As the subject says really.
I know that I need to get more miles in my legs and the obvious way to do this is to get a road bike and do longer rides. The problem is that I want to keep it fun - sorry roadies but road biking bores the living daylights out of me. So, is doing longer mtb rides just as effective? I suppose it could be even more effective if I choose harder rides over tougher terrain?
I want to do some 24hr solo events and some 100-150km+ rides next year, all mtb.
I'd say the best training for enduro MTB would be, er, enduro MTB.
totally agree with you - did a sportive last month and it bored me to tears.
Head for hills and make your training FUN!
Go road riding with a club. The whole dynamic changes compared to riding on your own. Pack riding, sprints etc
I had an odd moment last weekend when I got a bigger buzz from my road ride on Saturday than I did on my MTB ride on Sunday. My whole world is falling apart 😉
So, is doing longer mtb rides just as effective?
No - road riding does not beat you up so you can do more training and recover more quickly.
It's up to you how seriously you take the training.
I find there are a lot of advantages to road riding in terms of training:
I start at my front door - no putting cars in bikes and driving to the trails.
What cynic-al said - I don't get beaten up anywhere near as much.
I push a lot harder on the road bike - I can ride flat out pretty much constantly, whereas on the mountain bike you have to slow down for corners and techy bits.
There's a lot less maintenance involved - I don't need to clean or oil the road bike at all regularly.
For me to do the same amount of riding on the mountain bike would require double the time.
As well as your body taking a battering, there's the bike too! Bike maintenance time will go through the roof. And if you're already short on time, which you will be training for 24 hour, you're then going to have to cram maintenance in. Road bike is a god send!
Also, MTBing will have a lot of coasting and freewheeling so you'll have to ride longer to get the same workout, and then the climbing effort can be too extreme in terms of exercise when you're trying to build a solid base.
I know it's boring but fairly flat, really long, fairly slow road rides is what you need until you can go for 6 hours+ with ease, it's what I was told and it seems to be working.
..and if you are worried you will be coasting on the road bike and not pressing the pedals all the time ride a fixie! Even better!
If you go out on the road bike, make sure you do some proper training, not just cruising around for 60miles - that won't do a thing; you need to push yourself.
I recently joined a club, and I have to admit I enjoy riding in the pack and eve the odd 10m TT (now they are hard!)
riding a mtb on tarmac gives all the benefits of training on a road bike. up to you whether that warrants a new bike.
Damn 🙁 I was hoping that you would all say 'yes riding your mountain bike along wonderful Welsh / Peak / Lakes mountain trails is the best form of training'.
I did a stint of riding a fixie to work and back last year, nothing major but it was a means to an end. I don't want road riding to take over I guess as it will take the fun out of it for me.
How about getting a cheap road bike and commuting on it daily? This would be around 30 miles a day over an easyish altitude profile - would this help? The problem is though that these commutes would only be about 45/50 mins in the morning and 45/50 mins at night. That's probably not enough for endurance training?
Why not stick some slicks/semi slicks on your MTB and ride on the lanes?
Your commute sounds OK to me. You could always add a loop to your ride home.
For me the key to training is just to enjoy it, so I do both to get a bit of mix in the riding as I think they're both great but really prefer MTB. For endurance training I work close to anaerobic threshold on road and MTB for four hours +. I like road (sadly I hate bad or careless motorists but never mind) as long as a good effort is made - lots of hills added in for that and I keep my MTB sessions to longer and harder efforts to keep me motivated. I get bored though so use a low volume mp3 player on road or only plug one earpiece in; and use loud music offroad. The other thing is not to work too hard and burn yourself out - and focus on your recovery afterwards! Good luck!
Riding with a good - that is a good mix between work and social fair makes a difference to enjoyment.
Work work work clubs are no fun and chat chat chat clubs are just shit ,
Roadying really does bring you on.
It'll be something, but there'll come a point where you'll need to start banging in some VERY long, fast rides, and the best way to do that is, as has been said, is a road bike.
Aside from the aforementioned fixie, have you ever tried a road bike "proper"?
thomthumb - Member
riding a mtb on tarmac gives all the benefits of training on a road bike. up to you whether that warrants a new bike.
Agreed - saps the will to live though!
