Yes, it can be quite boring to train indoor during the snowy, wintry weather but GlobalRide makes an hour go by quite quickly, and with a challenge.

Their Speed and Power in Italy has been a part of my cycling DVDs collection for a while now; today I broke in their new production, Urban Assault in Italy. I loved it just as much!

The options of coaches on/off, different languages, class or open road format, and music on/off offer needed variety; the digital display of time left is helpful; the scenery is lovely; and the bonus track (this time – ball training) is a valuable added bonus. The ‘pros’ can put their power meter to work alright.

Suggestions for future productions: a gradient display of the terrain? A view of the class when using that option, even if as lesser portion of a split screen?

Product Description
This DVD offers both flexibility and challenge to any cyclists, at any level. The entire workout is 1 hour long. The warm up and cool down are each only 3 minutes, so theres not a lot of time for chit chatting. After an 8 minute set of flats and slight grades over looking the Ligurian coast, you are faced with the first of 2 twenty minute climbs that can be approached as either a 2 X 20 Power workout, or as a dual Steady State or Tempo ride with a 6 minute recover section between them. You set the agenda, and let the cities of Sori, Rapallo, Portofino and Camogli set the scenes. Unlike previous Global Ride DVDs shot in predominantly quiet rural areas, this DVD is shot right in the heart of these beautiful coastal cities, showing off both their architecture as well as their unique footprint along the coastlines they define.

Buy it, use it — your body and spirit will feel great!

Rating: 5 / 5

I had the opportunity on Saturday to test ride a Global Ride roller workout DVD – “Climbing Suffrage in Italy“. Here’s how that opportunity came about — my wife was working this weekend, and my parents were out of town so I was in charge of our kids all day. When my wife came home in the evening, it was too late to go ride outside so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to try out this new workout. I rarely ride inside, and when I do I am usually doing a recovery ride on the rollers while listening to music or watching an old Tour de France or Paris Roubaix DVD. But this day was different because I knew that I had a hard race coming up on Sunday, and also because the people I would be racing against were all racing in Dilworth, NC at that very moment. So I wanted to get a good hard workout in to get my legs ready for Sunday.

The Global Ride DVD was absolutely PERFECT! Normally I can’t get my heartrate out of Zone 3 on the rollers but with this DVD I made it all the way into Zone 5. The music was great although the first five minutes of introductory warm-up music was a bit too mellow for my taste. I think you were supposed to be stretching during that time, but I just spun easy. Then the last few minutes of easy warm-up was some good upbeat music before hitting the first section of the course — rollers on the scenic 2009 Giro D’Italia Stage 12 TT course. This was still a warm-up section, but at a faster pace as encouraged by the New Zelander coach. I believe the section that was covered was from miles 9 to 12 (see my topo creator map below). The views were stunning!

Then onto the main climb for the day — a 30 minute climb in Italy — the DVD shows you a nice Google Earth animation of the climb right as you hit it. The climb is not simply 30 minutes all out, but rather, the coach and the two accompanying riders do a good job of helping you go faster of slower to recover. The video coverage is smooth and switches between the view of the road ahead (mostly) and then a view of the companion riders who are either behind or ahead of you depending on what effort the coach currently has you doing. There are also occasional views of the spectacular scenery too. Once you push it to the top, you only have a couple minutes rest before you hit a different climb. This climb is full of switchbacks which the coach uses to push you hard on some short intervals. The cooldown begins once you make it to the very top as you see a beautiful ocean view stretched out below you looking back down to the beach where you could imagine you had just climbed up from. Then there are some scenes of Florence as you finish your cool-down.

Wow – loved it – here’s the highlights of what I liked -

* timer – easy to see and always visible
* good music – although warm-up music was a bit too mellow
* creative use of pace riders to encourage pushing it and/or recovery
* absolutely beautiful scenery – giro d’ italia tt course
* “sweet switchbacks” – good hard climbing – beautiful view of ocean from the top

Looking forward to the next one!

The El Nino spring in South Texas, combined with a lot of work to do, minimized the time I had available to ride my bicycle. As such, I started looking for interesting training tools. If one has a basic trainer or rollers, the boredom can be incredible. When I found the folks at Global Ride Video Productions, I was intrigued as the videos had some interesting features.

