From The Soiled Chamois: (White Oak, PA, USA)

I was contacted by a company called Global Ride. They asked if I wanted to take a look at their Hawaii Rides DVDs. I’m not a fan of indoor cycling DVDs. Most of the time I just can’t get past the bad porn like snyth music, AND the fact that I’m watching folks ride their bikes and go nowhere. Hell it’s bad enough I’M riding my bike nowhere, I gotta watch these people in vintage purple/yellow spandex ride nowhere?? No matter how hard the work out I just don’t dig it. BUT once I checked out the site I was intrigued enough to agree to try them out.

See, the thing with the Global Ride DVDs is that it’s you and the road. Riding from the rider’s point of view. No group of sweaty spandex clad spinners. It’s like you’re really doing a ride. Or at least the trick is to CONVINCE yourself you are doing the ride.

So today I figured what the hell, I’ll try one out. I did the Oceanside Ride. It’s a sweet spot/steady tempo ride. I chose it because this week I’ve done two mountain bike rides, which for me are filled with LOT of short power bursts. I figured I needed some steady tempo work in.

When you pop the DVD in you can choose if you want music or no music and coach or no coach telling you what to do, and what language you want the coach to speak. TECHNICALLY there three choices- American, Italian, and Australian. But I have to go with that there are two. I mean is Australian REALLY another language? Do Australians REALLY have that hard of a time understanding American English? No matter, I stuck with the American dude and went with music.

The ride starts with a warm up of easy spinning and the DVD is just a montage of relaxing images to get you loose and want to book a flight to Hawaii. The music in this part is OK. Relaxing but it was coming close to that easy listening porn style music.

After a few minutes the coach comes on and tells you what’s up and what the plan is. When the work out gets going the music changes and actually is pretty good for what it is. No porn music. Some DJ/Techno stuff that sounded good on the hi-fi in my living room and was well matched to the ride sequences.

The view of the road was pretty cool. When you start up a small hill you’re actually going slower on the TV, then when you start down or level off you seem to be traveling faster. All the while the coach is telling you what to do. I did have to get off once to turn up the volume. Between the whirl of my trainer and the music it was hard to hear some of the instructions. I think a feature that Global Ride could add would be to add some graphics to let you know what zone/tempo you should be at. That way you’re not an audio slave to the coach. I liked having the coach audio on. Beyond the instructions, I ACTUALLY found it sort of motivating. Usually I find motivational “coach speak” pretty lame, but this one came off pretty good.

90% of the work out is from the rider point of view. There are a couple shots of the rider climbing out of the saddle and what not, and the warm up and cool down are photo montages. I could have done without ever seeing the rider. But it didn’t bring the video down at all.

The Oceanside Ride workout is broken up into 4 sections and the workout is about 45ish minutes. I would have liked it to have been a straight hour, but that’s just me. There is also a 30 minute Pilates for Cyclists workout on the DVD too. I tried the Pilates. It was hard. And harder for me since I really don’t do the class thing very well. Trying to do the exercises, listen to the instructor, all while feeling my core burn up, was not that fun! HA! I think I’ll need to watch that part a few times to get the hang of it.

I kept most of my trainer rides to about an hour this winter, and they seemed WAY longer. This one flew by, which I attest to the first person views and listening to the coaches instruction. It was something to look at an pay attention to during the workout. Totally took my mind off the fact I was pedalling and going nowhere in my living room.

There are two other DVDs in the set I have- StrenDurance in Hawaii and Maui Rollers. I look forward to trying them out, but then again, if I’m riding inside, that means the weather is crap and I’m stuck on the trainer! HA!

I would recommend these DVDs to a cyclist who find themselves riding inside due to weather or schedule. I really dig the P.O.V.. and enjoyed it WAY more than any other spinning video I’ve tried. The DVDs are available individually or as a box set. If you only ride inside a handful of times in the off season I would just make yourself a good iTunes mix and get a work out in. But if you’re like me and find yourself inside a 4 to 5 months a year, a few times per week, then I think these are a great option to make the most out of riding and going nowhere. The website say that there is a Italy Rides in production. THAT would be cool. Wifey and I dream of going there someday to ride. OR just eat and drink wine. Either way. It would be even cooler if they could put a set together with sections from Grand Tours or Classics, maybe have a Pro rider as the featured cyclist.

Who would I NOT recommend these DVDs to? Someone who works with a coach and has a strict training plan probably wouldn’t want something like this, but then again you probably wouldn’t be buying ANY sort of training DVD. Also if you’re a rider who is COMPLETELY against riding indoors, no DVD is gonna change your mind.

Check out their website for more info and video clips. You can also check out a Livestrong deal that they have going on where you can get the DVDs AND get some money to Livestrong.

Wow, THAT was a lot of typing. Time for some food and a beverage. Hope to get out tomorrow, but if not I guess I have Maui? HA!

Later.