Susan Aspenson Murray and her spin class in Monument, Colorado sent me this photo. Once a month, she and her Sufferfest crew have “Sufferfest Saturday.” She puts together her own music, and even adds a bit of climbing to Sufferfest 4 (Sadist!)! Well, she and the crew sent me this photo – everyone looks awesome and I just love seeing those Suffer T-Shirts! Thanks Susan and crew for sending on the photo!
I gotta find a way to work this into a Sufferfest video!
Anyone for tree flipping intervals? (Thanks Rob F. for pointing this one out!)
We get a lot of nice mail from folks telling us how much they love suffering to The Sufferfest. It’s always really cool and motivating to hear good words, and also to get ideas on how to improve the videos. Sometimes, though, a mail comes through that is really inspiring and makes us realise that being able to ride a bike and feel fit isn’t a right – it’s a gift. We thought we’d pass on such a mail for you to read. Thanks, Brenda, for allowing us to share this…
“Hello Sufferfest gang,
I can’t tell you what a life changing product you have provided. I am a 45 year old mom/wife/teacher/athlete?? I have been active all my life. Running, hockey, soccer. It’s a blast, but I’ve had 4 subsequent knee scopes and partially torn both acl’s. Still unwilling to give up, I kept playing and did my knees in with the last injury. After 2 years of burning pain, another surgery and months of Physical Therapy, the injury became back related as well.
I began a series of injections and epidurals…I couldn’t walk 100 yards without great pain. The pain management specialist eventually told me to quit PT, which I did. I gained close to 20 pounds and felt sorry for myself. Lots of sitting around, lots of ibuprofin, no more traveling with my family, no walks with my dogs etc. I tried a spinning class at a local gym. I could ride, but not for a full hour at that intensity. I thought I was done. If only there was a way to ride the spin bike at your own pace…..
I discovered The Sufferfest by accident a few days after my original IPod died. I made a comittment, purchased the IPod Touch and downloaded the 3 available Sufferfest videos. I started January 5, 2009. I’ve lost 15 pounds, can ride for at least 90 minutes at a good intensity and I began running again (though only on a treadmill, only twice a week and only under 5 miles.) and I can see the light again…also, I dig the music and the footage! I’ve been spreading the word. I’ll bet you never expected to have such a profound effect when you set out! Maybe no more soccer, but I’ve entered a 10K with my 12 year old again.
Thanks for such a great product! – Brenda”
—-
We also want to thank the monsters over at Team Crank IT. The Captain sent us a note informing us that we are now honorary members of Team Crank IT…and also sent an awesome cycling cap in the mail! It seems these full Ironman nutcases are big Sufferfest users – and judging by their training diaries, they are going to crush the field when they are here in Zurich for Ironman Switzerland. Thanks, guys – Looking forward to meeting up with you when you’re here!
It’s quite tempting to not ride tonight. And, frankly, nobody would know. Only me. And I’m pretty good at fooling myself into thinking I’ll get up early and ride tomorrow. But in the Facebook era, everything you do (or don’t do) is everyone’s news. My new favorite site, Daily Mile, puts your training right out there for everybody to see.
It’s one part training diary, one part discussion forum, one part social network and one part peer pressure. A bit like Traineo and Stickk and Facebook and your local cycling forum all rolled into one. What makes it really work, though, is the open, friendly, easy-to-use interface. They also provide a nice widget which you can post into your pages….which I’ve done and placed at the bottom of my About page.
Check it out. And, if you sign up, uh, friend me! I’m in there as David M.
- Cycling DVD – EpicPlanet.tv’s Epic Ride Vermont
- Price – $29.95
- Rating – *** (out of *****)
- Summary – First-person, high-quality footage of a group ride through the Vermont hills, rather simple terrain and poor music
Nothing warms up to the Sufferfest spirit on snowy winter days like getting cycling DVDs filmed in sunny places. The folks over at EpicPlanet.tv sent me the first version of their new “Epic Rides” series, which is a first-person ride through a very nice bit of Vermont. It’s a 45minute workout, filmed “first person” during a group ride over a big climb. The workout footage covers 5 minutes of warm up, 10 minutes of easy climbing, 20 minutes of hard climbing, 5 minutes of fast spinning and 5 minutes of cool down.
