How do you train?

evo3ben

Reason why i ask this is that sticking to HR zones on local XC trails seems to be very hard :? People walking dogs, obsticles to get around (and over) left right and centre.
To be able to stick to heart rate zones i.e. 80-90% of max hr for 30 minutes, it seems the best way is either on road or turbo trainer.
Cross Country seems very hard to keep momentum epecially as eyes need to be on the trail ideally and not on your heart rate monitor lol

How do you train?

njee20

On the road. MTB rides are for fun and skills, not targeted training IMO.

evo3ben

So do you use a road bike for this?

I was thinking of getting a half decent hardtail and gearing it up more for road riding. Just another expense though.
I have spare wheels etc so could just use them with more practical road orientated tyres on.
I went out on a road route last week and was much easier to concentrate on the training aspect of the ride than it is off road. Just not as fun.

njee20

Yeah I do. Don't buy a hardtail to ride on the road, if you're buying a new bike get a road bike. You do need to enjoy riding first and foremost, but there aren't many people who will get fast just by riding off road. Depends what you want to achieve, if you want to do well in races then the reality is that you probably need to get on the road and accept it's not gonna be as much fun!

blablablacksheep

like njee20 said getting a hardtail for road is pointless may as well buy a road bike.

But tbh i never use MTB for fitness i just enjoy riding and the added bonus of keeping me ticking over when i havnt got time to do my proper training ie running,gym work ect.

if you want to properly train on a bike you need a road bike and or turbo trainer but this useally means you dont enjoy riding anymore as you not having fun on the bike .

personally id stick to MTB for fun and ticking over, then take up another exercise for training ie running/swimming/gym workouts ect.

njee20

I disagree there - running/swimming/gym will not be as effective as riding, and you don't have to dislike training.

I really enjoy riding on the road - if you get a road bike it will make it a far more pleasant experience.

Cross training may be more interesting, and can be a valuable part of a training programme, but if your only riding is 'ticking over' on the MTB and all your fitness training is running and swimming you're unlikely to get that far.

Turn the MTB into an interval session with hill reps - sprint up a climb, enjoy the descent, repeat, try and get faster every time, when you start getting significantly slower, go home. Alternatively, time the descent, to try and work on skills as well, you will then need some recovery period though, if you can get a climb-descent-flat bit that's perfect!

lvquestpaddler

+1 for road bikes

Glad I can enjoy both sides of biking(road/off road- don't mind the turbo either!). I have spare wheels with road tyres for the mtb but it's just a world apart from a road bike on 23mm tyres. Just need to find some decent B roads and keep away from the mental traffic if you can.
I'm after some cheap TT bars now I've lost enough weight my gut isn't clattering off my thighs in the TT position!! :oops:

middleagedmaninlycra

I'm training for a charity mountain bike ride over the Alps in August. I'm not built for hill climbing so I've been using a mix of methods to get fit (and lose weight) in time. Two days a week high intensity/endurance on the turbo trainer / 2 days core and strength training / weekends doing long rides with lots of climbing (I'm a Brit living in southern Germany close to the Alps).

At the beginning of the year I could hardly climb out of bed. Now I'm doing rides with up to 2,000m of climbing in one day! The turbo training has really helped get my heart in lungs prepared for these big climbs and the core training means I don't often get a sore back during a long ride.

blablablacksheep

njee20 wrote:

I disagree there - running/swimming/gym will not be as effective as riding, and you don't have to dislike training.

I really enjoy riding on the road - if you get a road bike it will make it a far more pleasant experience.

Cross training may be more interesting, and can be a valuable part of a training programme, but if your only riding is 'ticking over' on the MTB and all your fitness training is running and swimming you're unlikely to get that far.

Turn the MTB into an interval session with hill reps - sprint up a climb, enjoy the descent, repeat, try and get faster every time, when you start getting significantly slower, go home. Alternatively, time the descent, to try and work on skills as well, you will then need some recovery period though, if you can get a climb-descent-flat bit that's perfect!

you are correct in saying you need to include different sessions with the bike but you wont get "fitter" overal by just doing bike work.

Doing cross-training is the best way to improve fitness overall so including running/gym and swimming WILL improve not only overal fitness but your times for bike will reduce a lot.

doing varid training like gym/swimming/running then adding some biking is far better than pure bike work, doing different types of exercise has been proved to improve performance over single activity useage.

have found my running times have improve a lot through this method of training yet not increasing the amount of running i do.

Noel PT

njee20 wrote:

On the road. MTB rides are for fun and skills, not targeted training IMO.

+1

But I tend to stick to fire roads on my mtb whenever possible.

njee20

Doing cross-training is the best way to improve fitness overall so including running/gym and swimming WILL improve not only overal fitness but your times for bike will reduce a lot.

doing varid training like gym/swimming/running then adding some biking is far better than pure bike work, doing different types of exercise has been proved to improve performance over single activity useage.

Depends what you want to achieve, I take your point that if you want overall 'fitness' (whatever that may be) then cross-training is good. If you want to be a good cyclist, you need to ride your bike. Cycling makes you a better cyclist, with secondary benefits including general 'fitness'. Lots of gym work, running and swimming may bring about improvements in cycling, but not as much as just riding your bike would!