I currently have his 20 minute threshold test video. Curious how is other videos are? Any comments?
I found them helpful and motivating.
Why don’t you ask him http://twitter.com/#!/CoachTroyJ ; )
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You think he will reply back ? :0)
didnt even think of that. I will follow him then. Hopefully he acknowledges me - even if i have to wave a $45 bill in his face.
I used his videos for a winter and was never the biggest fan. I now use the Sufferfest videos and absolutely love them. Although they are not necessarily “tri” specific, they do really push you to the next level. The biggest thing I learned was how to attack from riding threshold (for long durations). It really forced me to dig deep but also recover while riding threshold. The music is great, and the videos are excellent.
My favourites are Angels, A Very Dark Place and Fight Club. Fight Club is one of the best videos for road race training that I have ever experienced. Especially the first time you watch it and you have to cover every random attack.
I agree. What I’ve seen of the Coach Troy videos are like watching the first part of the Wizard of Oz, but without the excitement of the tornado. Sufferfest is like living through the tornado in technicolor!
so you dont use your tri bike with sufferfest?
I like them, a good way to get some intensity going.
Something about Troy adds to the experience, not sure exactly what.
I tried some others and didn’t care for them.
I agree, the sufferfest is far better than spinervals. The spinervals video are great workouts but boring to watch. The thing that bugs me though is the crappy production values. The music randomly fades in and out and Troy sometimes contradicts himself. For example, in aerobase one (I believe) he tells you to stay aerobic and then spends the rest of the time tells you to go hard followed by telling to back off if it’s hard.
If you do spinervals watching without music and listening to your own is the best option.
All that to say X2 on the sufferfest being great. I’d add Fight Club to the list of great ones. The Hunted is probably the best one for triathlon training.
I’m a big fan of spinervals and find it very hard to do indoor training without them.
CTS videos are good as well. Sufferfest I have heard lots of good things but I have never tried them because I prefer to use DVD’s and not a download for my laptop.
I like them for the most part. Tough Love is one of my favorites. The real course videos were kind of a fun watch. FWIW I met Coach Troy at the Tri show in Milwaukee last winter and I was impressed with how engaging he was, talking with people, offering tips, etc. He made a positive impression on me for sure.
I downloaded some free software that enables you to convert the video file to a DVD format. I love the Sufferfest videos, just did Revolver last night and it is absolutely killer. The Spinerval videos are a good workout but looking at a bunch of Age Groupers in a spin studio isnt very inspiring.
I have several Coach Troy and my tri friends and I make fun of them while we do winter training with them. But of you are honest and do the workouts they will raise your threshold and you will get faster. When I am alone, I put on a TdF video and make up my own workouts.
Another plug for the sufferfest videos. Buy them ALL. A purchase you will never regret.
Jodi
The content of the videos (fitness and the competition series) is very basic. If you have cycling knowledge, you may find the videos disappointing because they are very elementary. That’s not a bad thing that they are basic… It’s just that there’s not much substance to them… They are kind of lack-luster. Can’t describe them except by saying using them is more like getting a “workout” instead of actual strategic and specific focused training. Again, it’s not a bad thing to get in a “workout” from using them. They are pretty boring… Just watching a bunch of people sweat a lot in a room… Close ups of people wiping sweat of their faces and repeated camera pans across the group with sub-par graphics. The production work is low quality and annoying.
The content of the videos (fitness and the competition series) is very basic. If you have cycling knowledge, you may find the videos disappointing because they are very elementary. That’s not a bad thing that they are basic… It’s just that there’s not much substance to them… They are kind of lack-luster. Can’t describe them except by saying using them is more like getting a “workout” instead of actual strategic and specific focused training. Again, it’s not a bad thing to get in a “workout” from using them. They are pretty boring… Just watching a bunch of people sweat a lot in a room… Close ups of people wiping sweat of their faces and repeated camera pans across the group with sub-par graphics. The production work is low quality and annoying.
I’ve had the opposite experience with Spinervals (and Sufferfest). Having Coach Troy yelling in my year for the full hour helps a lot. I can really push deep into the red, red, zone with him barking in my ear - hard enough that the video is irrelevant - I don’t think I’ve watched the final 20 minutes of nearly any of the Spinervals I own during the intervals portion! I actually prefer Spinervals to Sufferfest precisely because Coach Troy is yelling in my ear - I go a hair harder on maximal workouts because of him that I do on Sufferfest. They’re both solid though- I’d actually caution to not go ‘too’ hard on either, as it’s easy to overdo it and lose motivation after 3-4 workouts because it’s too dang hard. I find the workouts on both harder than the time-crunched Carmichael cycling program, which is based almonst entirely of hard interval workouts, which is saying a lot about how hard they are if done as prescribed, as Carmichael himself doesn’t recommend you do his intervals sets more than once every other day on the time-crunched plan since you actually need the rest and recovery to keep improving.
My wife and I have a large collection of spinerval tapes/dvds going back several years, but about a year ago we learned about sufferfest (from ST, of course) and have about 4 of them. I agree with the argument that if you need a little “coaching” motivation through Troy yelling at you and his peeps, then buy a few Spinervals (and my wife has a little crush on him too). I will never go back to spinervals (except perhaps once in awhile to see Amanda Gilliam sweat thru her sports bra, that is by far the best spinerval workout ever made and I told her that to her face – she should get a royalty!). Instead, I’ll either do a sufferfest with the CT in erg mode or – the best option when I have the time-- do a longer Erg video. The advantage of the sufferfest option is that you don’t have to select your own music – the soundtracks are indeed great.
Slightly OT, but has anyone ripped a DVD of Spinervals or CTS on a Mac? I play movies on my TV off a hard drive, and would prefer to have my Spinervals/CTS videos in MP4 or AVI format, but am unable to do so via Handbrake.
I have the Spinervals - they are fun but not exactly the most structured of workouts. I’m planning on working through them in the last month of build/peak, before tapering. For other training, I use CTS and Spinervals - I prefer CTS, however. Going by effort level makes more sense than going by gearing.
I really like the workouts - I have 16 of the DVD’, and four Sufferfest. I prefer them to Sufferfest - I get really bored with the Sufferfest, I guess I prefer the more structured Spinervals style.
Having said that, what I have done is taken the audio of the DVDs, saved them as mp3’s and split them up into the sets, so I do them with headphones rather than watching the DVD.
I split all of the sets up from all DVD’s, so when I need, say a 90min workout, I can drag and drop sets from all DVD’S into a new playlist, which keeps things interesting. With Sufferfest this wouldn’t work so well, and (oddly seeing as I’m in the minority) seeing other cyclists POV doesn’t motivate me at all.