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aicabsolut
01-26-2007, 09:32 AM
I thought I'd read that you can turn the music off so you can hear Troy and play your own tunes. I just got a 5 pack of DVDs, but I'm not seeing any sort of options menu for this. Was I just making that up or is there a trick I'm missing here?

Veronica
01-26-2007, 09:49 AM
The early videos do not have that option I think.

V.

aicabsolut
01-26-2007, 12:00 PM
Thanks. Next time I'll try some of the later videos in the pack (I started with Have Mercy 1 and Mental Toughness which are early) :) .

midlife
02-24-2007, 01:08 AM
Do you really want to hear Coach Troy??:D

Ok, he gets a bit wearing...I haven't done a spinervals yet, but gave my husband one and often listen to Coach Troy cracking the whip.

aicabsolut
02-27-2007, 01:45 PM
haha. I guess I could just mute it all. My tv is kind of far away from my trainer, and I probably wouldn't look at it enough for the gear / HR zone cues.

I may just have to mute the early ones though. The muzak doesn't do it for me.

Running Mommy
02-27-2007, 04:26 PM
Yeah my family LOVE to taunt me with coach troy-ism's... Spencer loves to yell 5, 4,3,2, ooonnnnnneeeeee ..... soft pedal... to me. :D

But I got coach troy back. In 2005 he did IMAZ. Well they had to run by our aid station 4 times, so I would yell a troy-ism at him whenever he came by. He finally said "I can see you are a spinervals fan"... :D
So I said "yep! And I can finally give it back to you".. Of course I was kidding with him, and I tried not to be too obnoxious. It was all good fun.

SouthernBelle
02-28-2007, 05:14 AM
He drives me nuts when he goes, "5..." and stops counting then goes, "2,1" really fast. I really want him to just count down the whole 5 seconds. :p

Pika
02-28-2007, 03:28 PM
I'm with you Southernbelle- today I did a spinnerval called "Sufferoramma"
Yikes I sure did suffer! The problem was I couldn't hear his countdown because I was breathing so hard, he seemed to jump from counting how far you had gone- 20 seconds, to how far you had to go 40 seconds-all I know I was sure happy to hear that "ooonnnnne":)
Cracked me up when he said at the end- if you do this workout once or twice a week you'll see some improvement- I'll be happy to do that particular workout 1-2 a season!!!

makbike
02-28-2007, 05:22 PM
Alas, my season with Coach Troy ends next Thursday. The LBC sponsors trainer tours, hosted by Coach Troy, every Tuesday and Thursday during the winter months. I learned early last year I needed some good, solid, upbeat music to help me get through his tapes. I found that if I put a dish towel under my little,old Cannondale seat bag I could put my CD player in there and crank up the tunes. I was also convinced Troy did not know how to ride a bike that is until last week. One of his newer tape has him "hosting" a ride and there he was on a bike. Of all the tapes we have suffered through I think I enjoy this one the most. The scenery was great and sure beat the heck out of the old church, the bar, the rock climbing gym, etc. The warm weather is creeping in to the Bluegrass so Coach Troy will be put to rest as of next Thursday only to surface again in November.

caligurl
03-01-2007, 01:09 PM
they are talking about that spinerval on one of my fitness forums and the consensus is it's a good workout!

VenusdeVelo
03-02-2007, 06:59 PM
Well he calls it that....;)

I just tried "Autumn Ride" (I think that was the name) and I liked it also. It's a great diversion from him normal indoor stuff. I am hoping he makes more and maybe even has a group riding with him.

Velobambina
03-03-2007, 01:27 AM
I'm waiting for his longer virtual reality one to come out. I think it's due to be released in another month or so. Of course, I hope the weather will remain decent so I won't have to test it out any time soon!!

emily_in_nc
03-03-2007, 05:44 PM
Well he calls it that....;)

I just tried "Autumn Ride" (I think that was the name) and I liked it also. It's a great diversion from him normal indoor stuff. I am hoping he makes more and maybe even has a group riding with him.

Hey, that sounds interesting! I've only used the "traditional" Spinervals. Does this one show scenery as if you're riding along in it? May have to invest in that one for next indoor season (almost time to move my riding outdoors - yay!!!)

Emily

VenusdeVelo
03-04-2007, 08:51 AM
Yup -- it's like you are riding behind him, he has a camera he calls "Troy-Cam" (ha ha he's such a geek ;-) and while he rides thru the countryside he essentially has you do the equivalent gear changes to match his terrain. It's a rolling hill landscape, I would say it's on par to being equal to many of his aerobic only workouts. No intervals and not much anaerobic stuff.