As I hopped on my trusty Tomahawk and got started, the lush green trees made me a bit homesick for the US as the snow fell outside my window. And the scenery through areas like Vermont’s Mad River Valley and the town of Bristol is nice…but I wouldn’t really describe it at “epic” – it’s more like a nice ride through some green hills. The Hawaii setting of Global Ride was better for putting you (or at least me), someplace you’d never been. In any case, it was better than catching frostbite outside.
Through those green hills, you follow four cyclists – 2 sixtysomething guys, 1 twenty something woman and 1 thirtysomething guy. They go along at a pretty good clip, and the feeling of riding with them is realistic enough. Through the mostly first-person footage from behind or alongside the riders, there are also a few cool “bike cam” shots spread throughout.
Unlike the Global Ride DVDs which I reviewed last week, these have no audio coaching track, so you need to make up your own workout. For those looking for a coach or spin instructor to take them through the workout, this is a real drawback as there is no guidance (other than the dashboard – see below) to what you should be doing as you watch the video. To help you out, EpicRide.tv provides printouts with the DVD containing three workout ideas and an explanation of heart zones. It’s all written by Joey Adams, who is a CycleOps master instructor. This is a pretty nice touch, especially for those who aren’t comfortable designing their own workouts.
I rode the video twice, using it as base training, and chose to pretty much follow the terrain without adding too much complexity. There are a couple of times on the climb where you can tell the pressure is on a bit, and it subtly encourages you to go that little bit harder. For the most part, though, they stay together on a nice even pace. For the kind of workout I was doing, it was fine. But if you’re trying to do intervals or really lay it down on the climb, the pace of the riders would awkwardly contrast quite noticibly. In fact, cadence threw me a few times, even at my steady rate – the riders were going at a slower cadence that I was pushing..and it created a strange feeling that took a bit to get over. If I had been doing intervals or more agressive climbing, I would have liked to see one or two of the riders attack a bit more, to make the workout less monotonous. Would have been more fun.
Now, on many of these sort of “real” ride DVDs, the coach tells you you’re going uphill, or downhills, but it just looks plain flat on the screen. Capturing grades is quite difficult on video, but EpicPlanet gets by that quite nicely with a digital dashboard that tells you where in the workout you are, what the grade of the climb is, which heart zone you should be in and how much time has elapsed. I found myself watching that dashboard almost as much as I was the riders. I can imagine that on more complicated workouts, with lots of hills, it would be even more useful.
Now, to the music. Ah, the music. This DVD is really let down by the generic “techno” they’ve laid down over this. It’s really not something you want to listen to for very long. Since there is no audio coaching on this DVD, I just turned the music down and used the playlist from Sufferfest 4, which worked pretty well. If you’re watching it on your computer, you can do this by running iTunes at the same time you’re running the DVD player. If you’ve got it on TV, then throw on a set of headphones.
But, if you’re doing your own workout and listening to your own music, is this really worth 30 bucks? At this price, I’d only give it *** as I don’t feel the value is there. If the price was lower, then I’d be more inclined to give it four stars for what it is – a nice ride through a nice place to take your mind off the indoor bike.
EpicPlanet has two more rides coming out – Acadia and the Florida Panhandle. From the photos at their website, the footage looks just as good and the riders more agressive – we’ll see how the music is!
- Cycling DVD – Global Ride’s StrenDurance in Hawaii
- Price – $29.95
- Rating – *** (out of *****)
- Summary – First-person, “helmet cam” style footage of a Hawiian ride, with a solid workout but poor audio
Dear Sufferfesters, you know how we feel about watching people ride spinbikes on a video podcast or DVD. It’s one thing to be in a class and feel the excitement and energy around you, and a complete other thing to watch a bunch of people ride bikes on your video iPod while you bore yourself to agony trying to focus on what the instructor is saying (See our reviews of Carmichael Training Systems and iFitGourmet).
