Global Rides DVD review - long

I spend about 6 months out of the year on my trainer because the roads are covered with snow. I have a huge collection of training DVDs but I'm always on the search for new ones. A few weeks ago I got the Global Rides Hawaii set. Here's my take on them (I've watched 2 out of the 3).

What you're watching is a "real time" view. I guess the camera is set up on the front of a car. Because it's real time it's going at a rider's pace. This seemed slow to me, but you do feel like you're riding and the scenery is beautiful. There are no graphics on the screen, only the picture. You get to pick the gearing. Each DVD features 3 different coaches that you can choose from who tell you what you should be doing. On this set there's an American coach, an Australian coach and an Italian coach. You can also choose no coach and you can choose with or without music.

Of the 3 I found the American coach easiest to hear. It's not only because I'm American. It seemed to me that he was louder than the others. The problem with him is that he doesn't tell you whether you're going uphill or downhill. It may seem weird, but you sometimes can't tell from the picture on the screen which way you're going. So it's helpful if the coach gives you a clue.

The Aussie coach was better about giving uphill vs downhill directions. But his voice is softer, so I had to turn off the music to hear him. He also gave more direction and gear changes than the American.

The Italian coach is a woman with a soft voice and a very strong accent. I liked what she was saying, but I had to strain to understand her.

All 3 of the coaches focus on getting you to maintain your target heart rate. You get to decide if this is a hard or easy day. They just want you to get to whatever heart rate you've picked and stay there. (This would be great if I could train by heart rate, but I can't because of my pacemaker. I have to go by perceived effort. But if you train by heart rate, this would be a good way to go.)

Each of the workouts is 45 minutes long. Included on each DVD is a bonus feature. On the Maui Rollers DVD there's a 30 minute yoga workout. It seemed pretty good. Unfortunately I didn't get through it because the dogs decided to help me stretch. Dog butts in my face made it too difficult, so I quit. On the Oceanside Ride there's a 30 min pilates workout that was quite good. I'm not sure what is on the 3rd DVD as I haven't done it yet.

Overall, these are not going to be my favorite DVDs. I do like the format but the emphasis on the heart rate makes them less useful to me. I would also like a bit more detail from the coaches. I think that if you like more scenery and less stuff on the screen, and you train by heart rate, then you'd probably like these a lot. For each $30 DVD you get 3 different coaching styles, so you get essentially 3 different workouts plus the bonus. They're definitely worth the money in that regard.

Global Rides also has some DVDs filmed in Italy for those who prefer a European workout.