I look forward to starting my day with the hour plus routine and feel that I get a great workout. I am sweating buckets when I am done.

There is a bonus at the end of each workout!!! Pilates, Yoga and strength training. This is a great end to the exercise and a great start to my day.

Rating: 5 / 5

Each DVD offers four different coaching tracks, with the choice of American, Italian and Australian coaches, plus a live track from a spinning class using the DVD. So you can ride with a different coach each time, choose the one whose personality and coaching style appeals best, or soak up the energy from a spinning class. All the coaches coach in real time as they ride with you; you can hear them breathing hard and the grinding of their trainer. Or you can select the “music only” option and just enjoy the music and scenery.

On all the DVDs in this series, the cinematography and scenery is stunning, the music suits the ride and the mood, and the workout seems to go past very quickly.

I started with Volume 3, “Maui Rollers”. It starts off with a satellite image of the USA, which pans over to Hawaii, then zooms in on Hawaii as the satellite image morphs into a map so you can see exactly where the ride starts – very cool! After a warm-up, the workout starts with a steep uphill ride in the early morning to a track called “Kissed by Morning Rain”. Adding to the verisimilitude, the camera lens is spotted with rain. I trained with the US coach, Gene Nacey. I wasn’t surprised to learn that Gene is a Certified Heart Zones Cycling Coach; he kept me in my target zone all the way through the ride. The ride, including the warm-up but excluding the cool-down, lasted for 45 minutes.

Next, I tackled “Oceanside Ride”, again with Gene Nacey. I was recovering from the flu and must admit I struggled a bit. Either Gene can read my mind or he was tired too, because he talked a lot about “putting the miles in”, “adding to your aerobic bank”, and toughing it out when you’re tired or bored. This DVD is marketed as an endurance/recovery ride and works well in that context. I think it works best either after, or sandwiched between, the other two DVDs in the series. The ride is mainly on the flat, and the scenery isn’t as exciting as in the other DVDs, but it does end with a beautiful sunset. The ride, including the warm-up but excluding the cool-down, lasted for 41 minutes.

For my third virtual Hawaii excursion, “Strendurance in Hawaii”, I trained with Sally Edwards, the woman behind the Heart Zones Training system, and a professional triathlete. As you would expect, her coaching focused on heart rate training; as she was training with a cadence meter she also gave cues on your target cadence. As we were riding along a flat stretch of road, Sally said, “See that mountain up ahead? That’s where we’ll be riding”. I thought “Gah! You have to be kidding!” But we did. Sally coached me through a series of “rollers”, using both seated and standing climbs, as we worked our way uphill. The total working time for the ride, including the warm-up but excluding the cool-down, was 49 minutes. I was pleased, but not surprised, to see that I had achieved a personal best in my calorie burn per minute. This would be a great DVD for fans of hill training.

These DVDs are probably the closest I’ll ever get to Hawaii, but that’s OK. The beautiful scenery, uplifting music and expert coaching make the DVDs ones I’ll want to use again and again. I’m eagerly looking forward to the next in the Global Ride series, Global Ride: Speed & Power in Italy Virtual Cycling DVD.
Rating: 5 / 5

What really shine are the bonus yoga, weights, and pilates sessions. If you’ve never done any of them before, you can see what’s involved. Yoga isn’t nearly as scary after watching one of these.
Rating: 5 / 5