Trainig for a race

Average_Man

I'm starting training for a race in late April. I'm not unfit, threshold of around 150ish watts. How can i boost this up to around 200 easily? I've only got 2 doacle routes from where i live, the first has a 20-30min climb and 2or3 short burst climbs, the other is flat and about 45mins. Also when i train sometimes my right leg tightens up after 10mins or so. I stretch out fully for 10mins but it still tightens. Also how important is upper-body strength for mountain bike races?

ollie51

Firstly ignore wattage, Heart Rate is a far better measure for mtb'ing. If you have a heart rate monitor read the training section of this web site the article you want to read is heart rate training monitor basics I believe.

Right just some questions, firstly what do you do now cycling wise? A secondly which race are you planning on entering?

And upper body strength isn't important. Core strength is, so doing the plank, press ups, jackknifes, crunches etc can help. It won't make a huge difference but it will help.

How long does the 1st route take? 30 minutes is a long old climb.

Stuntman

If you're training with watts, then get a book called training and racing with a power meter, that's quite a good read.

And you could always training with a heart rate monitor.

Core strength is principal, all your power starts in your core. Definitely do core work, not much need for upper body mass, but strenght is a little helpful when needed.

Check your saddle height for your leg measurement and you'll probably find it needs tweaking. Normally around 88% of your inside leg measurement equates to the distance(when pedal is at lowest point) to the top of the saddle.

Trying to hold above your current wattage, so over 110% of 150 =165watts(minimum). doing intervals of 4-5 minutes of this will help increase your power.

Power sprints of 30 seconds max effort

Power sprints of 10 seconds with 20 rest and repeat 10-20 times should also help.

Good luck

njee20

Firstly ignore wattage, Heart Rate is a far better measure for mtb'ing. If you have a heart rate monitor read the training section of this web site the article you want to read is heart rate training monitor basics I believe.

What? No it's not, power is a far superior way to train than HR.

Reading the above is good advice, if power's just a number then it's no use, but it tells you far more about your fitness and performance than HR ever can. What analysing software do you use? Something like Training Peaks WKO is very good and will give you a lot of insight, it more or less shows you the areas you need to train.

What do you mean by threshold? 150w is pretty low (no offence!). Assume this is your FTP, in which case how have you measured it? A good basis is an hour long time trial, or if you're short on time do a 20 minute time trial and reduce by 5%, make sure you're totally fresh, and ideally re-assess reasonably often.

In order to increase your threshold you need to spend time above it. Ideally this will involve doing longer intervals keeping above threshold. Try doing 20 minute efforts with a 10 minute rest, repeat 3 times with a warm up. These can be done on the road, or the turbo for proper steady state riding, although rather dull!

Shorter intervals will help increase your maximum power, but won't really help in a long race, it depends what areas you need to improve in.

robertpb

Stuntman

That's the wrong measuring distance for saddle hight, 88% is from the top of the saddle to the centre of the BB.

The measurement from the top of the saddle to the lowest point of the pedal stroke is 109% of inside leg.

ollie51

njee20 wrote:

Firstly ignore wattage, Heart Rate is a far better measure for mtb'ing. If you have a heart rate monitor read the training section of this web site the article you want to read is heart rate training monitor basics I believe.

What? No it's not, power is a far superior way to train than HR.

I learnt something.