The trailer above shows a sample from the video, but there is more. You can choose to have music or not, and you can also choose to have “coaching” or not as well. The coaching is even in four different flavors, Poland, United Kingdom, American or live class.

This particular DVD is $29.95 and is available direct. A bonus is some stability ball core training on this DVD and other DVD’s have other bonus workouts.

The quality is very good, both in picture and sound. I think these videos are a real winner!

I enjoyed the comments the instructor made about the scenery. He talked a lot about the areas where the filming was happening and to me, those little bits of information made the ride more interesting. I will definitely do the ride on this setting again. It’s a good hour-long workout, and I can usually get about 20 miles out of it.

The DVD also includes stability ball training for cyclists to help build core strength. I have never used a stability ball so I didn’t get a look at the exercises, but I wanted to mention them as they are part of the DVD. I’ll get a look at them next time – who knows? Maybe I’ll end up getting a stability ball!

This review will continue as soon as I’ve had a chance to work with more of this DVD.

Urban Assault in Italy
The talented crew with Global Ride have once again produced a high quality series of virtual cycling DVD’s. I viewed, ” Urban Asault in Italy” this weekend. I am anxious to get up to training camp at The Cabin, where I can get on the Lemond Rev Pro, stationary bike and fly through the streets and hills of Italy. This video gives you options of your coach, including language options! You can go with or without the music, I opted for the music, which starts in the warm up phase with some authentic sounds from Italy. The warm up takes you through street scenes of Verona and Siena for about 7 minutes. You are riding through the streets with traffic, pedestrians and it as real as real gets. Following the warm up, previewing each new section of your ride is a birds eye view google map, giving you an idea of where you are in Italy. American coach and cyclist Phil Gaimon guides your workout, suggesting how hard to ride; zone 1, 2, 3 or 4 and for how long, with a good music beat it’s a great workout. On my next ride through Italy, I will try without the coach and do my own thing, it’s nice to have the option. The climb is a challenging one but with great street and road scenes throughout there is plenty to enjoy while your working those pedals. You will be ready for the cool down when it comes and perhaps feel as though you had a quick vacation in Italy when your ride is complete! As a bonus on this DVD, there is a stability ball exercise session, smartly done to help cyclists with their core strength. The best part of this video is the camera work combined with music to ride by, you won’t forget the Italian streets and roads, as true to life as can be, a great ride! Global Ride; thanks you have done it again!

From: Cycle Guy Blog

So much for riding outdoors or even making it to the computrainer classes this weekend. We had our second decent snow storm here in Davidson that started on Friday night. All in all we got about 6 inches of snow. Just enough to turn the roads into a mess. Unlike the north, when snow hits around here, it usually has a lot of ice mixed in. Those who dare to go out driving are risky indeed. The roads in our neighborhood are still covered and very few cars have gone in or out all weekend.

We generally hit the computrainer classes on Saturday morning up at Cool Breeze Cyclery. We use Saturday as a good base ride consisting of 30-35 miles. Here lately, we have started hitting some threshhold rides in preparation for the upcoming time trial season. Let’s just say that plan got snowed under.

Cyclops and Global Ride Cycling training DVDs to the rescue. Fortunately, we were able to go downstairs and climb onto the Cyclops trainers. Yesterday we rode two 1 hour sessions. The first was an interval session to Robbie Ventura’s Power training DVD. After that we hit a good hill climbing threshold ride with Urban Assault on Italy. Needless to say, when we were done, there was a very large sweat puddle on the floor beneath.

Today we are going to ride to two new Indoor Cycling Training DVDs. Both of these are from Global Ride and they are the remaining DVDs from the Italy Box set.

DVD #1 is called Speed and Power in Italy. A good combination of rollers with some good climbs mixed in. DVD #2 is titled Climbing Sufferage. Hmmm, I’m not so sure I like the sounds of that. I am positive that my riding partner and wife wont care too much for it. sshhhhhhhh.

Regardless of the outcome, riding indoors this weekend is the only option that we have. Hey, it’s a heck of lot better than the alternative of sitting on the couch, eating, and drinking Fat Tire beer all weekend. Next weekend will be our Super Bowl ride. Hopefully these two hour sessions will somewhat prepare us for the long, long ride during the Super Bowl.