Global Ride’s StrenDurance is one of two indoor cycling DVDs we received in Sufferfest Studios this week. Both DVDs leave the classroom behind and head out onto the open road, using first-person, “helmet cam” style footage for the video. This one is set in Hawaii.
Never been to Hawaii. But it’s always sounded like a nice place. And it wasn’t until we heard that Lance Armstrong did his training before the Tour Down Under in Hawaii that it ever entered our mind as a place to ride. And so, it was with much anticipation that StrenDurance was loaded into the iMac while climbing on the spin bike. After all, on a cold, miserable, grey (and fairly typical) winter day here in Zurich, watching footage of the best climbs and roads in Hawaii should be a nice escape, eh?
And it was. The 50ish minute ride covers a nice climb, a good flat bit near the ocean, and then some rolling hills before concluding with a pleasant warm down. You can really push yourself hard on this DVD, and the more familiar you get with the footage, the better the workout gets.
Before you get started, though, you get to choose whether you want music or not, and whether you want an American, Australian or Italian coach, or want to listen into a “live” recording from Global Ride’s Spin Studio. You can also choose whether you want music on or off (having it off allows you to play your own tracks) and you can also have the coaching off (allowing you to design your own workout for the footage).
The scenery is great – lush climbs, big oceans, and wide open fast flats. The feel is pretty realistic, since the pace moves at about the pace you’d actully be going if you were on your (real) bike. With only a little imagination, you can put yourself in the picture. Occasional shots of a cyclist help the feeling out a bit more. It looked much nicer than the snowy trails of Uetliberg out our window.
We wanted to hear the coaching and music and since we just came back from Australia, we tuned in to Matty Reed. Matty, despite having an Australian accent, was a 2008 USA Olympian and National Champion (I suppose there’s an interesting story there somewhere) and he was my guide when I first started the workout. But it seemed Matty had the microphone taped directly to his mouth since you could hear all his breathing and a disturbing low bass when he mumbled (which he did rather too often..where is the enthusiasm, Matty?). He got switched off halfway through, as we simply couldn’t hear him clearly (now, before you Aussies say that we just don’t understand Australian, half of the Sufferfest Studio family is Australian – but come to think of it, we don’t always understand her, either…hmm).
Tuning it into the “Live” Spin Studio soundtrack, things instantly got better. The instructor, who we suppose is Global Ride Founder Gene Nacey, does a good job of getting the class wound-up (whoops! hollers! in the background), and gives good instruction. He clearly knows how to use the video to guide a workout, and we can see that if they used this DVD at our local gym’s spinning studio, we might show up more often (in fact, this DVD is probably best suited to a spinclass with an instructor who really knows how to use it). Anyway, back on topic – Sometimes Gene’s a bit hard to hear amid the noice of the class, but he’s effective for the most part and got us caught up in the excitement of the class cheering - even though we were riding alone in our office. This track ended up being our favorite, and is one we’ll return to a few times over this winter indoor season.
We took a quick listen to the American coach, Sally Edwards (Triathlon hall of fame). She’s a lot clearer than Matty (even though the mic also seems to be a bit close to her mouth and she fades in and out) and the instruction is better – and if you know her heart zones concept, she refers to it often, which gives some guidance on the effort you should be making. About halfway through, though, you can start hearing (what sounds like) her bike, which is a bit distracting.
The music is very good. More generic stuff is what you typically get on these kind of DVDs, but the tracks are pretty authentic techno dance stuff, and set the right tone for the workouts. Well worth listening to. The DVD has a “bonus” section, which is a 30 minute strength training session using weights and a mat.
