Cycle Challenge is Mindy's second spinning video, and in my opinion is an improvement on the first video. The workout is filmed outdoors in a forested area that just looks really beautiful. The music is all instrumental, but has a good beat and really gets me going. Mindy has a male spinning student following the workout behind her, and I found him to be pretty motivating as well as he seemed to be almost as energetic as Mindy. The workout itself is as follows (These are also the chapters on the DVD):
Chapter 1 - 7 Minute Warmup, with some light stretches
Chapter 2 - 10 Minute hill climb, split between two songs, a moderate aerobic effort for five minutes, and a more intense aerobic effort for the next five minutes
Chapter 3 - 3 Minute Recovery section, light to moderate aerobic effort
Chapter 4 - 13 Minutes of Interval work, split between three songs. The first two songs are four minutes, and the last song is six minutes. The intervals are standing runs/sprints, and sitting runs/sprints. I definately got my heartrate up on this one!
Chapter 5 - 6 Minutes of Hill work with interval bursts both standing and sitting.
Chapter 6 - 9 Minute Cooldown with pretty thorough stretches and some relaxing music
DVD Bonus - The DVD has a bonus section of 10 minutes, split between two songs. The bonus is a hill climb, and has you seated for five minutes, and standing for five.

This is a spinning workout with a lot of standing. Collage Video gives this an intermediate rating, but as with any spinning video, I have no problem getting into my regular advanced heartrate zone by adding tension and pedaling a little bit faster. I really enjoyed this workout, and hope to see some more spinning workout from Mindy in the future!

Instructor Comments:
I have really grown to love Mindy's workouts because of her boundless energy and enthusiasm. She always makes me smile with her motivational comments! She also has a good technical knowledge of the Schwinn spinning principles on which the video is based.

Hilarie Dansie