From: Cycling For Boomers

How’s this for a cool video idea– images of stage 12 of the Tour of Italy flash by while you’re on you trainer and renowned coach Sally Edwards, who is a boomer herself and a legend among triathlon competitors, urges you on. That’s the lure of a DVD from Global Ride called “Climbing Sufferage in Italy.” While you are looking at images first of Venice, then of the climb into the mountains, Sally offers clues about which heart-rate zone you should be in, when to stand, when to sit and when to change to harder or easier gears. “Focus on your biomechanics,” she says at one point. At another “”I want you to get into the spirit… I want you to hold zone 3… we are so lucky to be in Italy today!”

Edwards is a former Master’s World Record holder in the Ironman Triathlon, as well as a world record holder in the Iditashoe 100-Mile Snowshoe Race. She offers private coaching through her company, Heartzones.com. The Climbing Sufferage DVD costs $29.95, includes music (but you can choose just Sally’s comments) and yoga training for cyclists. You can choose from it and and other indoor training videos at Global Ride.

Got this DVD in the mail a few weeks ago and have finally had the chance to sit down to review it. Here it is…..

If you like to climb mountains in your own living room for an hour on a home trainer then this is probably one of the better ways to do it.

This DVD brings the Suffrage climb to you without having to step out the door, jump on a plane and fly to Italy with your bike and cycling shoes.

You get to climb slowly through this Ride with a couple of chaps taking in the scenery (you can see them in the video clip below).

Great for those days when the weather is bad outside and you still want to get your cycling fix.

There are four soundtracks to choose from. The first three are narrated by a coach from either New Zealand, America of a UK American… The fourth has a narration from what appears to be a live spin class that is watching this DVD.

The coach guides you through the climb – enticing you to go hard at certain points and provides advice on Heart Rate intensity.

You can also switch off the audio and just watch the video without the narration.

It takes about an hour and you get to ride on the right hand side of the road.

At the end of the DVD there is a bonus 30 minute Cycling Yoga class. It covers all the classic yoga moves that can be applied to cyclists and they do it in cycling clothes… Go figure?

I have embedded the YouTube promotion of this DVD for you too.

A month or two ago I got a DVD in the mail with one simple request: Exercise to it and tell the world what I thought. Well, that time has come.

That DVD, Climbing Sufferage in Italy, is one of several products available from Global Ride.

I’ve never been a big fan riding indoors by myself with nothing more than a television screen to keep me company and keep me motivated.

So it was with a little reluctance that I loaded the bike onto a trainer, filled up a water bottle and began my ride through the hills above the Italian seaside.

One of the DVD’s better features was the ability to chose a coach. In this case, there were three coaches to select from and each presents the ride in a different way. If you’re stuck training indoors, the ability to adjust your ride in this simple way will be valuable. While the scenery will be a pleasant diversion from staring at a wall, it would get a little old after few times. Mixing things up with different coaches will keep it fresh longer and add to the variable workouts you get.

Another feature that might be nice for many is the option to turn the music off. You can crank up your own iPod with your own mix of tunes and have endless variety that way. While I found nothing wrong with the music being played on the DVD, I actually enjoyed some of the songs quite a bit, the ability to roll to own drummer is a nice touch.

Peerhaps my favorite feature was the coaching. Riding alone indoors can be pretty boring. With a coach along for the ride you get some motivation, some instruction and some encouragement.

And in what was definitely the most pleasant surprise, the DVD ends with a short yoga for cyclists class.

I’ve become a big believer in yoga as a way to suppliment your training with stretching and core workouts. Having that on the DVD is a very nice touch and is certainly appreciated.

Training videos come in a lot of shapes and sizes. There are videos of coaches barking at you from their indoor studio. There are videos of coaches outside on the bike, explaining how to do a climbing interval. There are country vistas inviting you to pretend you are someplace else. Like Italy…

Global Ride is expanding the video trainer montage world to horizons that cycling fans (who hit the trainer) might care about. For example, Speed and Power in Italy starts in Liguria, heads inland to the Bassano del Grappa region, and ends with a climb near Rocca (Abruzzo?). The video shows a few riders out on the road, but mostly points forward, giving you the sensation of being at the head of a long climb, occasionally peering back at your mates… who are either passing on tips about the climb or emitting up-tempo techno music to drive you onward. Another Italy disc, named “Climbing Suffrage,” actually starts with a section of the Cinque Terre time trial from last year’s Giro, as well as some other uphill drags in la Bella Campania.

More on the flip…