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.

Though normally I would decline such an offer, I realized that not everybody has the chance to go out and ride through the real landscapes and frankly, I was curious to see them. I replied: “Sure, anything that will help people get on a bike is cool with me ”

It took a while before the DVD’s reached me as I am BikeTravelling myself, but I finally got too watch them, so here it goes:

I saw all 3 Hawaii Rides DVD’s and generally liked them. It is very hard to imagine sitting on a home trainer or a spinning bike in front of a TV or computer, while sitting on a beach in Mexico, but likely I would enjoy doing an indoor training much more while watching this. All DVD’s are about 50 minutes, and divided in several sections, warming up, hard stuff and cooling down, while the camera moves over nice and smooth Hawaiian roads. Sometimes you see a cyclist, most of the time it is viewed ‘through the eyes’ of the cyclist. You an choose whether to listen to the music, the coach/instructors’ voice, neither or both, which is nice. You can even choose your favourite English accent, I liked the Ozzie style

The video quality was decent, but not top-notch. I personally did not like the ‘creative’ rainy bit on one of the DVD’s though according to their website, others did. Most of all, all the images made me want to visit Hawaii!

Though the spinning/cycling coach is really pushing at times and if you follow him/her you will definitely improve your strength and stamina, I think this is less important for BikeTravellers as they cycle much differently and generally get fit on the road. I do actually think that the bonus materials on this set (30 minutes of Yoga, Pilates and strength training) is maybe the most important part for Bike Travellers. I have had much trouble with back, joints and knees on the current cycle trip and some of the exercises on the DVD were also recommended by a (much more expensive!) chiropractor and physiotherapist. I was about to send them back, but am keeping them with me so I can do the exercises.

All in all a nice product, with average images of an above average scenery, with a bonus material that could have been a separate DVD. And as mentioned: anything that gets people on a bike and fit instead of fat, whether indoor or outdoor, is a good product anyway, so maybe a nice gift for your friends with that overprices unused bike of theirs? Or a nice training for your next century ride.

You an order them and get more info here: http://globalride.net/hawaiibox.htm

(Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Globalride, and receive nothing (other than the DVD’s themselves) to write this.)