As I write this, I realize that I still haven’t finished my official review of Ergvideo. However, I would like to put together some thoughts about some of the new Winter 2008-9 releases that I purchased. Hopefully, this will help others who are looking at buying new courses like I was about a month ago.
For those of you not familiar with Ergvideo, it is a virtual cycling program that uses the Computrainer to simulate training rides and races. I’ll get into the details in my other review, but the concept is pretty simple. You have to pedal as hard as the people in the video are pedaling. For example, if the rider is hammering on the hill in Ergvideo, you will have to be hammering on the Computrainer as well. Huh? Nope, not all the time. Ergvideo allows you to adjust the effort you ride at , so you can take it easy when you want to go easy and you can hammer when you really want to hammer.
The list of of new Ergvideo courses is expansive. There are 10 new titles and you should check out the full list here. Paul Smelders and his crew have been busy programming and filming, and they’ve created some cool new rides, especially for endurance/tempo/base training. I had already gotten many of the videos I wanted last year for hard workouts (eg, threshold, VO2Max, hill intervals) and wanted more options for base training. So, most of the videos below are made just for just that, but they could also be used for other workouts by using some of the Ergvideo features that allow you create your own workout. Again, I’ll cover that in my full review. To a get a taste for the customization and the power profile for each video, check out the Intellicoach site.
Here are my thoughts on the four new courses I’ve tried. After riding these the past few weeks, I realized how important Ergvideo has become to my training regimen.
Trinidad And South Africa
How can you go wrong with riding in the Carribean and taking a trip with CSC? Of the new titles, this one probably interested me the most and it was the first one that I rode when I got my order in the mail. The first 1:15 of the video is Trinidad and has some awesome footage. Palm trees, ocean views, some awesome descents. I was very impressedwith the riders catching up with cars on the downhill sections and how they handled apexes. Enough eye candy to keep you engaged, but I guarnatee the effort will too! Don’t ride this at 100% AT on your first attempt. The pace and hills on the Trinidad are a monster! I was pretty spent and wish I would have ridden at 80% of AT, not 100%. Remember, while these guys coast downhill, you’re still pedaling. The last half of the video is a ride in South Africa with CSC. I didn’t find this as hard as the Trinidad ride and it was pretty cool riding with somes guys from the pro peloton.
Club Ride to Quadeville
Set in scenic Ontario, this ride has lots of rolling hills and the right balance of steady pace mixed with harder efforts. Very realistic for a longer club ride. At 100%, this will be harder ride than just riding at tempo, but I wouldn’t make it much easier–maybe 90% AT. I’ve come to like this course for longer rides.
Adirondacks Club Ride
A two and a half hour jam session in upstate NY. Lots of good scenery and nice effort the entire ride. The pace isn’t too crazy and this ride allows enough time to recover after hills and your turns pulling off the front. I highly recommend this one at 100% AT if you want a good tempo session. Very realistic of a club ride with the big guns.
Threshold Power Test
This video isn’t part of the base training series, in fact it’s not really a workout, it’s a tool to help you measure your threshold power. Choose from either 20 or 60 minute tests and Ergvideo do the rest. I did some beta testing with this video and found it to be pretty accurate to what I’ve measured with my PowerTap during races. A good tool for measuring threshold improvements throughtout your training cycles.