This was the first effort from the Global Ride team, and they have a new Italian series coming out soon. Here’s the promotional clip for those keen to get a look at what this DVD offers:
We’re a bit of voyeur here at Sufferfest Studios, and we’re often checking out the latest comments about the site at cycling forums. We stumbled across one the other day that had an interesting survey going on – where do you have your indoor training bike and what is it like?
Most folks seemed to have theirs in the garage. And most seemed to be an old bike hooked up to a turbo trainer. Ah, different strokes for different folks. Well, here is how we do it at Sufferfest Studios. While we used to have a turbo trainer hooked up to our carbon bike (which always got us just a bit nervous…), we finally plunked down and bought a spin bike. Why?
Well, first, they’re stable. You’re simply not going to get a lot of flex out of these things when you’re out of the saddle climbing and you’re not going to feel like you’ll fall off (Roller purists, you can stop reading now). Second, our bike is safe in the storage room where it is not suffering from flex or anything evil like that. Third, the Tomahawk E Series we got is adjustable enough, and has a multi-position handlebar that’s much better than that Schwinn stuff out there.
So, that’s the bike taken care of. Now for the entertainment…er, workout. First, we believe the launch of the video iPod was probably the most important thing to happen to indoor cycling since the walkman (wait, were spinning bikes around then?). For those of you who workout at the gym, or who don’t have a computer or TV in your workout room, an iPod strapped to our spinbike’s handlebars works a treat. Gets a bit sweaty. Would not – repeat, would NOT – recommend this to any of you still using rollers. Bad idea. Very bad.
Of course, those of you who do have a laptop around, and want to watch the latest Sufferfest Video Podcast Workout, need to figure out a way to set that up. David Hancock, over at our Sufferfest Test Studio in London, has a little setup with his bike in front of the laptop in what appears to be the middle of the dining room. Complete with flowerish decoration behind the laptop. This, folks, is an excellent way to show up for dinner with the missus while still being on your bike. Brilliant.
So. What does your indoor training setup look like?
- Spincast – iFitGourmet
- Price – $5.00 for video, $2.00 for audio
- Rating – *** (out of *****)
- Summary – Typical spinning class workout while watching someone ride a spinbike.
It isn’t often that we’re sitting on the spinbike with someone shouting “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!” in our ear (usually that’s us muttering to ourselves as we suffer through another interval), but this podcast does just that. iFitGourmet is one of the only other spinning video podcasts out there, and it combines traditional spinning class techniques with, unusually, a “Indie Christian Rock” soundtrack.
iFitGourmet follows the standard spinning podcast concept – film a spinning instructor lead a workout. We downloaded their “Jump Training for Sprints and Climbs” video podcast. The instructor is nice enough, and gives a lot of basic instruction on breathing, sitting on the bike, and some stretches. Advanced cyclists will find this a bit pointless and want to get on with things, but new spinners will probably appreciate it.
This is what you see the entire video. Get used to it.
The workout takes a while to get going – there is more than 10minutes of warmup, which you really don’t need a podcast to get you through (there is also a 6minute warmdown). Then you begin a series of “jumps,” which are alternating sitting/standing sessions. They start out slow, but gradually build and do, in fact, get quite difficult. By the end of the video, we were working pretty hard. It’s pretty standard spin class stuff and if that’s what you’re looking for, then this workout will probably leave you satisfied.
Now, Sufferfest readers will know we’re not big fans of just watching someone ride a spinbike (see our review on Carmichael Training Systems borefests). It’s not that interesting, and if you already know form and positioning, the video doesn’t add a lot of value. Another (small) thing is that the instructor never seems to be working very hard in this video. It creates a bit of disconnect between how you feel suffering away during the jumps, and how relaxed she looks. If we’re suffering, we want you to be suffering. Somehow makes us feel better.
And the music – if you’re not Christian, or into Christian rock rather, it can be a little offputting. We were surprised at how good a couple of the tracks were, but overall we probably wouldn’t do this podcast again simply because of the music. We need more energy and less preaching in the soundtracks for our workouts.
