A three-hour session on the indoor cycling trainer? It seems like a lot (OK, it really is a lot!) but if you're seriously training to compete in a triathlon or a road race, or to ride a century (100-mile ride), then you are the rider that Spinervals Competition 13.0: Tough Love is aimed at.

Tough Love is specifically intended to improve your endurance and aerobic capacity, which you'll certainly need if you're going to do an Ironman or tackle a century. And since it's all one long session, the workout in Tough Love is more balanced than what you'd get by playing a shorter Spinervals workout several times. Coach Troy Jacobson specifically addresses the different conditions of a really lengthy workout by pointing out your requirements for calorie and water consumption during the ride (yes, it's possible to bonk during an indoor training session!) as well as cautioning participants to pace themselves. He also points out, quite correctly, that Tough Love is not a workout for beginners: in order to tackle this program, you should already be in excellent condition.

So what's on tap for those three hours? As with all Spinervals workouts, Coach Troy has assembled a nicely varied program that will keep your interest and motivation at a reasonably high level throughout the program. Here's how the workout runs:

As you can see, Tough Love includes some very intense workout sets with very little rest; there's a reason why it's labeled as 9.9/10 on the Spinervals intensity scale. But even in the constant 30- and 20-minute efforts, Coach Troy keeps things varied: participants will mix seated and standing work, low- and high-cadence work, and efforts at varying gear ratios. This is certainly not a workout that riders will want to do all the time, but it does fill a niche for competitive long-distance riders and triathletes.

The DVD

Video

Spinervals Competition 13:0: Tough Love is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The overall image quality seems a little lower than in other Spinervals programs, appearing rather blurry and with a bit more noise than usual. However, the on-screen indicators of suggested gear ratio, perceived intensity, and time remaining in the program are all clear and easy to read. And in any case, riders will most likely be working too hard to worry too much about how sharp the image looks.

Audio

Tough Love offers the usual lively background music with a good beat, with one very well-thought-out improvement: viewers have the option of turning off the background music if desired, leaving only Coach Troy's voice in the soundtrack. The music can be turned on or off from the main menu or on the fly. Overall, the sound is clear and pleasant, and Coach Troy's voice is easy to understand.

Extras

The Tough Love DVD has no special features, and unfortunately the navigation here is a bit user-unfriendly. Once you put in the DVD and go to the main menu, the program will automatically start playing after a short time, even if you haven't selected "play" yet. This is rather annoying, since you might want to pop in the DVD before you start putting your bike in the trainer, without having the workout start without you. The chapters breaks are also poorly chosen: Coach Troy's explanation of what the next set is going to be appears at the end of the previous chapter, not the beginning of the next one, so if you skip to the next exercise set, you'll miss his explanation of what you're about to do.

Final thoughts

Spinervals Competition 13.0: Tough Love is a marathon training session that focuses on endurance and aerobic conditioning. It's most useful for triathletes and serious competitive riders who are planning on extremely long rides like centuries; this is not a program for beginner or intermediate riders, or those who primarily do shorter rides. I'll give this a "recommended" rating, as it will be very useful for its target audience. Triathletes who are interested in Tough Love will probably also find Spinervals 2.0: Time Trial Special and Spinervals 10.0: Ride and Stride worth picking up.