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!

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.

* Virtual rides through exotic locations from the rider’s perspective
* Multiple selectable coaching tracks from international coaches
* Licensed commercial music – no royalty free junk
* Bonus 30-minute pilates training specifically for cyclists
* High quality, unique video footage

Product Description
This boxed set contains all three Global Ride Hawaii Series DVDs: Maui Rollers, Oceanside Ride and StrenDurance Hawaii.

Each DVD features a 45-50 minute ride as well as a bonus yoga, pilates or strength training session tailored specifically to cyclists.

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.

Packaging makes a nice box set gift

Global Ride’s Hawaii Rides DVD set is a collection of three cycling workouts followed by three different cross training routines that tie into the spin session on that disc. Each cycling workout follows different scenic roads through Hawaii, offering a visual distraction from the sometimes (usually) boring time spent on the trainer and, if you’re like me, they help keep you focused on riding hard enough. My mind tends to wander, resulting in slower, easier spinning until I snap to. With the Global Ride training DVDs, you have three different coach “tracks” to choose from on each DVD, so you’re reminded to pedal harder, faster or whatever the specific workout requires.

Three of us tried one DVD each. If you typically spend a lot of time on the trainer in the winter, check out what our three testers have to say about the DVD’s after the break…

DVDs can be purchased separately too

Prior to the coaching, there’s a warm-up period that scrolls through photos of the islands. The cycling workouts vary in length, and you’ll get either Pilates, Yoga or Strength Training sessions following the ride. Each of us reviewed one DVD in the set, click on the picture of the individual DVD’s below to enlarge and you can read the back panel in full.

Maui Rollers, reviewed by Tyler (road and mountain biker):

The Maui Rollers DVD follows some of the coast of Hawaii and is, as the title suggests, a series of rollers, but they seem to go mostly up. You have to shift gears to adjust the cadence and effort to match what you’re watching and what the coach is telling you to do, so how much you get out of it is directly tied to how much you put into it.

As mentioned, I tend to let my mind wander and in the past I’ve caught myself staring into space with a pedal cadence of about 20 RPM. With these, I was engaged enough with the scenery and trying to do what the coach was suggesting that I kept the workout intensity up pretty well. In fact, the 45 minute session felt like only 20…and anything that can make an indoor trainer workout go fast gets some kudos. As far as watching this versus DVD’s of Le Tour or something, it’s different, and it has multiple coaching options on each DVD to keep it fresh, so it’s a good alternative when you’re *gasp* bored with watching Lance dance his way up the Sestriere. Even though it was only 45 minutes (plus warmup and cool down), it was a pretty solid workout…the quads were burnin’.

The Yoga section on this DVD is good as a post-workout stretching routine, and it has cycling specific stretches to help open up the hips and stretch the hamstrings and lower back. It’s a fairly long Yoga routine, not just a little something tacked on to say it’s there, and it’s well coached. The only downside is it tends to move a little quickly, especially for those not used to the poses. Here’s a sample video from the Maui Rollers DVD:

Oceanside Rides – Reviewed by Rob (road and mountain biker)

The two best things I can say about the DVD is that the scenery of Hawaii is beautiful and the Pilates bonus feature at the end really works your body. The cycling video part, though, could use some improvement. The entire program feels like someone took a spin class and recorded the audio then combined it with some techno music (which I liked, but not everyone will appreciate). Then they took some jerky home video from a route that someone had ridden in a car, motorcycle, ect. and combined all three together. The result is a video with some cool music, scenery, and a spin class coach in the background that sort of misses the mark as a workout video, but it does provide some cool shots of Hawaii if you have nothing else to watch on the trainer. The video lacks any on screen metrics to tell you where you are like in spinervals or a CTS workout video. Basically you are just listening to a spin class with some cool scenery and music in the background. Finally, the music was louder than the coaches so even if you were trying to follow their advice you couldn’t hear them clearly.

However, I did like the fact you can turn the coaching on and off as well as the music. Also, the option to hear the coaching done in different languages was pretty cool. The Australian chick sounded really hot!!

Editor’s Note (Tyler): I agree about the on-screen metrics. An incline graphic or time-to-finish would help you adjust your effort level…visually it’s hard to tell how steep the incline is just from the video.

