Almost 40, my work commute is short and downhill to work, I can easily do a 50-60 mile road blast, but mountain biking which I prefer I’m just worn out after 20 miles, rarely hit that point like today hit 18 then decided to head home.

Is it as simple as just ride more? I know my diet is lousy but I blame shift work, that will change when I get redundancy later this year 🙁

I think it’s normal to be knackered after 18 miles of MTB isn’t it? 😀

Generally, mountain biking is a bit more like interval training, than road riding.
On the road I seem to reach a set effort level & maintain it, whereas on the mountain bike I’m charging, then resting, charging, then resting.

You could perhaps replicate this a bit on your road rides to get you body more used to the intermittent efforts….

Are you eating mid-ride? 2hrs would be my limit of a no-food mtb ride. If going much longer, I would be eating something regularly from 1hr in.

I think it’s normal to be knackered just about warmed up after 18 miles of MTB isn’t it?

😆

Edit: More seriously, others have it right already. On the road you control the effort, on the MTB often the terrain controls the effort which means you burn through energy faster.

Spinning. Intervals. Hill repeats.

If you don’t puke on your shoes you’re doing it worng.

If you enjoy it you’re doing it worng*.

*Or you’re a born single-speeder

Is it as simple as just ride more? I know my diet is lousy but I blame shift work, that will change when I get redundancy later this year

Sort the diet out so you have energy and the fuel you need, and being properly hydrated.
The other side is some days we all have an off day and it feels crap though.

In terms of riding more, riding harder or more effectively for training makes a bigger difference

At the kind of level you are talking, yes, just riding more will help.

Measure your ride length in hours. Road biking is fairly consisent and you can figure out how hard a ride is looking at climbing and distance (killer head winds excepted). Mtb is more complex. Surface makes a difference (hardpack, gravel, sand, mud) as does the technicality in that there can be no rest on the downs and no real speed boost like you get on the road.

As above, interval style riding will help – attack certian bits, try to get pbs and placings on strava if that is your thing. Sprint up every hill.

Good sleep helps, which may be tricky if you are a shift worker. I’m noticeably slower when I tired from lack of sleep.

Go running.

Way more effective i find.

Edit: i’m aware of bike fit in title

Are you eating on the ride? Or taking carbs?

MTBing can be a lot harder than road. Around here, you can be spinning along the valley floors nice and easily, but if you want to MTB you need to smash your way up a big steep hillside.

I cant ember the last time I rode more than 18 miles on an MTB.

Actually yes I can is was 6th october 2012. I did an evans ride it thing that was mostly fire roads over the chase. I did about 30 miles and I was utterly broken.

I’d say you’re probably already reasonably fit, maybe take a drink with some calories in when you’re out (I like 50/50 OJ and Water) and maybe a but of flapjack or something to nibble on and you’ll be fine.

Find a short hill and twice a week repeatedly ride up it several times till you’re dead.

Do that over a few months and it will make a massive difference.

MTB’ing is all about intervals.

Oh, and eat properly. Its the one thing you can control, unlike the terrain/weather etc.

If all you normally do are ride at trail centres then going on a long ride is going to be a shock to the system. It’s a bit like only ever doing 5K runs then doing a marathon. It will take time to build up, depending on how old you are this could be a year or two.

Once you get on anything rougher than a forestry road then you need to start concentrating and that can tire you out as well.

Main three things that I’ve found really help on long (distance and time) rides are:

Keep the intensity down – you should be able to chat.
Keep hydrated
Keep eating.

If I do those right then I’ve not stressed the body and doing the same again the following day is fine.

Sort out a road route that lasts up to ~60mins, where you go steady linking up a number of hill climbs (where you give it full beans). Don’t forget to take a big bottle of tap water and give yourself at least one rest day per week!

I started doing recreational riding (including a lot of the above) rather than just commutes back in January on the Wazoo, after my fitness had plummeted and my spare tyre had grown since my Xmas 2013 RTA. Bitterne is blessed with lots of local hills, so I stayed very close to home, creating lots of new public Strava segments that I used to track my own progress.

Back in January, I would have laughed at you and told you where to go, if you told me to do 20+ mile ride further afield with an average speed of 19+mph (but it happened on my last two rides on the Cube road bike, earlier today and Sunday).

Thanks all, intervals sound like a good idea, and there’s a couple of good hills.

Saw a biker out today just riding uphill then smashing down and then up again with his dog running up and down with him.

Diet wise it’s difficult but that’s something I know I need to work on.

Possibly took the wrong bike today, the plus bike is fun to ride and i find it more fun than my camber to ride, but in hindsight the camber would of been a better choice to take out today.

middle one. 😀

Wife has it on her bars. Her choice!

On Polaris events in the 90s we used to ride about 45 miles in 7 hours on the Saturday, loaded with kit, and about 30 miles in 5 hours on the Sunday. But that was on XC bikes with narrow commuter tyres and following routes we’d chosen for the least possible climbing, meaning we used to spend quite a bit of time on tarmac. By about the third or fourth event we had discovered the joys of maltodextrin powder tipped into the drink bottle, which made the overnight camp a bit smelly as all the carbs came through the system.

I reckon that for the same effort we could easily double that distance on a roadie now. I wish gravel bikes had been invented in the 90s, we’d have won every event.

I wish gravel bikes had been invented in the 90s, we’d have won every event.

So would everyone else…

He’s right up there about running – mix some running into your plan.

Also if you use a gym then those steppers, or perpetual staircaes if they have then, are pretty good for getting power into your legs and also endurance.

If you can smash out 50-60 mile road rides then I’m surprised tbh.

For me (and I appreciate this doesn’t apply to everyone) bike specificity is vitally important. I used to do loads of road miles on my MTB, averaging up to 19mph over 25miles with 1200′ climbing.
Then I bought a road bike thinking I’d be loads quicker and it took ages to compete with my MTB segment times- I just couldn’t make the power.

This year, I’ve done 3000 odd miles on my road bikes and jumped on my MTB yesterday. A Z1/2 spin with one five minute climb has left me hanging! Everything aches!

So I’d be looking at increasing your MTB saddle time with some road rides to get some better adaptation.

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/knowledge/training-plans

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/knowledge/training

I’ve been doing more road as it’s just easier to hop on the bike, 6 miles down the road I’m out the city and I’m the countryside. Plan to road ride Sunday and hopefully trains depending back on the mtb Monday.

those steppers, or perpetual staircaes

Also known as the Sisyphus machine 🙂

‘Ride a bike, ride a bike, ride a bike’.

According to this bloke anyway:

i do a fairly even split [ time wise] of road v mtb with the road having near zero climbing [ 1500ft in 40 mile commute] and find that i improve on both and they compliment each other

The road i do find easier though as its pick a point and maintain for ever where as with the MTB the terrain makes the choice for you and its basically intervals

What’s the mantra? It never gets easier, you just get faster.

Probably applies to all types of riding.