- Spincast – Jamie Morton’s Tri Harder
- Price – Free
- Rating – **** (out of *****)
- Summary – Indoor cycling podcasts for cyclists, with great workouts
Now, dear readers, this is what a spincast should be – good, hard workouts, great music and solid instruction. I did a few of these over the past few days and really, really enjoyed them.
I know there is a huge, huge spinning community out there that loves the motivational instructor, the near-religious fervour of the class, and the personal development that comes out of pushing yourself so hard. As a cyclist, rather than a “spinner,” I prefer workouts with longer intervals, more structure and the kind of efforts that will translate into more specific strength on the road or trail. While I can listen to a Tracy Mallet podcast and her over-the-top encouragement every once in awhile (my wife, however, just loves her), I prefer a spincast instructor who tells me what to do, and then gets out of the way so I can get on with it.
Jamie Morton is a personal trainer, “triathlon artist” and, from her most recent blog post, a cyclocross racer as well! She clearly knows how to train and how to race, and this comes out in this excellent series of spincasts. It looks like she’s got about six podcasts available (although the numbering goes up to number 26 for some reason) and I downloded two of them (#18 “Rollers” and #3 “Cadence”). In both, she does a super job of working with the music, giving clear instruction on what she wants you to do, and why, and drops in the occassional dig at your efforts. I found myself cursing her a few times when she kept telling me to increase the resistance, while keeping the cadence high. The cadence workout, in particular, was a good refresher in keeping the tempo high even during big efforts. It’s a great workout for this time of year, when you want to get the legs spinning quickly, keep the heart rate in an endurance zone, and work on your form.
Her musical preference is somewhere around the jangly rock, college-alt-indie, with the occasional surprise thrown in (Muse! Hey!). She doesn’t seem to be into electronic, but it’s a nice change from some of the dance-oriented free music podcasts. The quality of the podcasts is very good – my only criticism (and the only thing holding her back from the coveted five star Sufferfest rating (!), would be that her voice-overs could be a bit louder in parts, there is some erratic sound editing in parts, and you can’t seem to get the spincasts in iTunes, so you have to download them from her site and import them into your library. These are minor points, though, and I’ll certainly download the rest of what she’s got available at the site, and hope she produces a few more as it’s looking like a long winter here in Zurich (It sounds like it takes her a long time to produce them – and we at Sufferfest Studios know that all too well, so we’ll be patient)!
Thanks to Roy S. for the tip on Jamie’s podcasts.
Cadence Revolution - available to subscribe in iTunes.
This is a weekly podcast with free workout music. Each episode is about an hour long, with around 5-10 minutes of warm-up music, then around 40minutes of good, solid tempo stuff and then a warm-down. I’ve listened to a few of them, and the music is really good. The episodes I listened to were a mix of dance, electronic and soul (as well, one of the episodes has a bit too much salsa and reggae for me). Good, uptempo stuff. I’ll probably take some of this out with me while mountain biking.
They don’t describe each podcast individually, so you’re never sure what you’re going to get – since they have so many episodes, it would be much better to have descriptions so you could choose the ones with the music you like best. Oh – and there are also some advertisements and calls to visit the Cadence Revolution website halfway through or so. They’re not too intrusive – unless they come during a killer song on some brutal climb, where you really need the music to help you get over it. In my case, it was on a casual road ride, so it didn’t really matter.
There is no instruction in these, so you’re free to design your own workouts, or pick one from the lists available in some of the sites in the Sufferfest Blogroll
- Spincast – Why Not Thrive?
- Price – Free (and that’s always good)
- Rating – * (out of *****)
- Summary – Live recordings of spinclasses don’t work well as spincasts
I stumbled on a promising-looking collection of spincasts tonight at a blog called Why Not Thrive? Turns out it’s the same group that also has some podcasts at iTunes under the “IndoorCyclingWorkout” label. I checked out a few of them – oddly, they’re hosted at the Internet Archive, and there is a whole host of audio download options.
