I only spin during the winter to maintain fitness (I've done some mtb racing but no longer). I have a spinner bike at home and ride it once or twice a week but like to go to classes for the extra intensity and to break up the routine.

I only ask ONE thing from my instructors (well, I ask for great music too, but that is too subjective to expect satisfaction) and that is to have the music dictate the cadence. Nothing sends me off on my own private ride faster than to have the instructor superimpose some lesson on random songs. I realize that there are times you can't do this (e.g. sprinting) but to me, a class where the instructor knows her tunes and their cadences, how long the songs are and shares this with the class, is the class I enjoy most.

I believe in your periodization concept and back when I raced I spent a lot of time with Paul Skilbeck's book "Single-Track Mind" and the more recent "Performance Cycling" by Dave Morris, both of which I recommend highly, but realize that until people get up to at *least* 8 hours/week of *serious* training that they won't really benefit from the program as compared to the general all-around class that would best serve your beginners. Not that you can't do both if you're careful... I always appreciate it when the instructor gives the class options.

TS