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

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!

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.

Many of us hearty die hard idiots who live in the ever changing climate that is the Upper Midwest tend to ride all year, no matter what. We are a macho breed and we tend to put off training indoors if we can help it. However, I tend to want that little extra riding that even my adventurous nature can handle outside. That, and teaching indoor cycling classes for the University of South Dakota always have me looking for new ideas. Enter the Global Ride Video Series.

I have many of the Spinerval DVD’s and a few of the Carmichael Training Systems DVD’s. While each of these are focused, outstanding workouts, the one thing I get sick of is watching sweaty people on bikes over and over. I’m one of those sweaty people working out, I don’t need to be reminded by looking at it over and over again. Again, enter the Global Ride Video Series.

My review of this product is two-fold: for my indoor cycling class and for my own personal indoor training. My final rating at the end will be two separate ratings because of this.

The series I received was for Hawaii. Three DVD’s each set up for different workouts, and each with amazing backgrounds of riding various roads in Hawaii, usually from a first person cyclist view which I found very attractive. Once in awhile they would flash back to the cyclist as they were riding, but the focus was on the scenery and the workout, not a suffering cyclist.

Another thing I found interesting was the various audio options. You can either just watch the video, watch it with light background music, or your choice of three different instructors, including an actual class scenario. Having audio options to match the mood you are in is a great thing. Some days I like shutting my brain off and just allow one of the instructors instruct me and some days I want to “rock out” so I turn off all audio and just use my own music.

One of the most ingenious thing I found with these DVD’s are the non-cycling training at the end. Each DVD had a different workout specifically geared for cycling. The 30 minute sessions include Strength, Yoga, and Pilates. I’m always looking for cross training that still focuses on cycling and this fits the bill nicely.

This is a brief review, but as you know, I don’t like long posts as I feel most people don’t take the time to read it all anyway, so I cater to the people with short attention spans like me! My review from the standpoint of a cycling class instructor is 9.6 out of 10. There are a few things I’d like to see like maybe a countdown of how much time is left overall and between potential segments of training (hills, flats, etc). I know that Global Ride is continually looking at feedback and are implementing them in future “rides”.

For personal training, I’d give it 8.9 of 10. I’d lean more heavily on the timing feature here. Often I have a limited time to ride, so it’d be nice to grab sections you wanted to focus on, which you will after watching these enough times. These workout DVD’s, like any workout DVD’s, are only as good as the effort you put into it. If you don’t think it’s too hard, do what you have to for your needs. Same on the other end of the spectrum: If it’s too easy, gear up a bit and make it hurt.

Overall these DVD’s definitely make my Christmas list. Just having to not stare at sweaty people in a studio makes my rating on these DVD’s jump exponentially. I look forward to more versions, especially riding in other countries. I think Global Ride has found a wonderful niche in the Cycling DVD arena. I’m very impressed at their willingness to take ideas from ordinary people to better their upcoming versions. I have nothing but high praise for these DVD’s. They are trying to make indoor training bearable, and doing a great job. Ride on Global Ride!

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.

I got an email a few weeks ago from Gene Nacey – founder of Global Rides, a company specializing in “first person” riding experiences for indoor training – wondering if I’d be interested in giving one of his DVDs a test-run. Not being the biggest fan of training indoors, I agreed enthusiastically… I’m eager to try anything that helps alleviate the potential boredom of training inside on your own.

Global Rides has managed to pack a lot of nice (and thoughtful) touches into this DVD, and it’s apparent right from the menu. Right off the start you’re able to make the choice as to whether or not you’d like music, and if you’d like a coach guiding your ride. I’ve only used the DVD a handful of times, but I can already see that it will be nice to have the flexibility and variety of spinning to your choice of tunes, and/or to ride a slightly different program than the one that’s offered on the DVD.

In addition to being able to turn the music/coaching audio off, you can select from 3 different coaches or a live session. After trying them all, I can say that this is a really great feature (and for me, almost a necessity). Sure it’s nice to be able to mix it up sometimes, but I also found some of the ways the different coaches handled the ride and the motivated you to grind through the gears better suited to my mental riding style. I actually really liked the live session as well, though I found (perhaps not surprisingly) that the voice-over coaching for this section not of the same quality as the others.

