It was an interesting turn of the tables. Instead of me asking a cycling blogger to take a look (or in my case, a ride through) one of my Global Ride DVDs to render an opinion, I was being asked by Stephen Auerbach to review his film about the Race Across America (RAAM). Before I give you my take on it, let me tell you how I watched it. Yeah, you’re already ahead of me, I watched it while riding my Keiser M3 indoor bike. It’s …

Well, it’s midway through February, and there’s good news and bad news – the good news is that we are almost half way through the winter, the bad news is that if you haven’t started your Winter Training yet, you better get started or you will miss the best “Base Building” time of the year. if you haven’t started preparing for the Spring season, it’s not too late. There is plenty of crappy winter weather left (if you don’t enjoy winter sports that is), and so Indoor training …

WOW, time flies when you are doing a kazillion things at once. If I could only get to a billion, I’d almost be half sane. Oh yeah, let me finish my title – Winter Training Starts in 18 Days – now as I was saying, YIKES!

Whether it is mountain biking, road cycling, or even touring, power can be the gateway to a new experience on two wheels. You’ll be able to “hang with the faster group”, climb the hills you used to walk, or climb with speed where you used to get dropped, or just feel fresh throughout a touring ride while your companions are “suffering”.

In a previous post (Formulas Don’t Work), I bemoaned the continual use of “220-age” as the basis for CVT (Cardio Vascular Training).  In a first here at the Fanatics blog, I’ve invited the real expert to “splain” it to us – why this thing just doesn’t work.  You can also download the original white paper by Sally Edwards from her website, complete with detailed scientific references if you want to share it with others that need to know.  Here is the body of that paper:

If you love Italy, hate cancer, and spend as much time as you can on 2 wheels, you should read on.  The Giretto d’Italia (The Little Tour o Italy) is in it’s second year, and enrollment begins now.  This year Cycling Fusion will recruit a minimum of 10 riders before we begin raising the money, booking the airfare, and in general letting the Giretto take over our lives for the next several months.  The Giretto d’Italia is a Livestrong grassroots fund raising event aimed at the best amateur riders in …

This is Erika Smith.  She understands that if you can measure something, you can improve it.  She  built a device to prove it.  Doesn’t she look wonderfully geeky?

We Americans really like our quick fixes – fast food, miracle diet pills, get rich schemes, drive through funeral parlors, and more recently I’ve even heard about a drive through polititian in my home state of PA (Yikes!  Just when you think government couldn’t get more screwed up).  So, it’s no wonder that the MAX heart rate formula of 220 minus your age has hung around exercise junkies and fitness facilities since the flawed formula was first offered up.

So I thought that my last post was rare; a true “rant” of quasi-psychotic proportions, and would leave that genre behind. But here it is, on my very next post, I feel the need to vent yet again. This time however, it’s to a group of which I am a member – fitness facility owners & managers. The phrase “penny wise and pound foolish” immediately come to mind. Of course, the phrase cheapskate sons-of-a… well, I better be careful here, I do need to keep this …

The new genre of “virtual cycling” DVDs for indoor cycling training is picking up steam with Global Ride’s release of Speed & Power in Italy. The release is obviously timed well in advance of the upcoming winter indoor training season in the U.S. Starting with some of the early efforts of Endurance Films on behalf of the Spinning® company, Mad Dogg athletics, and then followed by probably the biggest producer of indoor cycling training DVDs, Troy Jocobson of Spinerval fame, this new type of training film is gaining …