n+1

I’ve fallen in love with this movie…it’s on Netflix, check it out!

Not saying I will but I might…n+1 after all!

Friday flicks…

Review; Cyclefilm Roads to Glory Vol1 & Vol2

It may not have escaped your notice that I spend a fair amount of time on my trainer, a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine, in fact just today I hit the 2000 mile mark, not bad in 14 months! Now when spending that amount of time on a trainer you need something to take your mind off of going nowhere. I have tried several series of training videos my “Go-Tos” have been the Sufferfest videos, for an occasional change I will mix in a 3LC one, I did once try a Spinervals one (never ever again) as well as sometimes just watching a movie. The latter of these, in my mind, equates to junk miles and you’re just spinning with no structure and I try to do this a last resort! So I am always on the look out for something new.

Enter Cyclefilm and the Roads to Glory series. If you are familiar with Cyclefilm they produce the excellent Etape du Tour series that guide you over the Tour De France mountain stages from each year’s race. They also made the highly entertaining and educational Eye Wide Open which I reviewed in 2011 (c’mon Bikes and Girls, what’s not to like!?!) and a few others…I have to confess that I own most of their DVDs (although with the exception of Road to Glory and EWO) I purchased them…so it’s safe to say I am a fan!

Volume 1; Alpine Edition, this is a 140km route featuring climbs over Col de Madeleine, Col de Glandon, Col de la Croix de Fer, Col de Mollard and La Toussuire so yeah there is some climbing! The ride is broken down into 5-15 minute intervals with recoveries and last 65 minutes.

Volume 2; Pyrenean Edition, this is a 197km over Col d’ Aubisque, Col de Soulor, Col de Tourmalet, Col d’Aspin and Col de Peyresourde again lots of climbing!

So on with the review. Your guide for both editions is Michael Cotty a fellow Brit (you did know I was a Brit, right?), Michael is a well-established CX and road racer in the UK and is the guide on many of the Etape DVDs. He adds relevant commentary when needed which includes generic tips, such things as gear checks warming up and cornering and course specific items addressing specific climbs and corners. He manages to do all this without puffing or panting has an easy on the ear voice…I kid you not this is important! In between there is some good old fashioned electronic/house/dance music to keep you bobbing along on the climbs and some more serene laid back tunes for the descents. The camera work is clean and crisp, there are three main angles, from behind looking up, from the front looking back and a first person view using a GoPro. The on screen prompts, which are based on RPE, take a little getting used to, especially if you are familiar with something else and there are no real audio cues., that being said once you know what to expect they are easy to follow.

Filmed in late October, you can tell it’s cold as some of the higher peaks in the background have snow and he is pretty bundled up, what you lose on the clear blue skies you gain in the lack of traffic, the roads are insanely quiet. Of course given the locations the scenery is spectacular, grand European peaks at theIR finest, this is not to be ignored as some training video offer nothing but a view of bunch of sweaty riders on Trainer, motivating? I don’t think so! Finally stick it to the end and watch the out-takes!

So in summary, if you’re stuck on a trainer, which you may well be soon as we rapidly approach autumn and Winter!, my advice would be to always use a structured workout rather than just spin aimlessly for an hour, you wouldn’t do that on the road would you? Both of these provide a well-structured sessions. There is some really good advice/commentary provided along the way, of course you can always turn the volume down and jack up your iPod. There is always something nice to look at, granted not as nice as the Carbon Chicas of Hell Hath No Fury, but way better than a car dealership!

Both DVDs are available online as DVDs currently for GBP15.99 each and available in PAL and NTSC formats (shipping to the US is GBP4) and come complete in a proper case with a really nice collectors handbook.

This DVD was provided free of charge by the good folks at CycleFilm. See previous gear reviews in the tab above. If you have a product you’d like reviewed, contact me at quadrathon@gmail.com.

Review; Hood to Coast, the movie

I missed Hood to Coast when it went in general release last year so when I was contacted to review the DVD I jumped at the chance, let’s be honest there are not a lot of movies about running so it’s good to see the ones there are.

For those of you who have not heard about Hood to Coast here’s a overview taken from the films website:

The annual Hood To Coast Relay has run every year since 1982. The race started as an inauspicious event for a group of dedicated runners to stretch their legs and expand on the everyday running experience. Bob Foote, the race founder, had run track with the famous Men of Oregon at the University of Oregon. Marathons had lost their appeal, and to keep himself interested in the sport he loved, he decided to organize an unheard of adventure, running from Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood to the Oregon Coast.

The idea was that 12 people would divide themselves into two groups of six, run three legs each and cover the nearly 200 mile distance from the mountain to the ocean. Running all through the night, it was an adventure for hard-core runners and sleep was secondary to striving for their fastest time.

In 1982 only 8 teams ran, but within a decade, the race had grown to the point where they had to cap the number of teams at 1000. The route shifted to avoid heavily trafficked highways as they needed to find convenient stopping points for the thousands of vans that now made their way through the Oregon countryside.

More importantly, the race had become an adventure not only for serious athletes, but amateur runners and thrill seekers. Team names began to describe not only the origins of the team, but the attitude they would carry with them on the course. Today, teams decorate their vans and take on a race persona, lending a carnival atmosphere to the nearly 200 miles of the race.

