Miles or Trials?

stuart_c-2

Hi all,

If riding to get fit, would you say it’s better to hit the road and put on the miles, or just stick to the offroad and do the trails? (I know I said trials in the title, it just sounded more poetic )

If I stick to the black stuff I can do more miles but it’s possibly not as intense, where as on trails you might not go as far but I would assume you have to work harder as it’s maybe more stop start and the terrain is more taxing. Ultimately I want to spend more time offroad, but is it better to get fitter 1st so I can properly attack it all, or is it just best to get stuck in and accept that I might suck at it for a while? How much does general fitness affect your “skills”?

And discuss………..

Mr Wu

I would opt for off roading any day of the week, get your self off up some hills mate.

Just take your time and try something more difficult progressively. i.e dont try cycling up ben nevis on your granny rings in the first week, or at all come to think of it.

Youll have more fun off roading, and fun = wanting more fun so youll be likely to stick at it, putting in miles and miles on the tarmac is dull and youll probably get bored, stop riding as much, lose interest etc... that is unless you secretly just love the skimpyness of lycra.

Plus MTB folk are alot more friendly and less "oh look at that noob", why hasnt he got a 3gram bike like us.

Mr Wu

Also, if your looking to lose body fat (often what some people mean when they say get fit) then have a look in your local martial arts shop or argos for a sweat suit.(typically PVC) I used to wear them when i was in boxing training and you will shed pounds very quickly, just make sure you drink more, i.e if you normally drink 2 litres on a ride them you will seriously need 5/6 litres.. a bit uncofortable till you get used to them but a fast way to weight loss.

montevideoguy

I have to say I find road riding secretly relaxing. I'd never go into that though more than a little dabble as I'm not into the condom look (kudos to the folk who can pull it off though)

Mickey Eye

My commute gives me stamina, my trail riding gives me strength.

I find trail riding gives a good full body work out but riding every day well help with your general health in a big way.

cee

The power output profiles of trail and road riding are totally different.....

as explained in this quite good article....http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/article/power-output-road-bike-vs-mountain-bike-19691

however...a bit of tarmac bashing cannot possibly make it any worse...so how about mix it up.

can you commute to work/uni/college/wherever etc on your bike.....this is a great way of putting miles in your legs without really thinking about bashing miles in just for fitness...except with all of the advantages...

Riding your bike as much as possible on road or trails will improve your fitness (skills is totally different, but being fitter allows you to concentrate on the sklls without dieing on your ar$e!)

Do both! But ride as much trails as you can as this will help your fitness and trail skill at the same time.

stuart_c-2

Mr WU, side note. What worries me most about your reply is that you say no to lycra, but yes to PVC???? :shock: Bring out the gi……….

I’ve already noticed the “bouncy bouncy” v “roadie” divide. Ironically, I’ve raced R/C model cars for the last 16 odd years and we seem to have the same divide. Off road drivers think on road is boring and the flat trackers think “bouncy bouncy” racing is silly.

I have to admit that my cycling shorts are of the “I wish I was Lance” variety, don’t worry, the baggies are on order.

cee wrote:

Riding your bike as much as possible on road or trails will improve your fitness (skills is totally different, but being fitter allows you to concentrate on the sklls without dieing on your ar$e!)

Do both! But ride as much trails as you can as this will help your fitness and trail skill at the same time.

Cee, that is why I was thinking it might be better to get some miles under me 1st. When I hit the trails proper I want to concentrate on technique and be thinking about where to improve, not think about where the next rest stop is.

I shall try and mix it up as much as I can.

XxxBFGxxX

from my experaince mate. (25 stone done to 23 stone oin 7 month)

i find if i road ride all the time it gets boring so mix it up as much as possible each disapline benifits diffrent areas of fittnes.

Graydawg

Mickey Eye wrote:

My commute gives me stamina, my trail riding gives me strength.

I find trail riding gives a good full body work out but riding every day well help with your general health in a big way.

+1

mea00csf

improving fitness can be done with either. For the same amount of time you'll improve more off-road riding due to higher rolling resistances (chunker tyres/uneven surfaces). You're also more likely to improve upper body strength as well.

If you're riding on road in a hilly area (or just seek out the hills) you'll still greatly improve your fitness, you'll just need to be out for longer (and probably comparitively steeper hills to compensate for less rolling resistance) to get the same benefit as off road. If you're aiming for fat loss, low intensity for longer periods of time is generally more effective, so on road riding will generally be easier to achieve this.

Mix it up, see what you enjoy and stick to that, whether that's on or off road or mixture of both. I've always found road miles are an easy convenient way of getting base fitness in, as i can go straight from my door. Off road tends to require more organisation to sort so i don't get out as much as i'd like to

bomberesque

IME from the last year of doing more riding than I have in decades (and I used to do a lot wbw)

for strength; mountainbiking, esp singlespeeding which forces you nito a sprint stance (but this depends on your mentality, a lot of people push bigger gears anyway)
for cardio; roadriding hands down. Find a route about 20 miles long, preferably with a nice long middle section lacking in traffic lights or other distractions and pound that 2-3 times a week (use the first and last sections as warm up/down) to start then as much as you feel comfortable with.