Select your coach

After using the DVD a few times, there were a number of things that stood out to me as being particularly helpful – many of which a direct by-product of the “first-person” riding experience:

1. Mini checkpoints
Just as if we were on a ‘real’ ride, the coaches did a good job at using mini-mental checkpoints. Rather than simply pushing out a hard set for a final “x” seconds, they would highlight landmarks in the environment… “Let’s push real hard until this corner…” or “keep those legs spinning until we crest this hill.” I found this really helpful since many times this is the way I push myself when I ride – I’ll look at a rock halfway up a gnarly climb and tell myself that I have to make it to the rock, then when I hit the rock I set another goal, until I either blow up, or get to the top.

2. Using the on-screen riders
Another thing I found unique and really helpful was some of the coaches use of the on-screen riders. Sometimes it was simply mirroring their actions

Puttin' the hurt on Gene

3. Posture checks
I find that many times when I’m doing intervals or spinning, the goal simply becomes finishing the set and I forget all about good riding form… It was nice to have the coaches chiming in little reminders… “Keep your elbow bent” or “Remember to flatten that back”. Practice like you play… Ensuring you have proper form during these sessions will go a long way to ensure you’re not a wet noodle out there next season.

4. Use of heart rate / perceived exertion
Depending on how you train the coaches used both perceived exertion and heart rate, so even if you don’t have a heart rate monitor you’ll be able to get a sincere workout in – Tough I will say that having an understanding of how to train using your heart rate will definitely let you get the most out of the sessions. Sally Edwards also does some cadence work which she’ll help you count out if you don’t have a computer with a cadence setting. That said, the work-outs will be much more enjoyable if you let gadgets do the math so you can focus on your riding

5. Cinematography & aerial course topography
Though the cinematography wasn’t quite BBC or National Geographic HD quality, it was still really well done, and did a good job of recreating that “rider” feel.

Course topography

5. Extras
The last feature I really like was the inclusion of a yoga/stretching session. I find yoga to be a little bit of personal thing (ie. whether or not you like it or not), but I found the sesssions at the end of the DVD to be helpful (and hard Flexibility is key in staying healthy and the exercises did a good job of working the areas specific to cyclists. Although the instructor did a pretty good job of describing the positions (ie. downward dog, cow, cat, etc.) I found that if you’ve gone to yoga sessions before, it will really help get the most out of the poses (then you can focus on moving through the poses, not on how to actually position your body through the poses – especially since some of the positions are moved through quite quickly). Another thing I found helpful was how the instructor often explained how the different stretches synced up with various biking positions. From my understanding this is mixed up on the different DVDs, being one of yoga, pilates, or strength training.

Yoga for cyclists is a bonus

Really after a few sessions with the DVD there was only one thing that bothered me… The audio mixing. The quality itself was fine, but for some reason the coaching was mixed into the left channel and the audio into the right. Because I generally use headphones (yes, even when it’s on the TV) I really noticed this. Not a deal-breaker by any means, but it did bug me.

Overall the DVD was great and it did a good job of getting me to turn the legs over and kick some ass, and production-wise they’re well put together, though there was one little hiccup that I found particularly humorous and I just have to share… As we were grinding up a climb Sally Edwards (the coach) was reminding us to “Take a second to enjoy the scenery, *really* look at it and soak it in”… While on screen Gene Nacey and his riding partner are in front of you out of the saddle… So really you’re soaking in Genes sculpted glutes… But then again, maybe that’s the way Gene wanted it… After all, he’s been working hard on those glutes all season

The ups

* Nice coaching cues – Mini checkpoints, use of on-screen riders, and notes on posture
* Cinematography give you a ‘riders’ feel
* Ability to change coaches (or turn them off)
* Ability to turn music off
* Aerial topography was fun (and previewed your workout to an extent)

The downs

* Though the audio quality was good, it would have been nice to have it mixed in stereo rather than music in one channel and voice-over coaching in another

Bottom line, would I recommend the DVD? If you’re looking for something to mix up your indoor training, then definitely. The flexibility of coaching and music options, combined with the ‘real ride’ feel are enough to make the DVD great in my mind – the extra features like yoga/pilates/strength and aerial course views are just icing on the cake!

Ride Strong (http://www.ride-strong.com) recently reviewed Cycling videos. When you are training indoors on your trainer these DVD’s are perfect.

