I’m new to mtb racing and want to know the most effective way to get stronger and faster. I ride on the road mainly in the week to get the miles in but need more strengh in my legs for climbing. Any tips?

Ride up hills.

Yup. Intervals too.

Buy a book or look online and start a programme.

njee20 – quality.

Seriously though what i’m finding is working for me at the moment is leaving it in a high gear up the hill on purpose and just stamping down the power up the hill. I done a quick ride this afternoon after work and on one of the big hills I found myself in a high gear hitting 20mph uphill because I left it in a big gear and pushed hard. Just cycle more and do interval training, maybe on a turbo.

Whilst tongue in cheek it’s true! If you really want to do intervals and things check out the Sufferfest videos, or find a big hill, ride up for 3 minutes, roll down 1, up 3, down 1 and repeat to the top. Turn around and do it again.

Personally though, I think you can do a lot worse than just going for a hilly ride, I also do the big ring ride thing, it builds stubbornness if nothing else!

something to think about, how many mtb races have big hills in them and how many require a more explosive way of riding.

It might be me, i find if i spend time on the road bike i can hold a decent tempo on a long climb, but the explosive strength needed to deal with singletrack and the small climbs you tend to find off road does suffer a bit.

You can train for it on the road,Intervals, but it is something that you need to be a bit conscious of when riding.

ok i know a hilly route to try some intervals. Thanks everyone i’ll see how it goes over the next few weeks 🙂

mrmo – i agree i can climb for a long time at a steady pace on any hill but do not have the strength for the short bursts needed in mtb racing.

Gym, turbo, road and MTB for skills. HRM and training diary.

find a big hill, ride up for 3 minutes, roll down 1, up 3, down 1 and repeat to the top. Turn around and do it again.

This. ^^

I specifically trained last winter for mountain bike racing with the help of a very good trainer who also happened to be an ex pro.

Because of the nature of mountain biking, i.e. explosive power and punching out of corners I was given lots of drills to help with this.

Power revs, can be done on road or mountain bike. At an almost stand still and in a very low gear, accelerate hard for 12 revolutions. Do these every 5 minutes throughout the ride.

Speeders. Throughout the ride sprint as hard as you can for 5 seconds. Again every 5 minutes.

Intervals. 4 minutes hard, 6 minute recovery, repeat.

HIIT, loads of drills about on the internet.

Lots of steady rides too.

These are just a few of what I do.

I’ve gone from being rubish and tail end to finishing well up the order in my class. Last mtb race finished 11th and last week finished 5th in a cx race, 3rd in class.

HTH.

Mulletus Maximus – good advice mate, always good to see people providing decent, accurate and genuine advice on here.

Wow thanks Mulletus Maximus i’m trainng after work so i’ll defo give some of this a go.