Cycle-All Terrain

I believe this workout is brand-spankin' new. I just happened to find it at Advanced Workouts, and since I've been loving my cycling workouts these days, I decided to give it a try. Boy, am I glad I did! :love:

This workout is very versitle in that it consists of 4 well-chapered segments, approx. 10-15 minutes each. (plus a brief warm up & cool down.) Each segment gradually builds in intensity. It is more generic in it's recommendations for resistance in comparison to Spinervals (no reference to specific gears or numeric reference to what level your resistance should be) so it can easily be modified to accomodate beginner & advanced exercisers & cyclists. Brooke uses both heart rate & percieved exertion to describe what intensity to be working at, and will frequently explain that if you want a more advanced workout you should be in a higher range or if it's more of a recovery day it's okay to be in a lower range. Again, I think this adds to the versitility and helps remove any intimidation or "dread factor" that some may experience as beginner cyclists.

I'll try to give a breakdown of the workout, but since I am new to cycling I probably will not use the proper terminology. Please pardon me!

1) Short segment at the beginning explaining a bit about the Softride spin bike & some of it's highlights and features. I hope my Multisport ENC-420 breaks sometime soon so I can justify buying one of these! ;)

2)Beginning Ride: Steady pedaling with short "mini-sprints". (Brooke coaches you to increase the cadence for a few seconds.)

3) Segment 1: More intense "mini-sprints". Brooke describes it as if you were road cycling in a group...and you must sprint to get to the front of the line & lead. (A nice little feature is that throughout the workout there periodically is an inset shot of a road from a cyclist's point of view. Reminds you of how this workout would translate to a cycling session outdoors.)

4) Segment 2: This is a long hill climb where Brooke coaches you to gradually increase the resistance as you push & reach for the top of the hill! Oh my! I felt this in my legs! At the end of this session you do some standing work.

5) Segment 3: This segment focuses on maintaining a steady tempo/cadence through various levels of resistance. It is broken down in the following manner:

-30 sec. at moderate resistance

-30 sec. at "1 gear" higher resistance

-30 sec. a "2-3 gears" higher resistance, standing.

(2 sets)

Next, the segments are increased to 45 sec. 1x and 60 sec. 1x

6) Segment 4: One long, steady sprint home!

Brooke is very motivating, and gives great form pointers throughout the workout. She is serious, but in an encouraging way. I really like her a lot. Both her personality & the variety in this workout made the hour fly by.

This is a CIA production which appears to be the same set as the 2600 series. Brooke is accompanied by 2 gentleman in the background. THey do not speak or interact in the workout. All 3 are dressed in black & white short sleeved cycling tops & bike shorts. The music, IMO, was much better than Spinervals. It was very upbeat techno-ish, and some songs had vocals though most was instrumental. It was at a good volume...loud enough to pump me up but not overpowering.

In the small world of cycling dvd's, I have had a hard time finding any DVDs other than Spinervals that motivate me. Well, today I have found one! Brooke is no "Coach Troy", but she's the closest I've found! :D