Strendurance – Reviewed by Mick (triathlete)

Typically trainer rides are endured in the cold/dark winter days and training DVDs are an attempt to fight the boredom of the indoor ride.

This DVD knocks off the cold of winter with its beautiful scenes of Hawaii and pumps out a workout that makes the most of your time on the trainer. The music gets your legs moving, and the training sets are well coordinated with the beautiful Hawaii scenery.

Riding indoors is more intense and challenging than riding outdoors and requires more motivation. This DVD sucks you into the scenery and takes you into the beautiful Hawaiian landscape and makes staying in the saddle much less of a mental challenge than staring at the wall or TV show. The coaches add to the motivation to keep with it. The workout is challenging and leaves you feeling like you’ve had a great ride and vacation from the dreary days of winter when you’re done.

BIKERUMOR RATING:

The Global Rides aren’t so exciting that you look forward to trainer rides (what is, really?), but once you’ve dragged yourself onto the bike, they certainly make it bearable, and they tend to push you to actually get a good workout in. For that, they’re commendable, and the various workout/yoga/pilates sessions and pretty good, too. However, the quality of the video could be slightly better (there are rain drops on the camera for the first section of the Maui Rollers vid), and it really needs some sort of timing and elevation or intensity graphic to help illustrate what the coaches are saying. Target heartrate goals (as a percentage) or power outputs would also be helpful for those who use such training tools. As is, they’re a good visual distraction with some OK coaching and decent post-ride workouts, but they’re not a very scientific training tool. For the price, we think they should offer a little more technical info and graphics, but if you’re bored with everything else you’ve got to watch, they’re worth checking out. We give them 3.5 Thumbs Up.

When Gene Nacey of Global Ride asked me to review his recent on-location cycling video, Speed & Power in Italy, I should TOTALLY have declined. I didn’t have time, didn’t have interest, didn’t have ANY baseline quality that one would want in a reviewer. I hate cycling videos. I can appreciate their utility and appeal to many people — but they just don’t ‘do it’ for me.

But since another one of my rate-limiting character flaws is that when people I deeply admire attempt to include me in projects of great import to them, I get so excited that I forget to keep track of the life activities that I can’t stand (i.e., sitting on my Spinner with a laptop blocking my cyclometer’s report of everything I care about, looking and listening to stuff about which I could not care less). When I’m training indoors, I don’t try to pretend that I’m outdoors – I want to close my eyes, inhabit deafening, life-consuming rhythms, and forget that there even is an “outdoors.” I’ve ridden multiple Centuries outdoors – yet when I go to the end of bringing in outdoor footage to my indoor universe, I am insanely bored within literally 35 seconds. No wonder I’ve declined every review request I’ve received to date.

So when I came down with H1N1 after letting Speed & Power in Italy collect dust on my kitchen table for two weeks, I was relieved for a legitimate justification for further procrastination. Medical school? Insufficient. 104 fevers and breathing difficulties? Sweet.

I share this because I want to capture just how pessimistic and hostile a reviewer with whom you’re dealing. This way, you believe me when I describe how good this video is.

As it turns out: this video emphasized so many core priorities of my “agenda” as a coach, that it legitimately prompted me to spend time reconnecting with those priorities. It prompted me to evaluate whether or not, despite the challenges of time and energy resources, I was effectively conveying to my classes what I want to be conveying.

So I’m going to tell you about this video — yes, because I promised; but also, because I think it might be helpful to many of you looking to be prompted for self-evaluation (i.e., probably why you read my blog) or even to pick up new ideas for cueing language on form and intensity.

Speed & Power in Italy is a 60 minute training session comprised of four shorter segments, each building in intensity towards a powerful finish. I could describe the masterful footage (this is the most realistic filming I’ve ever seen –capturing subtle changes in terrain, alignment for drafting the rider ahead, and aspects of the scenery that felt “real” enough to trigger appreciative memories of personal outdoor adventures). I could describe the effectiveness of the structured, graphical time-counters to mark one’s progress and pace one’s self. I could even describe my fascination with the narrating coach’s breathing patterns that are secretly audible through one audio track (if listening with headphones; unnoticeable if listening through speakers – as a coach, I would love if my riders could actually hear and learn from the specific way I breathe during various efforts. Too bad that’s creepy. Here, it’s creepy, too – if one can get over the “creepy” and attempt to learn from it, one will surely get a lot out of it. If not, just listen through regular speakers.)

