Absolute Beginner

Jammin34

I'm keen to get involved with mountain biking and hope to pick up my first bike for over 15 years next week but I really want to know how to properly start training in order to enjoy and make the most of some amazing riding trails.

I don't usually do much fitness in general and really don't know where to start so just wondered if any of you could please advise me on what best to do ? I don't want to overdo it from the off but at the same time I don't want to waste time approaching it all wrong.

Cheers

Antm81

My advice would be not to worry about fitness and just go out and enjoy yourself.

It doesn't matter how fast or slow you are as long as you enjoy yourself. Fitness will come over time.

Jammin34

It was more that I love the look of the London to Paris ride that the British heart foundation are hosting in a few months so I wanted to train to be happy I was fit enough to participate ect and more importantly I want to keep up with all the others lol !

Barnymeinhoff

I had no fitness level to speak of when i got my bike a few months ago, just generally riding it about, doing a couple of trails a common and daily commuting as well as a few road explorations and within weeks i was flying up hills i had previously struggled with on foot and not even getting blown out after middle distance sprints. if you want to go for distance worry more about your saddle than your fitness.

kajjal

just go out and ride to begin with. After a short while your fitness will improve and then you can start pushing a bit harder, eating well and making sure you have rest days from the bike. The most common mistakes are crazy weight loss diets which rob you of power and not resting enough to allow you body to recover / grow stronger.

Keep going it will soon be well worth it

iwilldoit

As people have said just go out and ride your bike and enjoy it, might not be a major achievement for a lot of people, but I have been mountain biking now for 10 months, starting at 51 most probably wasn't the best time but I have always wanted to have a go.

Over the last 10 months I have set my goals small and be pleased when I reached one, well this week I tried something I thought I wouldn't ever be able to do. as I live in the valley floor in Wales every where is up hill, there are some fantastic rides on top of the hills, I used to get a lift up there and then have a ride around and then ride home, well I wanted to get to the stage where I rode up to the top and then do my ride round, Tuesday I rode up to the lakes a 5.1mile climb and a increase of over 1100ft, had a ride round and home around 15 miles in all, all in the middle chain ring on the front ( when I tried it a while a go it was 5 stops and blowing like a steam train and bottom cog )

So set your goals small and when you reach them aim a bit higher.

diy

Riding is good - make sure you stretch properly after every ride to reduce injury. Body workouts are quite good at improving your core strength and gaining some functional muscle. Generally a bit of upper body work (low weight/high rep) on the shoulders/trapezoid muscle and the lower back will help cope with the lack of workout these bits get from cycling.

Most injuries not caused by crashing are a result of not properly stretching or weak functional strength.