I could commute along the canal which is 18 miles each way but canals have one major flaw - they're flat! I'll look into the lane option as I'm moving to Leek this weekend and there might be better options from there. My girlfriend works in Buxton - imagine that commute, Leek to Buxton - that would be perfect. I'll see if I can trade jobs with her 😉
little and often id good - gives you time to recover. I commute 4 dyas a week - gives me a proper rest day even if i ride sat/ sun.
Yes I used to commute on a cheap Trek 1.2 the year before last but I'm not a huge fan of the riding position of road bikes. I think I'm just too used to riding mtb.
It sounds like something I'll have to do though to get my desired results. The problem is that the only time I'll have to do longer road rides is the time I'd usually be out on the mtb and I don't want to lose that. Maybe I could, like someone said above, add more miles into my commute home to up the miles a bit. There are plenty of rides always leaving the shop where I work but they are all roadies there pretty much, I could tag on with them.
So at the moment it's looking like;
Long mtb rides at the weekends or days off during the week.
Mtb with semi slicks / road bike commute doing minimum of 30 miles per day.
What sort of totals should I be looking at for a good training programme then for 24hr / marathon rides in terms of miles / hours per week, road and mtb? Do any of you take rest periods before events?
I remember doing the Enduro 6 hour last year at Catton Park and the only training I did was commuting on my fixie with the odd mtb ride for about 3 weeks with no rest before the event. I didn't place well but I felt very strong!
flexability (yoga) rest day. my active rest days are a commute with no extra riding.
How about getting a cheap road bike and commuting on it daily? This would be around 30 miles a day over an easyish altitude profile - would this help? The problem is though that these commutes would only be about 45/50 mins in the morning and 45/50 mins at night. That's probably not enough for endurance training?
You'll be suprised how much fitter it will make you, if you ride it SS stronger too. You can always add in some longer rides home to up the distance.
How about getting a cheap road bike and commuting on it daily?
I'm not a huge fan of the riding position of road bikes
nothing wrong with using a flat bar road bike/ hybrid/ or even a slicked up mtb for this.
if you can get a position thats similar to your 'race' bike then even better.
Heres one for you then ..... For puffer my training was 1 x 90k ride in november as first ride back after relentless and riding 25k to work at back at warp factor 6 every day on a fixie pushing 42:14
Rode me to 4th place on a singlespeed/first ss rider
mile munching has its place dont get me wrong ive done my share but its not always the be all and end all .....frankly i was shitting my self before puffer at lack of milage ..... Little and often seems to work well though
While my road bike is very much secondary and I avoid using it when it's really wet, I just enjoy the variety. TBH while my speed is higher, my average speeds are loads better than on my MTB (xc light HT with fairly low tread tyres) but the road bike just accelerates quicker and feels more efficient.
One thing that does wind me up is daft drivers - so my usual route avoids all the nasty bits (uphill overtaking lanes are the worst) and takes in some nice scenery on the Roseland Peninsula.
However I do think you can do all that on an MTB - just ride is fast everywhere!
My fitness has improved greatly since getting a road bike and doing some longer rides with them. Most of my training is for endurance events as well. Now i can go faster and for longer.
(riding with my mtb mates I'm one of the faster guys, but with the roadies I'm often dropped off the back, though they do wait for me at the top)
Luckily we've got lots of hills around here so the riding isn't too boring. Quite exciting seeing some more of the countryside that i'd otherwise miss and also some of the big hill passes in the welsh valleys. (Bwlch pass between the afan valley and the Rhondda is meant to be one of the Uk's best road rides).
As for commuting it can be really good as well. Riding for 45 min x2 everyday will help especially if you mix it up a bit with different speeds and intervals of some sort. Good to go the longer, hillier route home as well if you can.
Its not to say that you can't get better by just doing mtb, but I think it's easier and faster to progress with a road bike and some form of motivation to use it.
Thanks for all the tips! Well done on the Puffer Trail_Rat - damn fine effort!
I enjoyed riding my fixie a bit last year but I don't like riding it in traffic. I'll see what route I can work out and that will dictate how I do it I think.
Thanks again.
Getting fitter for Mountain Biking involves doing more Mountain Biking, IMO. Do more non-stop long distance stuff in between the fun rides.