But I have far more important things I’d like to describe. Things that distinguish this video as an outstanding resource for athletes and coaches alike.

INTENSITY MONITORING

During the warm-up, there were a few mentions of training at “60% of your max.” I groaned – grunted, actually. Once I stopped being overly dramatic, I was treated to an excellent discussion of the uselessness of age-based maximum heart rate formulas and the introduction of a 1-10 Rate of Perceived Exertion Scale. There was a brief mention of “threshold” (lactate threshold) as being the useful anchor for training parameters. From there on out, there were no more “x% of your max” references, at least – and the RPE scale was consistently applied throughout the training session. I was impressed by the specific attention that was paid to intensity. We are reminded to “stay true to (our) numbers,” and continuously self-monitor. Bravo! Indoor cycling instructors can learn a lot from the language our narrating coach uses to explain perceived exertion and why it matters.

FORM COACHING & DEMONSTRATION

This program went out of its way to cue excellent riding form – upper body carriage, pedal stroke, hip alignment, diaphragmatic breathing. After a particular cue was communicated, the specific film footage would shift perspectives (from first-person view to actually looking at a rider) to be able to best demonstrate the form issue in question. Frontal, side, and rear views contributed a great deal of value-added to the effective descriptors.

TRAINING FLEXIBILITY

While intensity parameters were suggested, there were frequent reminders to adjust one’s intensity to wherever one needed to train. I rode the entire training session at 65% of lactate threshold, for example; that’s what I needed. Consistent reminders to incorporate monitoring of intensity and cadence served to motivate and re-focus.

The options for coaching on/off (with additional options to choose from American, Australian, and German coaches, to boot!) and music on/off are ideal for accommodating individual preferences. If you’re a music snob like me (with a complete inability to self-motivate whilst being forced to endure displeasing tunes), the “no music” option will afford you the opportunity to play your own music while taking advantage of the features that are more meaningful to you. (For the record: the first track of the final segment, “Rockin’ to Rocca,” is incredible. Those three minutes weren’t just tolerable to this Cycling Video Non-Believer; they were genuinely AWESOME.)

In conclusion, Speed & Power in Italy is scientifically sound, technically excellent coaching captured in the context of exceptional cinematic talent. Whether you seek a resource to guide and complement your training, or whether you’re looking for an arsenal of ways to communicate training principles to your clients, Speed & Power will surely get you there.

Recently, for a change of pace I decided to watch a DVD called “Speed & Power in Italy” by Global Ride. From the description I could see that this would be a simulated hour or so fast ride through Italy finishing with a 10 minute climb. Perfect. I usually ride about an hour, with tempo and threshold being my bread and butter. I started up the DVD in my laptop, cranked up the volume to 50 and put the ear buds in place. Some day I’ll have a big wide screen down in the man hole, but not yet.

The video starts out in Venice floating through water with coach Matty Reed starting you on a brief warm-up, while Vivaldi plays in the background. After a couple of minutes the road ride begins as you ride with a couple of riders on some narrow Italian roads. The classical music was only for the brief warm-up and is replaced by some more upbeat instrumental stuff. I pedaled along watching the two riders as they cruised along through picturesque country side, passing through villages, with plenty of pedestrians, cars and other cyclists to make it interesting. The picture quality was excellent, by the way. The coach gave instructions, occasionally asking you to increase your speed or heart rate. One thing I liked was that the coach encouraged you to react to changes in terrain, as if you were in the group on the screen, so if there was a short steep hill, you were encouraged to stand. Too bad there were no stops.

The pace was never slow once the warm-up was done. I rode mostly hard tempo at 270 to 290 watts. At about the 45 minute mark, we hit the final 10 minute climb on a twisty narrow road, with zero car traffic, but several other cyclists. My virtual group ride passed several riders on the climb, which helped motivate me to stay near my threshold all the way to the end. I rode that final 10 minutes at 308 watts.

I’ve watched this DVD twice now, and could see myself watching it several more times this off season, especially during sweet spot workouts. It was fun and engaging to watch during my workout and enhanced the indoor riding experience. I was able to stay mentally focused on riding, without being bored at all. This is very different than watching something like a movie, which makes the workout tolerable by causing you to mentally disconnect from your workout.