5by3MTB series

Well done that man ;0) sounds weird but to get faster you need to get your base fitness sorted first, get yourself a heart rate monitor if you can and go out and ride 3 to 4 times a week keeping your heart rate below 130bpm and pedal about 80rpm. You will be surprised, mentally all you will want to do is go out training hard and get your heart rate up and sweat but it don't work like that. Recovery days are so important. Make sure you take them after each session, ride for as long as you can 1 to 3 hrs depending on how much time you have with work and family
Don't expect to see results straight away as it will take a while.
Good luck in the next one, let us all know how you got on

Christ, if you have a turbo then even better if you can bear the boredom as you can set resistance to get your desired heart rate and away you go, I use mine about 3 times a week for an hour, I think you get more out of a turbo as you are constantly peddling and no free wheeling!

A few things echoing/contradicting the posts above:

Before I say any of this, the overriding aim must be to have fun! We are not professional athletes, it's not fun don't do it!

Firstly a common misconception is what building a 'base' is and what its purposes is, a lot of people associate it with long slow distance rides (LSD) and think building a 'base' is necessary to the 'weekend warrior' type of rider, when in my mind it's a type of training intended to improve your ability to metabolise fat, and to a certain extent endurance - something which isn't so necessary in an XC race, but is in 100mile+ road race. The idea of riding slowly, maybe even as slowly as you can is a farce - when has anyone gone to you 'hey, I wonder how slowly I can go in this race'. Remember your training needs to be specific to what you are trying to achieve, assuming you want to improve you race performance.

Next, I'd say that you should pay little attention to heart rate (although if it works for you, use it) in my experience it has proved to be too variable for it to be an accurate measure of intensity, and without a power meter it's difficult to contextualise. If it feels hard, it probably is, if it feels easy, it probably is, I'd advocate training by feel and analyzing heart rate data afterwards to check you were on the right track.

Turbo training is when you get your really specific training in, something like this: http://www.flammerouge.je/content/3_fac ... /sh1ts.htm would be a good investment in time (ignore the gear selction guide, just go hard for the length of the interval.) + it'll make it far less tedious!

Doing the above session once a week, a fast paced mtb ride, a 2hr road ride and a fun skills focused mtb ride + basic core and flexibility work could see you well on your way to achieving something more than 'just finishing'.

I thoroughly recommend you give the therford winter series a try: http://www.thetfordmtbracing.com/
and mud sweat and gears during the summer: http://www.mudsweatgears.co.uk/

Windy g, well done on having a go at the weekend, it was a good fun little lap i thought, plenty to keep you thinking and nice and fast. Im like you, kids family eetc take up so much time, its a lottery to find time where you can train to get a good level of fitness.

One thing i would say is, spending hours on the bike is good, but varied, sessions on a turbo will bring results faster, but they need to be tailored to what sort of races you want to enter, my situation is ive been off the mtb all year, after an operation, this meant i have done lots of miles on the road, which has kept me fit, but i lost a bit of top end power, but gained strength, sunday was my 2nd race this year and i felt awful for the first 20 minutes, but after that it seemed to settle down and at the end i did my best lap, according to the garmin on the bike.
i may well have come past you at some point (Revel outdoors Kit) and offered some cheery words.

Im at the next one with my son, who does the kids race, so come and say hello.

Darren.

Your never that polite when you pass me Darren......;-)

Good to meet you too, gutted I didn't last more than half a lap, feeling quite sore now, and you're right, it was a cracking lap made more fun by the lack of grip..

Its on the facebook page, but in case anyone missed it, tomorrows race at fritton is CANCELLED due to the snow.

I was looking forward to it too, didnt ride at round 1, and it looked like a good little lap.

I am indeed doing MSG, need to sort an entry out soon, and check the dates! didnt race them last year, so looking forward to a summer of monthly races again this year.