Mtb for fitness?

Stueys wrote:

So this year I'm thinking of getting an mtb to accompany the road miles, mainly as I've got some mates who ride through the winter offroad so it will be a bit of fun.

But I'm slightly concerned as to how mtb riding translates to roadie fitness.

Normally during winter I would be bumbling along during be miles with occassional force work through hill repeats. I can see that mtb-ing would help on the muscle work but can't see it doing much for base.

Any thoughts or experience?

what do you mean by "base" and "bumbling along"?

i'm not sure i follow: why can't you do zone 2 and sweetspot on a MTB?

you're not riding your road bike hard enough then! you should be able to go hard enough over short durations that you want or need to vomit at the end.

Kajjal wrote:

Mountain biking is different in the way you ride the bike. Road biking is generally quite smooth and consistent.

I think this is pretty much correct. I find that on the road it is easy to maintain a set intensity. On my MTB the terrain tends to dictate how I am riding, so that a lot of the time I am going easier than I physically could be, concentrating on saying on the bike over all those rocks and tree roots in situations where finesse, not outright power, is what is needed. At other times I will have to go right to my limits just to avoid having to get off the bike and walk!

I also find the the sort of cadence I use on my MTB varies quite a lot from what I would use on the road. For example, often having to stay seated no matter how stupidly low the cadence is to maintain traction, whereas on my road bike I would be out of the saddle.

I tend to look at MTB riding as being something of an 'seasonal' alternative exercise, akin to running or cross country skiing / ski touring (albeit closer to road cycling in its specificity) that keeps me active and gives me a psychological break from all those miles on the road.

Stueys wrote:

BenderRodriguez wrote:

Ric/RSTSport wrote:

you're not riding your road bike hard enough then! you should be able to go hard enough over short durations that you want or need to vomit at the end.

Odd then that I don't see much vomiting going on after summit finishes in the Tour, or those 'do or die', 'out of the body' efforts made the classics, and so forth. I guess that they just aren't going hard enough!

Perhaps whether you vomit or not depends on whether or not your coach tells you that you should be.

Evidently a short memory from this years tdf...

I have watches thousands of races and vomiting seems to be far from the norm, unless the rider concerned has been given a 'bad drip' or something.