How to buid stamina?

hitchen92
hitchen92 Posts: 264
edited October 2008 in Health, fitness & training
Can anyone help me on how I can build stamina for long climbs on my mountain bike?

Cheers

Comments

  • Surf-Matt
    Surf-Matt Posts: 5,952
    Just ride a lot and ride hard - up lots of hills!
  • Papa Smurf
    Papa Smurf Posts: 776
    Indeed, if hills are your weakness... Follow these simple steps:
    Find the biggest hill you can
    Ride up it as quick as you can
    Die
    Ride down
    Rest
    Ride up it again
    Possibly die again
    Ride down
    Say "screw this, I'm going home"
    Then do it again a a day later.

    So in other words, practice. The bigger and harder the hill, the more positive the effect.

    I was like you a few months ago, now I can ride up hills which are so steep I have to almost sit on the bars to stop myself from falling off the back!!
    Specialised Hardrock
    Gt I-Drive XCR5
  • Braking Sucks
    Braking Sucks Posts: 40
    Stay in the saddle for as long as you can - most climbs i don't stand unless i really really have to so i don't fall off the bike. This is better technique and a harder workout; i guarantee it will help your stamina!
    Kona Kula
  • Travis_M
    Travis_M Posts: 62
    Standing up hills is also a good way to improve strength in the quads, it also helps with any biased towards one side of the legs. I would go with what Papa Smurf says, and alternate between sitting and standing on reps.
    Also, if you want to get stronger, push a harder gear, most MTB races are done with cadences in the 70's
  • passout
    passout Posts: 4,425
    Do a really long ride ride (how long depends on your level) once or twice a week. When doing shorter rides either go up big hills, use higher gears or both. Swimming & longer runs can help too.
    'Happiness serves hardly any other purpose than to make unhappiness possible' Marcel Proust.
  • gs3
    gs3 Posts: 249
    If you want to complete the longer climbs on any route, try finding a nice long constant slope - doesn't have to be too steep - find a gear which you can spin quite freely (and I don't just mean the granny-ring) and spin up the slope. Descend then repeat as often as you wish.
    This can be on tarmac or off-road but the result is the same. It's not about how fast you can climb at the moment but about how long you can continue to climb for at a reasonable pace.

    Colleagues of mine who are just getting into MTBing always find the climbs at MTB centres to be the hardest challenge - not because they are difficult to do - but because they go on longer than first anticipated and as a result they tend not to enjoy the descents as much as they should. Very often I find that when riding in a group, the ones who are turning a bigger gear from the start are the ones who tend to fade away on the climbs later in the day.

    Once you feel that you can spin up the climbs all day long, THAT is when to start changing into a bigger gear and ride 'til you can spin that gear too. Before long you will be flying up the climbs with little (apparent) effort much to the consternation of your riding buddies.

    If you start out in a big gear too early you will either end up injuring yourself or you'll just get sick of running out of puff.

    Hope this is of some assistance.

    .
    BouncePlayCommute

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