Sounds like fun right! In the spirit a picture is worth a 1000 words here’s the trailer;

So on with the review. The film is well made, the production quality is high and overall it makes for really interesting viewing, it’s a good mix of perspectives, history and interviews. The problem was with my expectations, I had set them in the wrong place. What I had failed to realize is that the movie follows four teams rather than the race and this I think is why I was left a little disappointed. The human element of the four teams is interesting to a point and they do cover the gamut of the teams; an over 50 female team; Heart N Sole, a rookie runners team; Thunder and Laikaning, veteran runners; The Dead Jocks and a team running to remember a team mate who died; RBowe.

There are the usual high and lows and funny and sad moments but the excitement of the “race” is lost, after all this is a race and by all standards a really competitive one and this element is given minimal coverage.

Overall I did enjoy the movie but I would sum it up as a movie that follow four teams that run a race rather than a movie about a race and the teams that run it.

It’s available to buy through their website here or you can rent it through Amazon Online here. These are the only places that I could find it although it is listed in Netflix it’s not available yet.

This product was provided free of charge by Hood to Coast. If you have a product you’d like reviewed, contact me at quadrathon@gmail.com

Review: Eyes Wide Open; the making of Cyclepassion 2011

Some time between Christmas and the New Year I was trawling through Twitter and Markus from Cyclefilm, who I follow, threw out the request for reviews of Eyes Wide Open…I was on that like a fly on honey, a week or so later the DVD arrived. Cyclefilm provide some of the footage for the Sufferfest Training Videos that I have talked about in the past, and who produce some wicked cool cycling videos of their own including the Recon of the L'Etape 2010 - The Road to Tourmalet and Liz Hatch; Come ride with me!, Recon So what’s the premise well Cyclepassion well it’s best described as what happens when eight elite women pro-cyclists trade in their lycra for latex, lace & leather to pose for the 2011 Cyclepassion Calendar. I think the appeal of this movie is best summed up by the founder of the Cyclepassion, Anke Wilken ;

“…cycling involves gear and technology, to us women it’s a mystery how men can admire bit’s and pieces of their bikes for hours”

Now that being said there is more to it than watching some very talented women pose with bikes, each photoshoot provides somewhat of an insight into these athletes psyche, their background in the sport and their training. Interesting there are some really candid moments where they talk about insecurities and fears in their chosen sports. Drawn from across the raft of cycling, including Cyclocross, MTB and Road you get a glimpse of what goes on behind what is perceived to be the glamor of being a professional bike rider. Glamor and glitz it aint!

In no particular order the riders are:

Willow Koerber (USA) - Trek/Subaru - MTB
Heather Irmiger (USA) - Trek/Subaru - MTB
Liz Hatch (USA) - Lotto Ladies Team - Road
Veronica Andreasson (Sweden) - Lotto Ladies Team - Road
Julie Krasniak - (France) Look - Road
Fabienne Heinzmann - (Switzerland) BMC - MTB
Mona Eiberweiser (Germany) - CentralPro - MTB
Hanka Kupfernagel (Germany) Road/Cross

Here are a couple of sneak peeks from the Cyclepassion Website

The Making of Cyclepassion from markus ★ cyclefilm.com on Vimeo.

The Making of Cyclepassion II from markus★ cyclefilm.com on Vimeo.

The wall calendar has long since sold out…go figure right but there are some desk ones left and of course you can pick up the Eyes Wide Open which is now on sale! Trust me the miles slip by on the trainer watching this!

This DVD was provided free of charge by the good folks at CycleFilm. See previous gear reviews in the sidebar on the right. If you have a product you’d like reviewed, contact me at quadrathon@gmail.com.

Saturday night at the movies…

I caught up on both of these during the week.

The first follows the story of four athletes from diverse backgrounds; two working professional (not professional athletes), a cancer survivor and partially blind runner/tri-athlete, it’s a bit focused on longer distance events; marathon, Ironman etc but the real story is finding the balance, the motivation, over coming obstacles and reaching goals.

The second is a made for TV (by ESPN) movie about Roger Bannister and the four minute mile. It’s  huge story to tell in 90 minutes and there’s a lot of things that are touched on and have no real depth, the rivalry between Bannister and Wes Santee and John Landy being one of them, that being said it does document Bannister’s, unothodox at the time, training methods and captures the mood very well.

Both are available through Netflix and Athlete you can stream direct to your computer or Roku.

Popcorn anyone?

Meet Serge & Nicole

This is Serge and Nicole Roetheli, in February 2000 they left their home in Switzerland to embark on a journey that I cannot even begin to comprehend; to run around the world!

Running the equivalent of a marathon every other day, Serge runs, over 25,400 miles in five years, while his wife Nicole rides her Yamaha motorcycle. Using their personal camera they captured the footage used in this film. Excerpts from Nicole’s personal diary reveal their experiences, adventures and accomplishments throughout their journey together and have resulted in the creation of this movie; "Beyond the Epic Run".

They traveled through 37 counties on six continents. Risking everything for this experience. It’s an amazing story of an athlete and his loving wife’s physical and mental strength.

The movie can be seen in selected cities check the website for more info, I will have a DVD giveaway for this soon so stay tuned. Here's the trailer and and an interview with Dean Karnazes talking about it. There are several more videos available at YouTube.

The best damn $8 you'll spend next week, period!

I managed to snag some tickets to this back in February, well now you have the opportunity to go. It’s on limited release for July 31^st only. Trust me it’s well worth money, check out the website to see which theater near you is showing it.

Like the man said…“sure it’s about running, but mostly it’s about life”…