We recently sat down with Flywheel instructor, Denise Duffy, to learn a little more about her and to get all the deets on Flywheel’s upcoming Tour de France race. Thanks to Denise for spending a few minutes with us! Smarties, if you’re riding in Flywheel’s Tour de France, let us know! Post to our Facebook page with pics and deets!
How long have you lived in Charlotte? 13 years
What made you fall in love with Flywheel? The performance tracking! I’ve worked with personal training clients for years and own my own studio, SmartCore Fitness and it has never been easier to track a client’s cardio progress! Torq, RPM’s, Total Power and calories burned are just a couple of data points that are automatically calculated and uploaded to your online account immediately following class. It’s so easy to plot your progress and it gives you a little boost to constantly try to improve. Of course there are many, many other reasons I love Flywheel — our riders, our FlyFamily of instructors and support team, and our top notch facility. I constantly tell my clients it is the best cardio workout available anywhere!
What is your ‘go-to’ song to get you through a workout? Ha! this changes about every 7-10 days! I just told my riders that my current song obsession is one I borrowed from our Master Instructor in Miami, Aleah Stander — Kanye West’s Black Skinhead (Risk One Tsunami Remix) – beat is unbelievable for a sprint!
What is one thing about you that most people do not know? Fitness has been my second career for the last 15 years — For 17 years I sat behind a desk in a big corporate environment wearing a suit and high heels!
Favorite restaurant in Charlotte? Rooster’s
Guilty pleasure? Red wine and dark chocolate…..together 🙂
Tell us more about the ‘Tour de France’ events happening at Flywheel in July? This will be our third summer kicking off our Tour de France series of rides. We choose 4-5 actual stages of the Tour and we replicate the terrain in our Flywheel class on the same day the riders complete the stage in Europe. The challenge for our riders is that the stage profile can range from the mountains of the Pyrennes one day to an individual time trial on another day. We award prizes to riders for various accomplishments, e.g., who makes it over the first mountain in a ride (the Tour refers to them as “the king of the mountain”), best novice rider (The Tour awards a white jersey for this), highest Power number in the individual time trial. I am so lucky that I get to teach the Individual Time Trial stage on Saturday, July 26th – full power hour ride – extremely intense – so exciting!
Every year these classes sell out the quickest so best to reserve a bike early and wear your yellow jersey. We really get into the spirit as the Tour de France nears completion with special French specialties in the studio lobby after rides.
Here is an example of a profile — this is Stage 8 of the Tour de France and Flywheel Charlotte will replicate it on July 11th in the 9:45am class:
Here’s a general breakdown of Flywheel’s Tour De France. Go to their web site to buy and reserve classes!
7/5 – Kickoff ride 10:30 one-hour class with Steve
7/11 – Stage 8 ride with Denise at 8:30am
7/19 – Stage 14 duel at 12:30 with Matt and Sarah
7/26 – Stage 26 individual time trial with Denise at 7:15am – end ride
1 comment
Your classes are awesome!!!!