There aren't all that many indoor cycling workouts on DVD aimed specifically at mountain bikers – in fact, I can't think of any apart from this one – so right from the start, Trainright: Mountain Biking is ahead of the pack. What's even better is that it's not just distinctive, it's also very well done, offering an excellent workout for serious competitive mountain bikers.

Trainright: Mountain Biking is part of the Carmichael Training Series of videos, and it's led by mountain biking coach Dean Golich, a USA Cycling Coach of the Year. The other participants in the program include members of the Trek-Volkswagen professional mountain biking team; it's quite a star-studded bunch, including the Canadian national women's mountain biking champion, the World Champion in men's mountain biking, and several ex-National Champions for the U.S.

The program consists of a set of intervals specifically designed for mountain biking. This means a focus on short bursts of all-out efforts, followed by relatively short periods of recovery before another acceleration. Cadence is an essential part of the workout, and riders will keep a fairly high pedaling cadence throughout the various exercise sets. Coach Golich does a great job of explaining the purpose of the exercises both in terms of the body's response to the exercise, and in terms of the "big picture" of how this workout will prepare riders for the conditions they'll encounter in an actual race.

The overall workout runs slightly under 60 minutes, and includes the following exercise sets:

Warm-up, including 2x1 minute high-cadence sets at 120 rpm (8 minutes)

5-4-3-2 minute sets of high-intensity pedaling: 30 seconds maximum effort/30 seconds medium effort. 1 minute recovery between sets.

5x2 minutes at 90 rpm, with 2 minute recovery at 80 rpm

Cool down (5 minutes)

The program is nicely tailored to the specific training needs of mountain bikers, focusing on anaerobic capacity and the ability to switch from low to high intensity efforts even with minimal recovery time. It's a challenging workout, and because it's broken down into many smaller segments, it offers enough variation to make it easier to sustain interest and motivation through the program. At the end of the program, Golich also explains how you can adapt the interval sets presented in the workout to your own needs or where you are in the season. Since he's clearly explained why each of the exercises is important and how they affect your body, this allows viewers to make good choices about how to incorporate Trainright: Mountain Biking into their overall training schedule, and it adds to the repeat viewing value of this DVD.

The DVD

Video

The program, which is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio, looks perfectly fine. The image is clean and offers a reasonable level of detail along with natural-looking colors. The various readouts on the screen (suggested cadence and effort level, along with the time remaining in the set) are clear and easy to read.

Audio

The soundtrack for Trainright: Mountain Biking is quite satisfactory, offering a clear and pleasant listening experience. Coach Golich is always easy to understand when he's explaining something, and the music (while not particularly memorable) is well balanced with the rest of the track.

Extras

There are no special features here, though several chapters in the main program would work better as special features: at the beginning of the program, we get a generic introduction to the Trainright video series and an explanation of the field test to determine target heart rate, and at the end of the program we get a promotional clip for Carmichael Training Systems in general. These are all things that viewers will only be interested in seeing once, so they really ought to be in a separate special features section.

The workout itself has only three chapters: the warm-up, the main workout, and the cool-down. Especially considering that Coach Golich explains how it's possible to adapt the program based on your training needs, it would have been very useful to have the main workout broken down into a chapter for each exercise set.

Final thoughts

If you're a serious mountain biker, either a racer or someone who takes recreational riding seriously, then Trainright: Mountain Biking is an excellent addition to your collection of indoor cycling workouts. The specific focus on training for typical mountain biking conditions (lots of short, intense bursts of effort, and a high overall cadence) makes this interval training program particularly useful. It's highly recommended.