Spinervals question

[caligurl]

they are talking about that spinerval on one of my fitness forums and the consensus is it's a good workout!

[VenusdeVelo]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Thank you Roadie Gal! I will look at the Aero Blders and pick one.

[Velobambina]

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]

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!

[roadie gal]

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.