Beethoven Symphony No. 3: Eroica (Heroic)
Setting: Traveling through time, as we join Napoleon's armies, sweeping across Europe, riding longer, harder faster … on to victory.
Profile: Challenging, Experienced Spinners, about 52 minutes. Recommendations: Entire Four Stages (movements) can be used as a completely integrated spin session or pull out the any one of the four movements as a stage. The four together constitute an endurance ride. Fitness Objective: Only three breaks in 52 or so minutes. Running with resistance in Stage I and IV, an extreme climb in Stage II, and high cadence sprinting in Stage III. The four stages together constitute a strength and endurance ride. To listen to a complete performance to the Third Symphony: Click Here |
Stage I. A dead run against substantial resistance as we rise Napoleon's armies sweeping across Europe. Our steel spin bikes are magically transformed into mighty horses of war. We charge ahead, have brief respites, as if we in this single ride realize a dozen campaigns with the little corporal. Position changes scripted to the score, this is a 15 minute endurance ride, with an average cadence above 80, and cavalry charges against the enemy. Charge!!!
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Stage II. Every great struggle has its casualties. Gray skies, cold. Our of our most trusted commanders has been killed, and we must pull his coffin up the hill for burial. Anguished faces, cries, an aggrieved widow, salutes in honor of his memory, and fond reminiscences of a hero as we pull, pull, pull up through the mud to his final resting place. Very slow cadence, very high resistance as we pull, pull, pull.
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Stage III. The regimental races of the cavalry, racing across the open plains at cadence above 100. Triple meter, with either the left pedal or the right on the downbeat -- we feel horses hooves underneath us. Feeling the force, the sheer energy. We pause as the signal corps bow their horns in concert, and then -- back off the the races!
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Stage IV. Portraits of our hero. Campaigns recollected, stories told, victories and defeats, fond reminiscences and a final grand salute. But one last story: a remembrance of that darkest hour, when on the smoke filled battlefield, we inched ahead through the fog, not knowing if our 50 minute struggle will end in victory or defeat.
Cadences in the 60's but with double-time spurts. To go back to "Biking to Beethoven" Click Here |