurora seen what I am and what my life is now, she honestly wouldn’t have changed a thing. While this was my last hurrah before vet school (in two weeks…eeek), I really felt like I was living the life. I got to spend all day learning and doing what I love, and got to do the whole “fun young person thing” at night.

The first thing I did was grab a Greek salad from the hotel cafe. I got ketchup for the chicken, and the cashier definitely made fun of me for that…#no shame.

Knowing I had a big week ahead, I called it an early night. I spent some time wandering around the giant hotel, and found a room with the biggest sports TVs and every imaginable game on. It’s for betting, but whatever. I definitely spent some time there pretty much every day. I love my boys!

Before I knew it, Wednesday morning was here! I did a pre conference Schwinn indoor cycling certification. I am currently certified through Spinning, but my certification is expiring in a few months and I chose not to renew it again. I feel like Schwinn is a little bit more in line with the future, and I was no longer able to find any Spinning in-person workshops for continuing education. And honestly I think a lot of the online options for credit are a waste of money for what you gain.

I packed a ton of food, and grabbed a few fresh things at the airport when I arrived. Day 1 breakfast was yogurt with cheerios and a nectarine that I brought. I knew I could have something a little bit heavier because it would be a few hours before I would be riding. Most days I had a Luna bar for breakfast.

Let’s do it—Day 1!

The certification was 8-5, and taught by 2 of Schwinn’s top master trainers, Jeffrey Scott and Amy Dixon. I went to some of their workshops at IDEA last time!

We learned the basics of bike fit, as well as the main tenets of a good class. We had 2 bike rides during the day, one right before lunch and one at the end of the day.

For lunch, I packed food from home before I left. A sunbutter and peach jam sandwich on GF bread, plus snap peas.

I had a bar in the afternoon, as well as a GF sea salt chocolate chip cookie that my sister brought me from the airport restaurant at SFO with amazing GF cookies.

I want to talk a little bit about Schwinn, and the difference between Schwinn and Spinning, because I am now currently certified in both. Both are based on riding like you would outside: no gimmicks; if you wouldn’t do it on a real bike, we won’t do it in spin class. This is definitely how I teach. Honestly, I think I teach about halfway between Spinning and Schwinn (maybe because I went to a number of Schwinn workshops before!). The biggest difference is in class structure and music selection. Spinning I think is a little bit more old school: you mimic a real ride with hills and flat road, and music is not necessarily the banging modern music; a lot of times they encourage instrumental. Schwinn is more of what you might see at Equinox or a high end gym: while it is divided into hills and flats, it’s more time interval based, both for sprint efforts and steady state. They also really emphasize the science behind each type of work, and HIIT (high intensity interval training) is a big focus. This day honestly really solidified my knowledge, and my identity as an instructor. Here are a few of my big takeaways:

-Most people have their seats too low. A longer leg=more power. With one foot at the top and one foot at the bottom of a pedal stroke, there should be a slight bend in the knee (Spinning always says a 30 degree angle).

-Schwinn really emphasizes their “coaching pyramid.” The main tenets are content (how long you do something, the intensity, the leg speed), clarity (what the ride is) and perspective (where you are in the class). The frame is coaching.

-It’s really important to let riders know exactly what they’re doing and what’s coming (in the near future), as well as give a brief overview of what the class is going to include that day. This is something I really emphasize as an instructor for a couple reasons: 1. It drives me crazy when I’m in a spin class and it’s unclear what I’m supposed to be doing and 2. People will work harder if they have a known end point. For instance, if you tell riders they have to sprint for 15 seconds only, they will go all out.

-Build the class before the music. I used to find music as I built the class, but lately I’ve been leaning ore towards building the class first anyways. It’s just more efficient. I let the music inspire the class sometimes, but I do think I will build the class first more in the future.

