On those days that Mother Nature just doesn’t allow me to ride the bike into school, I find that I still need that cardio fix. We recently bought a couple of spin bikes for our weight room and I was getting a little bored with simply jumping on and riding the bike for an hour. That’s when I discovered the Spinervals series of DVD’s. The one that I find to be the best of the bunch is Spinervals 6.0 The Zoot Challenge.
The focus of this 45 minute video is interval training, a fantastic way to improve your overall anaerobic fitness and your ability to recover from those high intensity bursts we all face during a race. The video begins with a short warm-up of steady tempo spinning, followed by a set of 3 x 30 second intervals where the workload is steadily increased. Following a short 1-minute spin, coach Troy Jacobson takes his athletes through a set of 12 x 20 second intervals of increased tension that include 20 seconds of rest between sets.
These intervals, however, are really just a warm-up to prepare you for a gruelling set of 4 intervals that include a 1-minute steady tempo spin, a 30-second pace spin followed by a 30 second burst at 90% effort followed by a 30-second pace spin. In addition, each interval requires the rider to increase the tension on their bikes (Coach Troy uses the gears on a standard road bike as his guide for riders) with the final interval being at maximum tension (big chain ring on the front and your 12-tooth ring on the back). After the 4 intervals are complete, riders are given 1-minute to recover and then are asked to repeat the 4 intervals again. And to add a little spice, riders alternate from being in the saddle to standing out of the saddle for each interval!! This highly intense set of 8 intervals are followed by 4 more intervals that ask riders to work at 80, 90 and 100% effort over a 30 second hit. The cool-down portion of the workout is a simple 4-minute spin at 60% effort.
I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie and this video really gives me my fix. Although the background music is a bit hokey, Coach Troy really puts the athletes through their paces (note the sweat pools under each bike). If you have your bike on a tr
ainer during the winter months or if you have a spin bike, Spinervals 6.0 The Zoot Challenge will keep you in race shape for when the snow melts and the mud (or pavement) begins to fly!!