What's your commute? I've recently bought a 3-speed folding Brompton and will be doing 2 hours of cycling, 5 days a week on it. There's a few gradients on the first, "pre-train travel" section of the commute that will force me to work harder than normal on that narrow gear spread and I fully expect it to help me lose a poound or two of weight and develop more stamina and general fitness, without having to actually get involved in "road riding" (*gag*) per se...
Rode me to 4th place on a singlespeed/first ss rider
Well done on the Puffer Trail_Rat - damn fine effort!
but only 4 entered it, and the other 3 were girls 😛
I started commuting on a beat up old road bike bought for buttons and that sorted out the fitness pretty quickly, as above tho' push yourself don't cruise. My commute is about 23miles one way so I satrted with alternate there and then back days. Now I'm pedalling both ways, looking for a more scenic routes home and go along for a Tuesday eve ride with some other mtb/roadies. Got a decent bike second hand and the mtb race results are steadily improving every month. Also it's alot more social (in the like minded group I go out with - maybe not the hard core TT crew).
Thought of SS on the road as that's what I ride off road but, with gears I try and work on leg speed and up the cadence. You can do an occasional recovery ride too.
A mtb with slicks would do all of the above and you could probably frighten a few roadies too ;o)
+1 for the above about bikes bought for buttons. My road bike is a Raleigh Banana, bought for a tenner, with some second hand bits thrown at it. All in it probably owes me £70-£80.
It knackers me out (or trains) me just as well as a new one would...
I never got on with the 26" slicks I had, whilst I'm perfectly happy on 23mm road tyres.
As someone who does both it has it's uses but road biking doesn't prepare you for the beating the rest of your body takes on the mountainbike. You get strong legs but don't get used to the fatigue you get after riding for 6 hours on bumpy/rocky ground.
Just plan long mtb routes that are fun. Unless you really like and want to take up road biking you may find it dull as training tool in comparisson to mtb.
I think road training will help for sure, but the benefit is in the difference in what you're doing (compared to MTBing) rather than the bike that you're doing it on. IMO it's the consistency of effort and the ability to vary it as needed that you're after (plus all the time/maintenance benefits) and you could get that equally well by riding your MTB on the roads.
That said, riding MTBs on tarmac sucks and a road bike would be much more fun.
I think some mountain bikers have a prejudiced aversion to road cycling, but in a lot of cases I think it's misplaced. I've recently joined a road club (£25 for a year, not expensive) to get some training in - mainly because they have loads of years experience of where the good (quiet!) roads are, where the challenging hills are and they are sociable and some of the hardy old guys give excellent advice on how to ride roady stuff better.
However, if you're training for endurance MTB stuff then while road riding will be a good cardio workout and will help, it has its limits. You'll need to do lots of core stuff to make sure your back muscles are strong enough; you'll use your upper body more when mountain biking than when road cycling so you'll need a way to keep that in shape.
Ultimately the best preparation for enduro MTB is enduro MTB, but getting some long road rides in will be a very handy substitute and you get to play with riding really really fast as well!
: P
Meant to say as well - if you're riding on the road, it's best to use a road bike. They're the best tool for the job. To advise you to fit slicks to your MTB to do it would be like suggesting someone fits lumpy tyres to their Brompton in order to see whether they like the idea of mountain biking.
If road riding is "gay", then trying to ride sportives on a mountain bike with slick tyres is definitely "bisexual". Or in the closet.
: P
Because I am reaching a certain age now I tend to do training runs on the road bike as it is much easier on my body. I initially bought the road bike to basically stick on the turbo rather then use a MTB – but started to take it out for actual rides. – The lower rolling resistance and gearing of the road bike means that I can attaint a more even consistence pace over a longer period of time. I also find that ridding on road helps with increased cadence and peddling efficiency both of which are transferable to off road ridding, especially for endro type ridding
I also find road ridding great fun, its different to off road riding but hammering along the flat and decanting are basically mentally good fun (sadly I’m crap at climbing - but can see why people get off on it) – 40mph+ with stupid little rim brakes and1/4 contact patches is very interesting
I couldn't have said it better myself breakneckspeed :wink:.
A certian Mr Lupton got me into the darkside and I've never looked back.
brooss has it about right I'd guess.
I've been clocking up the road miles on the mtn bike.
I've been commuting in London since October last year and in January this year I moved to a SS 42:16, and by god have I noticed the difference.
I'm much fitter, can climb a lot better - bizarre considering I ride in London mostly - and erm have much better endurance.
