Increase Distance Or Speed?

WisePranker

I've not been riding road bikes long, only a couple of months, but I'm looking to improve my overall fitness to help with my mountain biking.

The road route I currently use is 26 miles and I average 16mph over the route. Should I look towards increasing my distance or stick with the same distance but try to increase my average speed?

I'm planning on doing a 75km MTB race in September so I want to improve my fitness by then.

Any suggestions?

amaferanga

Both. Some longer rides at a steadier pace and shorter rides at a hard pace.

dennisn

Well, as of late there seems to be a push from trainers who support the theory that
you can gain just as much fitness doing higher intensity work and less long distance stuff. I do agree that you need to do some really tough, short workouts but i also believe that nothing gets you in condition to do long rides better than long rides. An hour of high intensity really puts your body through the paces but I don't see it preparing your body and brain for long hours in the saddle. Then again that's only my THEORY. Key word THEORY.

ride_whenever

There's a body of evidence to suggest reverse periodisation (ie power first then distance) also works. However your body will adapt to do whatever you ask of it, so do both, at the same time and utterly flog yourself. The best way is to have a pretty short local loop (about 1km) that you can just knock out faster and faster over and over.

Slack

My two penneth is:

You will gain from doing short distance speed work, no doubt about that. However you will also gain from doing distance, working on your aerobic conditioning.

If you train the aerobic system, you will adapt your heart and lungs to be more efficient with every pump and breath, with a subsequent increase in your overall capacity - i.e. faster on a bike with less effort.

You can use speed work to fine tune the upper end.

Think as your heart as a car engine, either:

- - small like a 2.00ltr engine, where you would rev the bollocks out of it

or

- - a large capacity like a 4.00ltr engine with doesn't need to use as many revs to get the speed.

WisePranker

Cheers for the advice guys, I don't have a regular training pattern due to my working pattern but I think I'll try to look at doing at least one short, fast ride a week and one longer, slower ride and see how I go from there.

Currently I try to do two road rides a week and one off-road but with no particular structure or plan to them.

mattshrops

as a novice(like me) from what i have read the recommendations are for mainly sticking to endurance work.(mainly).
tbh 17 mph average is pretty good for a novice so personally i would gradually increase distance. if you added 5 or 10 miles on and then kept it at that until your average speed caught back up again then you will actually accomplish both at the same time. then do it again

RideOnTime

I would get off that 26 miler and mix it a bit.. In a 25-mile radius I would say I have 30+ routes even more in combination. Seeing some fresh sites will help with speed or distance.

Gav888

If you have the time do speed work during the week and a long ride or 2 over the weekend at your race distance or a few miles over it.

Also try doing the same race distance off road as it will be a different cup of tea doing the distance off road compared to on road.

ozzzyosborn206

if i were you i would do the harder more intense efforts on your mtb, maybe there is a hill you could to reps on? then do longer rides on the road up to about 3-4 hours then once you can do those comfortably start increasing the intensity in those

twotyred

For what you want Slack has it right. Increase your rides up to 3-4 hours 17mph is a pretty good speed. How hard are you working to do that? Your long rides should be done between zone 1 and zone 3 heart rate which is no more than 80% of your maximum heart rate. This level of effort can feel surprisingly easy but it does have an effect and it leaves you with enough energy both to train consistently without over training and to get some short intense intervals in. If you live somewhere hilly your off road rides probably give you the equivalent of those short intense intervals but if not then programme some of these in. You can add an interval session in the middle of one of your long road rides for instance.