Women's seminar topics

I know many women on this board have attended a women specific cycling seminar. I am currently planning our program for April and wanted to see what folks really liked about this seminars. What topics were covered? Wine & cheese? Special guest speakers? I'm up for all ideas.

Our first year, we had two local racers who started up a womens team. They were terrific since they spoke on training, racing, and exercising while raising children.

Our second year, we had a local team manager. She concentrated on proper nutrition and hygene.

This last year, we were visited by the Trek WSD demo. Since we only carry Lemond and Gary Fisher, the two Trek women spoke specifically on the importance of proper fit no matter the style of riding. We didn't have the Trek bikes to demo. I also did a brief maintenance talk for those wanting to hang around.

Each year we have always provided wine, healthy snacks, water, and soft drinks.

Thanks ahead of time for all of your imput.

Training to increase speed.

Training to improve climbing.

Training on a limited time schedule.

Touring: gear, routes, riding alone.

Crossing over from road to MTB, or vice versa. The differences between the 2 styles.

I would recommend hands on bike maintenance. I went to a clinic where we brought our own bikes and we did the "repairs" as the instructor talked us through them. The instructor also walked around and helped as individually based on the types of bikes we had. Actually doing a tire change rather than watching someone do it made the world of difference to me when I got my first flat while on a ride. I know this helped me tremendously in getting over my fear of riding long distances alone.

How about women's nutritional needs.

Who is your target audience other than a generic label of women? New to riding? Wanting to race? Wanting to ride a century? Want to mtb? Commuting? You could go crazy trying to be all things to women. Are you advertising anywhere and who reads it?

I'll second Sulis' idea of hands-on bike maintenance. Wish I could get one of the LBSs around here to do a class on that.

Also, this might be an opportunity to get more women riding. If you have clubs in the area--and I'm sure you must--do they have sub-groups for new or slower riders? Maybe that could be one thing you advertise or try to promote interest in at the seminar. Have women sign up for an introductory ride and see how they like it. Anyway, that's what I'd do. I ride with the slower women at the back of the pack in the club I ride with, and we're always on the lookout for more women who might want to come out and try it.

Mental training for athletes is always a good one, as many skills can be applied else where...

Bikemom - I'm a St Louis rider and would love to know more about your seminar. Is this a closed seminar, or open to the public? I'm fairly new to this and would welcome any available avenue of learning ... You can PM me if you need a mailing address or more info. Thanks!

Liberty

Great replies from everyone - please keep them coming.

SadieKate - terrific question on target audience. Our shop is generally frequented by the casual rider/beginning cyclist. We sell many hybrids along with the under $1500 road and mountain bike. The full suspension market in St. Louis was rather flat this year. In the past, our goals have been to get the newer cyclist - looking for women who were re-entering the exercise market - usually age 40 - 60. Our 1st seminar had 6 participants. The 2nd year was 20 women. This year we had 44 women!!

I'm just trying to find out what folks want in a women specific seminar. I regularly have women's maintenance classes - both fix a flat and basic maintenance. My last fix a flat had 15 women - it was terrific seeing them all change a tire on their own - often for the first time!!

Another idea for a seminar: clipless pedals
Why clipless?
Types of pedals and cleats, bolt patterns, etc.
Types of shoes for clipless - road vs. mountain
How to get started with them (on the trainer, on grass) as well as literally how to start riding (i.e., clip in on one side, rotate foot up, push off, clip in with second foot when you're able, that kind of thing). Little things that we clipless users take for granted that are so foreign to new clipless users...
How to stop and get out of your pedals before it's too late.
Clip in first and out first always on the same side or not...

Judging by the number of threads on this forum with clipless questions, I think this would be well attended!

Emily

emily - good idea!

I noted in your first post you mentioned training with children then you mention a target audience of 40-60 yo. I originally thought that I don't care about the kids' part but some do so I didn't mention it. But not very applicable to your target audience. Just thought I'd mention it.

SouthernBelle - Our guest speakers our first year covered the topic of exercising with children. As our classes have evolved, our age population as also. A large portion of our store sales go to families so we never want to exclude any particular group. It has just been that the majority of the women attending our maintenance classes and this last year's seminar were in the older population.

One thing to keep in mind, I completely understand the difficulty of handling a full time job, trying to work time in for my husband, running 3 active boys (13, 11, & 9) places and finding time for myself. It is terribly difficult.

Bad JuJu's idea of an introductory ride is good but a lot of time and effort from your store. How about a contact info sheet for those that want to find riding partners? Only those that want to share the info could sign up and then provide it only to those on the list.

I like SB's training list. Add recovery to the training topics. That topic seems to be one of the last mentioned and people new or returning to exercise after many years don't know the concept and tend to do the same intensity ride day after day after day and wonder why they don't improve. The whole discussion of frequency, duration, intensity and recovery seems to be left out so much of the time, yet is is a pretty simple concept.

Road riding tips- ie. riding with traffic, when to take the lane, where to position yourself in the lane when approaching/stopping at an intersection (right if you're turning right, center if you're going straight through, left if you're turning left), not swearving around parked cars, etc., etc.

I know many women who take up riding on the streets are VERY nervous about riding in traffic. Maybe this would help them feel more confident and at ease.

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Originally Posted by han-grrl

Mental training for athletes is always a good one, as many skills can be applied else where...

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Absolutely agree Han, getting the "head stuff" right is soooo important.

I am trying to get a discussion going on my local club's forum when someone postsed an article saying training for a Time Trial was 85%, gear was 5% and the "brain" (as she called it in the article) was 10%...

I really don't think the head stuff is only 10%, cause if you don't get that right, you can do really badly, but if you get it right, and you've done the training, then you should do reasonably well at least.

I have heard that when it comes to racing its more like 50% of it is mental. you can do all the training in the world, but if you don't have the mindset then you won't do well. "bad thoughts" are self defeating.

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Originally Posted by RoadRaven

Absolutely agree Han, getting the "head stuff" right is soooo important.

I am trying to get a discussion going on my local club's forum when someone postsed an article saying training for a Time Trial was 85%, gear was 5% and the "brain" (as she called it in the article) was 10%...

I really don't think the head stuff is only 10%, cause if you don't get that right, you can do really badly, but if you get it right, and you've done the training, then you should do reasonably well at least.

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