-Have a purpose or a theme of class. This lets the students know what they should be doing, and it gives class a direction. It could be something like “HIIT intervals,” or “steady state,” or even something fun, with themed music, or simulating a ride outside. (Anybody remember my Thanksgiving ride that I taught in a turkey hat, and simulated Thanksgiving day?)

-Schwinn encourages teaching with a rate of perceived exertion. Instead of complicated numbers, it’s easy, moderate, hard, or breathless.

Things that I intend on working on: build my classes with more of a purpose, and my overall presence in the room (more on that in another post!).

The two rides were incredible. The instructors are the best of the best, and therefore they really were able to push and motivate me! I left totally beat, even though it was only 2 classes (note I’m saying “only” 2….there’s a little foreshadowing for ya!).

In terms of outside of conference activities, my amazing sister decided to come up and stay with me for one night (hence the GF airport cookies), so we made the most of it! She found a fancy restaurant for us to go to in the Wynn hotel. *Note: a lot of places in Vegas had dress codes that were definitely enforced, i.e. no shorts/flip flops.

We got all dolled up and enjoyed walking around Wynn en route to Andrea’s.

I’ve never been inside the Wynn before, and had no idea it was so fun and whimsical (and elegant, of course). (I’ve been to Vegas a number of times, but always for softball tournaments in high school, so I mostly laid eyes on the strip and didn’t go inside places).

This is how you know it’s fancy: they asked us if we had a water preference—Fiji, San Pelligrino, or “house water.”<- That cracks me up.

Our dinner came with a little cucumber garlic gazpacho taste.

To start, we got truffle salt edamame. Why have I never thought of this before?? Amazing.

We got matching beautiful cocktails. They had Asian pear, lime, hibiscus syrup (and I couldn’t tell you what else). Yum!

For my meal, I got a salad with sesame ginger dressing and fried scallions, and an avocado roll.

Then, we headed to Paris for a rooftop beer park, with over 100 beers!

The inside of Paris was super trippy. The ceilings were painted like sky and it was actually really realistic!

And of course, here’s the eiffel tower:

I liked the beer park a lot. Maybe it was because it was a Wednesday, but it was super casual and we had a chance to just talk. I got a brown beer that I really liked! My sister got a vanilla stout, but the stout was light in color…interesting!

After, my sister wanted to walk across the street to the Cosmopolitan because of their “wildly inventive” drinks and giant chandeliers.

Folks, wildly inventive was correct. My sister got something with passionfruit and curry (and coconut, so I couldn’t try it), and then we split the craziest drink. I’m not kidding. We looked at the menu, and ordered the drink without any idea what any of it actually meant. After getting the drink, we realized it was Willy Wonka themed. I’ll get the description for you off their website:

“SChNOzBERRIES TASTE LIKE SChNOzBERRIES

a multi-sensory experience

dragonberry Rum, Sloe Gin, Aperol, Pickled Strawberry Lychee Pink Peppercorn Shrub, over a Miracleberry Ginger Gobstopper Ice Sphere with a scented Lolligarden”

Check it out:

Imagine our surprise when our drink came with a plant! It’s literally a lollipop garden.

But wait, there’s more! It for sure was multi sensory because…

They put fruity essential oils on the plant, and “watered” it with liquid nitrogen.

The drink was pretty good! Did you catch it that it had miracle berries? If you’re not familiar with them, they’re the magic berries that make everything (including really sour things) taste sweet. So the drink got sweeter as you drank it! It was fruity, and had a ginger ball of snow “gobstopper.” I didn’t have much of this because it was getting late, but I did enjoy the lollipop! It was sweet on one side and sour on the other, but after the miracle berry, it was completely sweet until the berry’s effects wore off!

It was so nice to have a girls’ night. It’s been SO long!

Since this is a mostly full day of eating, I had the second of the two GF cookies my sister brought me when we got back, this one a snickerdoodle!

We were in bed before 1, but my 5:30 alarm the next morning came far too soon.

More fun and information to come!