Global Ride has introduced a completely different type of Indoor Cycling DVD than most of the industry has been accustomed to. The video is shot in first person perspective so that you get the feeling that you are the one riding on the road. They have been extensively reviewed on line at Cycling Blogs as well as Amazon, and it turns out they are highly regarded by everyone who watches them.

These DVDs are a refreshing change from watching a static movie of other sad cyclists who are forced to ride indoors instead of training where we all like to – outside. They also give the viewer plenty of choices for using their music (which we like very much), or your own, or listening to a number of different coaches, or no coaching at all.

These make a great addition to your own training library, or if you teach at a local fitness facility, you can encourage them to purchase their own copy, and you can teach to them to add some variety to your indoor classes.

Naturally, no one wants to ride indoors when the weather is good, but when the weather sucks, these rock! Oh and by the way, each DVD has a bonus 30 minute section on Yoga, Pilates or Strength Training designed specifically for cyclists.

“We spent a lot of money on getting commercial music too – not the “royalty free crap” that most indoor fitness videos use.” Gino Nacey

For more information check out their website: http://www.globalride.net

The days are becoming shorter and colder. Soon, it will be time to spend a good number of hours training indoors in the gym or the gloom of a basement corner. If the end of the season isn’t depressing enough, being relegated to an hour spinning and going nowhere can seal the deal.

For now, the Hawks are concentrating on keeping Eric and Tiffany in top shape to race at nationals next week. When they return, however, our focus will turn to preparing for the 27-mile Iceman Cometh in Michigan. With the Iceman a month away, you can bet that the Hawks will be spending some time riding the trainers that Saris Cycling Group was so kind to donate to us last year.

Now, riding inside on a trainer doesn’t have to be torture. There are lots of ways to make it fun and interesting. Selecting different movies and music and playing different games can make the time fly by. And of course there are any number of DVDs designed specifically for training indoors. I’ve found one series that recently came across my desk to be particularly interesting and enjoyable.

Global Ride LLC has produced a couple of virtual cycling DVDs that follow cyclists through scenic and challenging landscapes. Rather than watch a group of sweaty individuals riding trainers while you’re riding a trainer (kind of hard to pretend you’re doing something enjoyable when you’re constantly reminded that you’re not by the group in the DVD … watching yourself in a mirror may be more effective), the Global Ride concept (and it’s not a new one) helps you imagine your riding along the coast of a Hawaiian island or through the Dolomites of Italy by providing a first-person perspective.

I recently spent a raining morning with StrenDurance in Hawaii, one of three DVDs in the Hawaii box set. The DVD has U.S. coach and triathlon hall of famer Sally Edwards providing instructions and inspiration while we follow a cyclist on a four-mile climb on the island of Oahu and along the shore on Maui followed by more climbing up the Maui cliffs.

The scenery is magnificent and the accompanying music selections work well. I did, however, find the instructional audio a bit hard to hear and understand (If you’re riding solo, you may want to use headphones.). I also found myself wishing the DVD included a visual dashboard to highlight the target exertion levels, cadence, heartrate and gearing, especially given the difficulty I experienced in understanding the coach’s instruction.

Global Ride founder Gene Nacey, a certified spinning instructor and heart zones cycling coach, says they’ve improved the audio quality for the forthcoming Italy series. He also said the whole point of the Global Ride DVDs is to help the rider get lost in the scene before them on the screen, therefore they decided not to include any visual cues on screen.

In additon to the training offered on the bike, each DVD comes with a 30-minute off-the-bike exercise session to strengthen your core and improve flexibility. The Maui Rollers DVD includes a yoga; the StrenDurance DVD includes strength-training; and the Oceanside Ride DVD includes Pilates. Each is a perfect cool down to compliment your training ride while also working as an effective workout on its own when time is short.

If you’re going to be spending some time locked away going nowhere, give the Global Ride DVDs a try. You can at least pretend you’re exploring new, beautiful locations. But be prepared to make a financial investment. The Hawaii boxed set sells for $75 while the individual discs run $30 each. This is comparable to most other DVDs on the market, plus you get the added 30-minute off-the-bike training.

Visit the Global Rides Web site for more info.
Posted by Ric Damm at 6:45 AM