Typical mtb ride = 40 mintues drive, 10 minutes faff, 3 hours riding, 10 minutes faff, 40 minutes drive, 1 hour cleaning bikes and sorting out muddy kit.

You must be a rare breed – I’ve never met an MTBer who can manage only 20 minutes faff per ride…. 😉

I was being optomistic. For night rides you need to double that as theres always someone whose lights are playing up 🙄

Yes it makes you fitter but sadly it also makes you sterile.

For “normal” people who will take a “reasonable” approach to training/fitness (e.g. no constant 5 hour training rides) then I do think higer intensity riding (given they have the base fitness) will burn more fat.

Not sure about that. Most people don’t get enough base riding, and I’d say that they’d be better off doing some base in addition to the hard riding… but that’s impossible to prove one way or the other without a big study on average cyclists and their fat burning capabilities.

the “fat burning zone” is a myth from the POV of weight loss – there is no point at which you stop burning fat, or even at which you decrease the amount of fat you burn.

Yeah… I know all this stuff. It’s still not a myth though as you can ride for LONGER if you are not burning up carbs because it produces next to no lactic acid which is what fatigues your muscles.. so you can do a 5 hour ride slower and burn up more fat than a 2 hour ride harder… So its not a myth.

below a certain threshold you burn mainly stored fat as the rate at which you are using energy is < the rate you are using it

Sorry you lost me there.

Most people don’t get enough base riding

Yup, that’s why I said

“normal” people who will take a “reasonable” approach to training/fitness

Anyway what is your “fat burning” HR zone?

It makes you into a bit of a **** though, doesn’t it? And could I politely request that Molgrips stops blathering on and on and on about base training. I could virtually write his posts for him he’s repeated them so many times. The bit about how he could ride for five hours off road and thought he was fit, then did a pairs 24-hour event and couldn’t climb at anything less than 250bpm and then discovered base training and now he can ride all day very slowly and after his first 24-hour solo felt really fresh [clue, didn’t go fast enough] and the whole thing about definitions of lactic threshold varying and, omifeckin’ gawd nooooo…

That’s what road riding does to you. Have any of you ever considered just riding because you love riding a bike?

Ooops, missed something out…

😉

Yes

There was an article on Bikeradar not so long ago that compared power ratings of MTB riding & road riding. Long & the short of it was that for road ridng power output was more consistent but MTB riding had bigger spikes.

As for fat burning – lay off the cakes etc.. 😉

http://timesonline.typepad.com/comment/2009/03/super-size-me-1.html

And could I politely request that Molgrips stops blathering on and on and on about base training.

Well, thanks for that. I’d love to stop typing it in all the f*cking time too, but people keep coming on and asking the same damn questions, so I feel bound to try and help.

May I also suggest that if you don’t want to read the same stuff over and over again then you don’t come onto the threads about training 🙂 or if you do, just skim over my posts since they’re not written for your benefit.

Btw, I’ve ridden for the hell of it for many years, I thought I’d try and make something of it these last few, that’s all. Tough at times, yes, but then so is anything if you train. It’s something that I want to do even if I don’t enjoy every training ride. If you don’t understand the urge to train and beat your fellow biker in a race, then that’s fine, but some folks have that urge 🙂

Oh yeah, I totally get the race thing. And the base thing. But I live in a world of optimism where I hope that one day you’ll think of something remotely original to add to your endless mutterings about different interpretations of threshold. Something that shines like a ray of light slashing through grey storm clouds or an arctic hare stark against Peak District peat or… well, I guess it’s not going to happen.

Anyway, I’m sorry if I was overly mean. Off out on my road bike now 😉

A mix is probably a good thing.

If I’ve spent the month mainly on the road bike and then jump on the mountain bike I find my arms are tired after a ride and I haven’t got the power on slow cadence climbs when you need to suddenly give a bit of welly. On the plus side, I can spin all day up a moderate climb and ride for double the time I would on a road bike.

In the reverse, if I jump on the road bike after a month on the mountain bike I find my natural cadence has dropped to around 70, rather than 90+ and my average speed hasn’t held up either. My neck tends to hurt after a long ride too.

I think riding both can only be a good thing. Can’t comment on weight or munchies. The main difference I suppose is the cake comes mid ride on many road rides, and at the end on a mountain bike ride… 😀

I did Glentress black up the the mast yesterday, then red with the Pie Run to finish from Spooky. Legs are pretty tired this morning (I went round in about 1hr40 which I know isn’t record pace for the dust creators on here, but I wasn’t hanging about for me). I have to ride a lot longer on the road bike to get the same pain – although I NEVER do intervals on a road bike, I just like to ride it.

I’m trying to get enough coffee in me to wake the legs up before going out for an easy spin on the road bike.

But I live in a world of optimism where I hope that one day you’ll think of something remotely original

Well, not being an physiology researcher I’m not really in a position to come up with original things… I could make some stuff up if you like? The reason I always say the same thing is that it’s still true… 🙂

base training is a sound concept, long winter rides on the road then increase the intensity and decrease the time / distance to peak in the summer.

a very basic view on it but it can work well, i got the road bug years back and though i mix road / off road more now the winters where i did long road rides preceeded my best summers on the MTB. you need to keep on top of it and have somne basic structure but it certainly does work to build endurance and output at lower % of max heart rate. road bikes are fun and getting faster on the MTB as a result is even more fun.

Road riding – does this include riding an MTB on the road???

Road riding – does this include riding an MTB on the road???

Obviously!