What the road riding does is get your heartrate and body output up to a consistant level and keep it there for an hour or so. This is something that so rarely happens when mountainbiking. To see the difference, try borrowing a heart rate monitor and wearing it whilst mountainbiking, then whilst roadbiking. Download the log and look at the curves, it's quite an eyeopener.

For either, but especially cardio, I have found consistency is the key. Start with an acheivable distance on a regular basis and build from there .. or don't, just stay with that distance and work on doing it faster and smoother.

But this is a whole profession's worth of technical advice available out there, so I'm only speaking for what I've experienced, which may be a result of my rather beer-centric body shape and advanced years. :P

Mr Wu

Stuart_C wrote:

Mr WU, side note. What worries me most about your reply is that you say no to lycra, but yes to PVC???? :shock: Bring out the gi……….

I have to admit that my cycling shorts are of the “I wish I was Lance” variety, don’t worry, the baggies are on order.
.

Hahaha! yeah good point! (in walks gimp) seriously though, if it is to lose weight try the pvc top and trouser method, alternately you can use a binbag with arms head cut out. does the same thing, you want something that keeps your body heat high, as we all know when your core temp is high you will burn fat, just make sure you replace it with lots of water. And believe me cycling in a gimp suit is bloody hard work..... Exit gimp....

:-)

mea00csf

i don't understand how you're losing weight with that, the only weight i can see you losing is through loss of water, leaving you dehydrated, adn as soon as you drink water you'll put it back on. How does it work :?:

Mr Wu

Producing one gram of sweat requires 0.568 kcal. A moderately conditioned person can easily sweat off between 300–800 kcal when wearing a sweat top while exercising. 500 grams of sweat consumes 300 kcal, which is equivalent to running 2–3 miles. While the weight of the water lost can be regained by drinking water, the calories consumed will not be.

Metabolic rates increase 100% for every 10°C rise in temperature. An increase in temperature from 98.6°F to 104°F while exercising in a sweat top should increase metabolism by about 30%.

Detoxifying the body helps in weight loss. People who have unsuccessfully tried many diets often find success with sweat tops because they are able to eliminate chemicals stored in the fat cells. This makes weight loss much easier.

Sweat tops balance your body. Exercising when wearing a sweat top causes Profuse Sweating which effectively reduces heavy metals which have been directly related to metabolic imbalances in the body causing poor digestion and weight gain.

Sweating decreases fat-stored toxins. Often weight loss cannot be accomplished unless lipophilic toxins are first removed.

Burn 600 extra calories in one short session. Although weight loss due to perspiration (water loss) is quickly regained sending more blood to the capillaries and converting fats and carbohydrates results in as much as 600 calories burned during one short session.

Sweating is a work out in itself for your body. In fact, a 30 minute sweat creates roughly the same amount of perspiration as a 10 kilometre run. But your body doesn’t simply lose fluid whilst sweating, it rids itself of the toxins that actually prevent your body from losing stubborn fat.

It takes more energy to sweat, so the more you sweat wearing a sweat top the more calories you can burn off.

Hope this helps

Anonymous

I don't know how much of Mr Wu's comments above are true but from a personal experience of working as a chef in a hot environment I was thin.

With the exact same lifestyle (drinking, eating and total lack of excersise) but working in an office caused massive weight gain. :oops:


It made me get back into bikes pretty fast though

gaz047

if you've a road and mtb then use them both. i commute on my road bike and have a long ride on it once a week. i try and get 2 mtb rides in a week, one long and one short. im quite lucky having a lot of time off (shift work) so every 4th week i get 8 days off, anyway do both and vary the rides, try and find new routes to keep it interesting.

mea00csf

Assuming that everything you wrote there is true (i really don't buy it tho, all that talk of toxins, heavy metals :? ) it still seems unlikely.

you say you can burn 600extra calories in one short session, at a rate of 0.568cals/g of sweat, you'd have to produce 1056g of sweat, this is 1 litre!! seems very unlikely to me.

I don't believe that a 10C rise in external temperature will raise your metabolic rate so drastically. I can fully believe how internal/core temp would affect metabolic rate, but this isn't going to be affected by what you wear.

Maybe if people find their "diets" aren't working for them due to toxins,chemicals and poor digestion, they're probably not eating a very good diet, hence the poor digestion and weight gain, clearly there's cause and affect there.

Sorry for the thread hijack, i just can't stand pseudo science and dodgy weight loss plans :x

Mr Wu wrote:

Producing one gram of sweat requires 0.568 kcal. A moderately conditioned person can easily sweat off between 300–800 kcal when wearing a sweat top while exercising. 500 grams of sweat consumes 300 kcal, which is equivalent to running 2–3 miles. While the weight of the water lost can be regained by drinking water, the calories consumed will not be.

Metabolic rates increase 100% for every 10°C rise in temperature. An increase in temperature from 98.6°F to 104°F while exercising in a sweat top should increase metabolism by about 30%.

Detoxifying the body helps in weight loss. People who have unsuccessfully tried many diets often find success with sweat tops because they are able to eliminate chemicals stored in the fat cells. This makes weight loss much easier.

