From: Morrow Bay Chuck

Today I went into my workout room, got on my Spin bike and soon I was in Italy! I was trying out a new DVD I got from Global Ride. It is called Speed and Power in Italy and it is well titled to say the least.

The first thing I thought was interesting was that they gave you the choice of whether you wanted verbal coaching or not. Then they let you choose from several international languages! This was a really nice touch and very perceptive in terms of marketing to an international audience.

So, on to the ride. Begins with a nice steady Spin through Venice with Vivaldi as the music. The videography is spectacular – from the wide shots of the buildings and canals, the everyday street scenes to the close-ups of the architectural details, really puts you in the right mood to prepare for what is ahead.

The first part of the ride is a 12-1/2 min, 5 mile ride of 0-5% grades as he has us slowly bringing up our heart rate. The second section is a 1.6mi of 0-4% as we begin to anticipate an upcoming speed section. Now the tough part. 22 mins, 7.1 miles of speed along the river. At this point we were holding around 85% of max heart rate and would keep it there for the entire 22 mins. There were no serious grades, so it was just a matter of focus and “hanging in there”. On this DVD, along with speed comes power. The coach let’s you know that the power section is coming and prepares you very well for it. The music changes to hard rock as you reach the bottom of the climb to the mountain top finish. It’s climb time! 2.7 mi, 4-9% grades to the village of Rocca. The whole 9-1/2 minutes is out of the saddle and very challenging. As we start up the climb there are a couple of other riders ahead which provide some interest as they are caught and passed. One hour and about 600 calories later the finish line at the top is much appreciated!

One improvement I would like to see on this DVD is an on-screen indicator of the target heart rate zone. On the right bottom corner is the countdown timer, it would be easy to put something like 75-80% on the other corner.

Overall, this is a very well done DVD. It is just the sort of ride that I could take into my Spin class and use. It has everything that is needed for the experienced cyclist needing a challenging ride. If you just want to ride along, enjoy the music and the scenery, you can certainly do that.