What seems a promising start, however, is a bit of a let down. The music sounds ok, although a bit dated. The problem, though, is that the audio quality is very poor, and the instructor is hard to make out (although she sounds nice enough). It seems that these are live recordings of spin classes, which never translates well onto a spincast. In situations like this, the instructor doesn’t give enough detail on what to do because the class can see her…and you can’t. So you’re left to muddle around a bit and try to figure out what is going on and what might happen next. It makes it hard to concentrate on what your workout, and a bit frustrating.
Overall, I’d give these a miss unless you’re really in need of some new spincasts. If they can improve the sound quality, and the detail of the instruction, then I think they could be worth revisiting.
For those of you out there who are looking to set some goals this fall and winter, there are two sites which The Sufferfest has been experimenting with. It’s too early to do a solid review, but the early signs are promising.
- Stickk – A site that helps you clarify your goals (e.g., spin three times a week until Christmas, lose four kilos), and then make those goals public to your family, friends and anyone else you like. The site makes you update the people you add to your list, so there really isn’t any room to hide. Self inflicted peer pressure…
- Traineo – Lets you record your workouts and diet in an easy-to-use, friendly interface. Tracks calories burned and connects you with other communities. Not too sure how useful it acutally is, but we’ll try it out for a few weeks and let you know what we think.
I ran across a few music podcasts geared specifically to running or indoor training. There’s two of them that I’m really impressed with.
- Indie Soup Runner – Finally! A workout soundtrack that isn’t techno! And it’s free! With all that going for it, you can hardly hold it against them that the podcast is for runners. ISR is a fantastic mix of indie pop music – Ting Tings, Go! Team, Infidels, Tokyo Police Club. High energy, great tunes and a perfect way to hear some new artists to download later (In fact, I just read their review of Cut Copy and downloaded it straight away). The site is also fantastic, with a lot of reviews, photos of foot fungus (?) and other downloads. Well done, guys. My days of mixing my own tracks might be over…
- Techno Sweat – Terrible name, great techno music. I don’t go too much for techno when training. What is better than Muse, really? But sometimes I’m in the mood for this – especially when I want to really punish myself on the bike. TechnoSweat has a bunch of free podcasts through iTunes (just search for TechnoSweat) that are worth a few spins. They also have tracks you can buy at their site, but I didn’t try that out.
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The only thing you'll ever see in a Carmichael video podcast
Rating – * (out of *****)
- Summary – good workouts, but repetitive, boring video and music
- Price – 10 USD per playlist
- Download at Train Right
There is no doubt that Lance Armstrong’s coach, Chris Carmichael, knows what an effective workout is. Eight – whoops, sorry, seven Tour de France victories prove that. Perhaps a little of that expertise might do me good? To find out, I downloaded a series of his training podcasts – both video and audio.
First off, the trainright.com website is downright frustrating to use. Just getting around the place and figuring out what is what is a workout in itself. Chris – get some help with that site..I know some customer experience guys that can help you out.
Here is how the video podcasts work – you buy a “playlist” that’s arranged like one of Carmichael’s workouts. The playlist consists of video “tracks,” such as a 10minute warm-ups, 4minute “steady state” sessions, 2minute climbing sessions, 30 second sprints, 5 minute recovery sessions and 10minute warmdown as well. In theory, this is a great idea, as you can create your own workouts using the tracks you’ve downloaded.
Choosing from the 18 workouts available, I downloaded the “Over/Under” playlist, which is a 10min warm up, 1minute interval, 2minute recovery and then four repeats of 4minute steady states, 2minute climbing and 5 minute recovery. A 10min warm down closes the workout for a total of 15 “tracks” and 60minutes.
