I took my mountain bike on some quiet back roads around the Baldock / Royston (NE Herts) area today for 3hrs and really enjoyed it.
I was wondering: those who use road riding / training and off-road riding, do you find the road work benefits you in a way the off-road riding doesn't?
I'm looking to build up my base fitness and thought today's ride of 3hrs pretty much constant cycling really felt good; it's not something I've ever done before but perhaps I should be building in a road ride every week based on this lunchtime's ride.
i have started doing this over the last couple of weeks.
i feel a lot better alrady.
to go out and ride 4 hrs constant offroad is a pretty hard thing to do, even in a good area.
a lot of stop start riding.
i rode 4 hours today with 1 x 5 minute stop.
The main benefit is the lack of mud to clean post-ride. I ride singlespeed on the roads to try and get some exercise from it, I live in a pretty flat part of the world, east herts.
I find that road riding helps increase overall aerobic fitness. This translates into better stamina and quicker ascents when on the MTB.
I also find that MTB-ing does absolutely nothing to help my road biking - in fact it somehow seems to set me back.
Most definately.
Though I'm training on my cross bike with a road section before and after an off road section. I feel very worked afterwards, however we'll soon see after my first road race of the year mid march
I find I pedal more and coast less on the road so get more excercise in a given time. I also get more riding in the same time as I go straight from my door and don't have tp clean the bike as much. As Ton says I did 4hours today and stopped once for <5minutes the rest of the time I was pedaling.
I also go out on my roadbike with the intention of it being hard work, on my mtb it's more about fun so sometimes I take it easy.
If you spend a lot of time on the road, you find that the MTB fitness improves, and previously tough climbs dont seem so bad. In fact you may find MTB gearing a bit wanting on less challenging offroad.
I dont agree about less time cleaning though, roadbikes just get a different sort of dirty. Instead of nice clean earthy mud, they get covered in a fine patina of fine grit,(car) brake dust, oil and various corrosive substances such as salt.
Unlike harmless MTB dirt, it HAS to be removed as soon as.
Road biking especially if you include some intensive interval work is great for the mountain biking. Add a few cyclocross races as well and you will really notice the difference
OK.
That's pretty much how I feel about today's ride.
I'll add some 3+hrs into the Base Fitness schedule.
Cheers
Its a great way to build/maintain fitness, straight out from your door and no need to mess about driving anywhere or getting muddy, often go for a quick hour ride with plenty of hills, or the odd 60 miler.
