For cyclists, whether they're competitive or serious recreational riders, the winter off-season is the perfect time to do indoor training and get in shape for a great start once the sun shines and the weather warms up. But you don't want to do the same workout over and over; having different types of workouts not only makes indoor training more interesting, it also allows you to tailor your training to get the results you want. The accurately named Spinervals Competition 2.0: Time Trial Special focuses on the kind of riding that you need in time trials: steady, intense efforts over longer periods of time. It's a nice change of pace (if "nice" is the word for an eye-popping workout like this) from Competition 1.0: No Slackers Allowed, which mostly focused on more explosive efforts and rapid changes of tempo.

Time Trial Special is a workout designed to increase your anaerobic threshhold, as opposed to the aerobic workouts of Fitness 1.0 and Fitness 2.0. The program runs a full hour and is very intense; it's marked as 9.1 on a 10-point scale.

The workout sandwiches an intense series of steady efforts between two "technique" sessions. One of the techniques that Coach Troy Jacobson focuses on is developing a strong and regular pedal stroke: to this end, he leads the Spinervals participants through a set of single-leg drills, in which you unclip one foot and tuck it behind you (conveniently resting it on the frame of the stationary trainer) and pedal with the other leg only. This is a very challenging exercise that will cause you to use muscles you didn't know you had, and it will help you develop a smooth pedal stroke, pushing down and pulling up. (Clipless pedals are obviously essential here.) The other technique that Coach Troy has you working on here is high-cadence pedaling, with a series of "super spins" at 120 rpm or higher; a set of sprints at the very end also adds some more variety to the workout.

The intense steady effort session in the main part of the program effectively models "time trial" riding: maintaining a constant high speed over a long period of time. After you're fully warmed up from all the tempo work, leg drills, and super spins, you start working on a "time trial ladder": 5 minutes of tempo riding, 1 minute off, 4 minutes tempo, 50 seconds off, then 3, 2, and 1 minute of tempo. If you thought that wasn't enough, there's another, shorter time trial ladder near the end of the workout as well.

It gets really tough to maintain this effort at times, especially since the rest breaks are fairly short, but Coach Troy does an excellent job of providing pacing, so you always know exactly how long you have left to go in a given interval and what's ahead of you. He also provides encouragement to keep going and push it harder to keep up the intensity; while by the end of one of the "pyramid" intervals, you may very well feel like you hate his guts for making you work so hard, it's all in a good cause. And actually Coach Troy does an extremely good job of handling the "motivation" side of the coaching: he manages to encourage you to keep pedaling at full intensity, while never overdoing it.

The full workout is as follows:

The DVD

Video

You'll probably be suffering too much to pay any attention to the image quality, but I'll assure you that it's fine. The 1.33:1 aspect ratio image is clean-looking and watchable, though rather soft. The graphics of time remaining in the workout, perceived effort meter, and suggested gear ratios all appear in clean, easy-to-read lettering.

Audio

Coach Troy is always clear and understandable throughout the program, as he encourages you to push it through even the toughest parts of the workout. The sound is natural and clean, and the music is well balanced with the rest of the track. The music is actually a very useful part of the workout program, as the tempo of the music corresponds to the tempo that you should keep up on your bike.

Extras

There are no actual special features on the DVD, but the straightforward menu design and well-placed chapters allow viewers to easily customize the program. You'd have to be feeling truly ambitious to want to repeat something like the time trial ladder, but if you're up for it, so's the DVD.

Final thoughts

Spinervals Competition 2.0: Time Trial Special really hits the nail on the head with what it's aiming for: it's a strenous workout that is tuned specifically to improving your anaerobic threshold and increasing your ability to ride at a sustained hard pace. As with the other Spinervals DVDs, it's intended for athletes who are already in reasonably good shape, but it's also very amenable to self-pacing: simply adjust the rest periods, the gearing, and your effort to make the workout appropriate for the level that you're at. Highly recommended.