Now, Chris might know what he’s doing with workouts, but he certainly doesn’t know what he’s doing with indoor spinning. A big part of an indoor workout is that it keeps you entertained, and stays fresh. Halfway through this playlist, you’re hoping the bike breaks so you can get off and get your sanity back. Here’s why:
- The video is of someone riding a spin bike. My god. You have to be kidding. I get bored watching myself ride a spin bike – how boring is it watching someone else? Every once in awhile there is a close-up of a spinning crank, or hands moving to a new position on the bars. Whooeee! Granted, there is are some graphics on the screen indicating the desired effort and cadence level, and a countdown clock letting you know when the boredom is over. But it’s more a gimmick than anything else.
- Even though there are 15 tracks, there are only 6 videos. This is because every time you do, say, a four minute steady state, the same four minute steady state video plays. With the same music. With the same person. After the third repeat I wanted to chuck my iPod across the room. (Now, granted, I’m the kind of guy who likes a lot of variety to keep things interesting – if you like more familiarity, perhaps you like this repetition.)
- The music is an odd mix of rock and roll and grungy pop - none of which you have heard before, and little of which you want to hear again – and certainly not four times in the same workout! Not very motivating stuff. And the problem with a video podcast is that you can’t turn down the volume and listen to something else. Your iPod won’t let you do that. I did this workout a few times, and ran the video through iTunes on my iMac, and listened to different music on the iPod. The video wasn’t any more interesting though, and I soon stopped watching and just did the workout from memory.
In total, I downloaded three playlists, and while the workout itself is good, I would just as soon write it down on a piece of paper, turn on my own music and have at it. And, the good news is that you can do just that by clicking the link above. Write down the playlists, and then do them yourself without having to pay the 10 bucks that Carmichael wants for these videos.
Spincast – Matthew Reyes at iAmplify
Sufferfest Rating – ** (out of 5*****)
Cost – 30 USD for pack of 9 workouts
To see what else was going on at iAmplify in their Indoor Cycling section, I bought a few of the spincasts from Matthew Reyes. Umm…after the rather hyper Tracey Mallet stuff, Reyes comes across as….a very calm yoga teacher. Which apparently he is. And a good one, too, judging by the celebrity endorsements at his site. But a spin session needs to be energetic, alive, motivating and something you feel driven to finish. These are – well, boring. The workouts are ok in structure, but nothing surprising. The coaching is way too calm – even he seems a bit bored by it all. The music is terrible, and barely audible. One nice touch is a set of photographs he includes to show you different positions on the bike – but if you’ve ever attended a spin class, you’re not really going to any value in them. If you’re a more spiritual, sort of yoga-ish kind of cyclist, then maybe this is for you. But I won’t be going back to these workouts.
Spincast – Tracey Mallett Mixed Terrain Workout from iAmplify for 10 USD
Rating – *** (out of 5*)
Click here to buy Mixed Terrain Cycling Workout
Since my wife was keen to start spinning, but isn’t really keen on watching Greg Lemond attack Laurent Fignon in the ’89 Worlds while she rides, I started looking for some other spincasts (is that a word? did I make that up?), and found some over at iAmplify.com. I choose a “Mixed Terrain” workout by trainer Tracey Mallett. It’s 45 minutes long and has a variety of intervals, standing climbing sessions and a bit of tempo.
Claire really enjoyed it – and suffered through it, so I thought I would give it a go. I didn’t think much of it at first, as Tracey did a lot of over-the-top motivating and whooping and cheery-cheerful chatting like “now it’s time for you to find your inner athlete and go that bit harder..you know your body and you do what is right for your body.” She doesn’t let up though, and halfway through I was cursing this little blonde monster..she kept telling me to turn the resistance up and never down! Assassin!
The music is a little sketchy – it shifts from techno to some sort of latin thing and back again. It’s entertaining enough, though. By the end, I was pretty wiped out – the sign of a good sufferfest (or my quite poor fitness!)
I think the price is a bit much for a single spincast workout. She’s also got some packages of four workouts for 30 USD, and I’ll see about reviewing some of those in the future.