I liked it because I get a little bored sometimes with the "trainers in a room" ones. He has another virtual reality one out as well, but I think that one is 90 minutes. This autumn ride one is 50 minutes if I recall.

Worth having.....

TracyinMesa
11-15-2007, 04:43 AM
I want to get one of the DVDs. I am told I need to do interval training to improve. Im 47 started riding back in mid-June. I do weight training 2x week.
Had been riding 3-4x per week with long ride on Sunday. I did Tour de Scottsdale a month ago. 70miles tons of hills, finished but died at the end. After about the 45mile mark, if there are good hills or head wind, I'm dead. Can't get up the last couple hills w/o stopping! I average about 16mph on long rides(50) w/ hills. Competition will only be me vs. me! I just want to finish w/o stopping or whinning! I would like to work up to a century in a couple of months. Its too dark now to ride at night or before work so I need to train inside. Ladies which spinerval would be the best for me?? Thanks in advance.

roadie gal
11-16-2007, 01:28 PM
I would go with any of the Aerobic Base Builder ones. They run anywhere from 70-90 minutes. Another choice would be the virtual reality series where it's like you're riding along with Coach Troy. The autumn one is 45 min. The Lake Placid one is 3 hrs, but it can be broken down into sections that you can do at different times. The Arizona one is 2 different 1 hr UPHILL b*tt kickers. All of them are supposed to help build your aerobic base and endurance.

TracyinMesa
11-17-2007, 02:54 AM
Thank you Roadie Gal! I will look at the Aero Blders and pick one.

Velobambina
11-17-2007, 10:33 AM
Tracy---See the thread on riding at night & invest in a headlight/tail light!

I am an avid Spinervals fan but I resort to using them only when I can't ride outside. That means heavy rain, snow and/or ice. To be honest, the Spinervals are tougher than riding outdoors, so that helps me get up the gumption to bundle up and head outside when it's bitter cold.

BTW, you might want to look into the Hardcore 100, Coach Troy's indoor Century. You can break it down into shorter rides and doing the entire 5 hours is a great endurance test. You really can't go wrong w/any of Troy's workouts. The hill and strength-focused workouts went a long way in improving my ability to power up the hills. Hillacious has a high "fun" factor--good variety--even though it's a killer.

Miranda
11-18-2007, 06:27 AM
I have never done any of the Spinnerval DVDs, but was trying to figure out which one to buy. I only have one DVD, CTS "Time Trial" that came with my cycleops trainer. When looking at the Spinnervals, I noticed they had difficulty ratings. Like "No Mercy" was rated a 10. What a good basic one to get started? Thx!

Veronica
11-18-2007, 08:22 AM
The Uphill Grind is one of my favorites. It's rated 9.5. But I find it easier than No Slackers Allowed, which is a 9.0. No Slackers has lots of short intervals and it is not as easy to get into a rhythm. It's done a lot for enabling me to get up to speed quickly though.

V.

PS I have 12 different Spinervals DVDs. :D

Miranda
11-19-2007, 05:21 PM
Thx Veronica ,for the input:) . Wow! That's alot of Spinerval DVDs. Bet that sure helps from getting board inside when it nasty outside.

roadie gal
12-23-2007, 06:52 PM
I want to get one of the DVDs. I am told I need to do interval training to improve. Im 47 started riding back in mid-June. I do weight training 2x week.
Had been riding 3-4x per week with long ride on Sunday. I did Tour de Scottsdale a month ago. 70miles tons of hills, finished but died at the end. After about the 45mile mark, if there are good hills or head wind, I'm dead. Can't get up the last couple hills w/o stopping! I average about 16mph on long rides(50) w/ hills. Competition will only be me vs. me! I just want to finish w/o stopping or whinning! I would like to work up to a century in a couple of months. Its too dark now to ride at night or before work so I need to train inside. Ladies which spinerval would be the best for me?? Thanks in advance.

I see it's been a while and no one has replied, so I'll give you a few suggestions. If you're working more on endurance than speed right now I'd go with either the Aero Base Builder series (1-4 are all different, 5 is a compilation) or the Virtual Reality series. Then there's the Hardcore 100. If you do all 3 of the DVDs it'll be over 5 hours and theoretically 100 miles. It's a lower intensity one that's specifically designed for endurance. Beware, it's much more boring than the others.

The Uphill Grind and Hillacious are good shorter ones (about 45 min) for getting better at hills.

Sufferorama, Have Mercy, Zoot Challenge and a few others are mostly high intensity intervals for speed. You could probably skip those until you want to work specifically on speed.