Sweat tops balance your body. Exercising when wearing a sweat top causes Profuse Sweating which effectively reduces heavy metals which have been directly related to metabolic imbalances in the body causing poor digestion and weight gain.

Sweating decreases fat-stored toxins. Often weight loss cannot be accomplished unless lipophilic toxins are first removed.

Burn 600 extra calories in one short session. Although weight loss due to perspiration (water loss) is quickly regained sending more blood to the capillaries and converting fats and carbohydrates results in as much as 600 calories burned during one short session.

Sweating is a work out in itself for your body. In fact, a 30 minute sweat creates roughly the same amount of perspiration as a 10 kilometre run. But your body doesn’t simply lose fluid whilst sweating, it rids itself of the toxins that actually prevent your body from losing stubborn fat.

It takes more energy to sweat, so the more you sweat wearing a sweat top the more calories you can burn off.

Hope this helps

JohnBoyUK

Well I've only just got my Rockhopper Pro (last weekend) so I've not really been able to get out and do any off road yet, although it appears I've got three mates coming to me at 9am on Saturday and we are off doing most off road all day, so something to look foward to.

However, in preparation, I done some road mileage last night just after rushhour which was fun. I'm only averaging 10mph, is this normal for a beginner?

Luckily, I bought myself a forerunner 405 last year to help with my half marathon training so I managed to track the journey I done...check out http://connect.garmin.com/activity/6435771 if you are interested.

I guess I'm somewhat restricted by the gearing of the Pro as its not exactly gonna hit the speeds of a road bike...and even coming down some of the steeper hills I've literally got my brakes on hard.

So presumably, the road work is great for a lower heart rate but the off road stuff, although will be a bit start/stop, will push the heart rate up higher I guess?

bomberesque

no way I'm wearing a plastic sack on my commute

no way. :P

cee

I don't know about all of wu's comments on metabolic rates and metals...

but.....

have seen guys in boxing clubs desperately trying to shed pounds.....and the way they do it.....cut a hole in a bin bag...wear it like a poncho....skip.skip..keep on skipping...skip some more...more skipping..

stuart_c-2

cee wrote:

I don't know about all of wu's comments on metabolic rates and metals...

but.....

have seen guys in boxing clubs desperately trying to shed pounds.....and the way they do it.....cut a hole in a bin bag...wear it like a poncho....skip.skip..keep on skipping...skip some more...more skipping..

Ok, but then what did they do?? :P

Stumpy Ade

I am a Triathelete and this Winter decided to have a crack a mountain biking ( what a great decison )

What I noticed is

- How hard mtb was in compared to road.
- How much more fun mtb was full stop.
- How much my Road speeds increased ater a winter of mtb.

As a comparrison Mtb is more like interval training, rapidly raising and lowering heart rate. Road biking is more like spinning, constant power output.

For me fitness = mtb, weightloss = road biking.

Obviously though both codes will enduce weighloss and improve fitness to a lesser or greater degree.

cee

Stuart_C wrote:

cee wrote:

I don't know about all of wu's comments on metabolic rates and metals...

but.....

have seen guys in boxing clubs desperately trying to shed pounds.....and the way they do it.....cut a hole in a bin bag...wear it like a poncho....skip.skip..keep on skipping...skip some more...more skipping..

Ok, but then what did they do?? :P

weigh themselves of course

mea00csf

my BF was a roadie when i met him and was into mtb (we both do both now), but i remeber the first time he came out mountian biking and scoffing at the "poxy" 25km route in the peaks i'd planned, saying it was "far too short". he really didn't know what he was letting himself in for

Stumpy Ade wrote:

I am a Triathelete and this Winter decided to have a crack a mountain biking ( what a great decison )

What I noticed is

- How hard mtb was in compared to road.
- How much more fun mtb was full stop.
- How much my Road speeds increased ater a winter of mtb.

As a comparrison Mtb is more like interval training, rapidly raising and lowering heart rate. Road biking is more like spinning, constant power output.

For me fitness = mtb, weightloss = road biking.

Obviously though both codes will enduce weighloss and improve fitness to a lesser or greater degree.

Stumpy Ade

mea00csf wrote:

my BF was a roadie when i met him and was into mtb (we both do both now), but i remeber the first time he came out mountian biking and scoffing at the "poxy" 25km route in the peaks i'd planned, saying it was "far too short". he really didn't know what he was letting himself in for

Stumpy Ade wrote:

I am a Triathelete and this Winter decided to have a crack a mountain biking ( what a great decison )

What I noticed is

- How hard mtb was in compared to road.
- How much more fun mtb was full stop.
- How much my Road speeds increased ater a winter of mtb.

As a comparrison Mtb is more like interval training, rapidly raising and lowering heart rate. Road biking is more like spinning, constant power output.

For me fitness = mtb, weightloss = road biking.

Obviously though both codes will enduce weighloss and improve fitness to a lesser or greater degree.

I know how he feels, I was in a state of shock when I come back after my first mtb ride. I was absolutely trashed, my riding buddies all p1ssed off into the distance then took great delight in ridiculing me mercilessly .