[Closed] Training tips. Help me improve

Ride more.

My ride time is near it's maximum for various reasons, having said that, riding more variety is a good way to improve so it's going on the list

Road bike for fitness.

Add a power meter and intervals (some reading required).

Assuming you aren’t already doing this?

Go on a skills day.

Get your body positioning for all trail occurrences dialed, pick riding locations that will force you to concentrate on particular aspects, rinse and repeat! Surprising how many people, myself included (I have to keep reminding myself), who have been riding for years but get the basics wrong or are not consistent.

Then all the obvious skills pumping, bunny hops, wheelies, manuals, drops, boosting jumps etc.....

What are you training for ? Is it for a race/s, or just to get better at riding ? If the second, then the advice above is all valid.

If the first, then you need a proper training plan and figure out when you need to be at your best. Lots of mixed sessions, targeted sessions working on different aspects, lots of rest and recovery (which is almost as important as riding) and good nutrition. And more rest and recovery.

Have fun...

Make your training rides very hard and your recovery rides very easy if you want to improve, things inbetween are junk miles that won't help you improve, even if they get you outdoors.

Find or build an area with jumps and drops. Something that is a bit scary and forces you to take on something a bit bigger than where you are now. Session it until it becomes second nature.

A skills course is OK for finding out if you are doing something wrong, but nothing is as good as doing something over and over so it becomes second nature and the muscle memory kicks in.

Improve what? What are you trying to ride? Fitness or technical skills?

Smart riding, so as above - no junk miles. Session stuff. Ride with faster / better riders. Skills course.

Being efficent with your riding may mean using a road bike or set of rollers. That way you can get more riding in for the time you have.

Road riding is good when the trails are muddy, but its no good for skills. Rollers are good for intervals etc, but then you are getting serious as then you need a HRM and power meter etc.

Intervals and hill reps. Both are unpleasant if done well, both will read rewards.

I'm going to try some skills sessions, I keep considering it so may as well give it a go. I can mix that with a new place to ride perhaps.
I won't be road riding in the foreseeable, is the main benefit of that type of training, consistent controlled HR stuff? easily transferable to MTB?
Intervals. Is there a simple formula for how often you should be doing this type of training?
Working on Technique and body position is definitely going on the list, a crossover with the coaching sessions I guess
All round riding improvement is the aim but I would like the efficient training plan mixed in if that makes sense, with a large emphasis on fun if possible.

How would a normal training week look for some of you?

Real fitness training and fun are not bedfellows unless you are a weird masochist . You can do both, but not at the same time.

Get some skills training first so you have all the right techniques in your skill set. No point in practicing loads if you are doing the wrong things and imprinting them to muscle memory. Once you have the knowledge, lots of practice.

I like beasting hills for the interval stuff and I like long leisurely rides for the zone 2 stuff so couldn't I create a plan that does both to give me the rewards for the allround ride in the middle of those. I doubt that would be proper training but a nice balance that covers things I like.

Reading training manuals right now is not something I would look forward too, it is on my list, I'm hoping to shortcut some of the reading with some top tips from those who are already doing.

I won't be obsessing about the skills coaching stuff but it's on the list.

If you're basically aiming to get strong and skilfull on the mountain bike then you only need to do two things - ride your mountain bike a lot and ride with people who are better than you.

For the second thing if you don't have a current group of mates who are good then join a club - this is also an easy way into racing if you find you're getting stronger and want to get involved with that.

For a basic starter, get a HRM. A cheap watch and chest strap from Polar is fine. Then find your max and your resting HR. Then divide this into 6 equal zones. Google for info on this.

This will allow you to do intervals. Ride 5 mins in zone 2 (easy enough to keep up all day and chat) then 3 mins in zone 4 (sort of race pace). Repeat this for say 40 mins once or twice a week. It will make a massive difference. You can vary it a bit, but the aim is hard / easy, repeat.

Dont overcomplicate it, you can read lots of stuff about it, but just keep it simple.

Doing this on a MTB is actually difficult as its hard to find a climb thats long enough at a steady gradient to do that sort of structured riding. Thats why lots of riders end up doing it on a road bike.

I ride in the Chilterns and even there struggle to find a steady climb that actualy lasts 3-4 mins. Way too many variables off road.

I know it sounds like it should be true that training offroad more will make you faster at racing offroad, but it really isn't. Offroad knackers the body more, uses more muscle groups etc and is generally harder to recover from.

Road for long fitness training. Offroad for skills of course and a bit of both for intervals.

My coach back in the day set me an offroad intervals circuit - a hard technical climb and descent that took around 20 mins. Repeat until your lap time starts to deteriorate, never more than six. Complete day off the next day gentle the day after. This seemed to work well for me.

Fast roadie training groups for fitness, if you can find one with good etiquette and discipline that doesn't have knobbers in it.

Fartlek ! That is the word I was trying to remember. Now I do feel old.

Why do you need a steady climb that lasts 3 or 4 mins? sorry if that bit is obvious.

Intervals once a week is going on the list. Thanks.

I'm not a regular racer or trainer so treat this with that in mind, though I've done OK on self-developed training plans based on research and some good tips.

I won’t be road riding in the foreseeable, is the main benefit of that type of training, consistent controlled HR stuff? easily transferable to MTB?
Intervals. Is there a simple formula for how often you should be doing this type of training?

Road miles as Hels says, work cardio and legs without the overall beating of MTB. More able to hold a consistent effort level on longer rides. Gets the basics in tune, winter base or summer speed.
Intervals - I read about longer intervals for endurance ability and shorter for what I think of as road-race or reactive ability. I've only ever done 4-5 up to 15-20 minute intervals (over 12 week phases) and found them effective for steady, powerful climbing pace and raising my all-day base pace, but my reactive sprint is poor. Sprinty max HR intervals may change that depends on the ability you're after. It may be partly about our own physiology too, not sure - I seem to be more diesel than turbo petrol anyway. There is a training method based on 20 second max HR efforts that's meant to be effective but for my own reasons I've avoided work at that high an intensity so no experience of the effect.

Why do you need a steady climb that lasts 3 or 4 mins?

Simply that it seems to be a good time to hold a threshold / all-out intensity. Repeat until you start genuinely flagging, the last couple of efforts are the ones that tell you you've done enough.

All in all, more slow steady miles and some really hard, fast riding in an 80-20 or 90-10 mix is a good structure to change 'normal riding' into 'normal riding that gets you fitter'.

do not give the riding up. strange thing to say.

Thanks all.

Does anyone do anything specific when not riding?

@trumpton. the 25 year giving up comment was in jest. I will be well past my use by date by then.

Jameso's post is very accurate - I'm coached by a well recognised and successful outfit and its basically describing my plan right there.

My coach back in the day set me an offroad intervals circuit – a hard technical climb and descent that took around 20 mins. Repeat until your lap time starts to deteriorate, never more than six. Complete day off the next day gentle the day after. This seemed to work well for me.

I have this also for MTB specificity, ridden at different speeds depending on the requirement. I also use a flat firewood section to ride no-hands (balance/core/confidence) and a tight wobbly section through trees that I ride as fast as possible with no brakes to learn corning and carrying speed..

I am interested in some tips for all round riding improvement

What do you specifically want to achieve? How would you measure "all round riding improvement"?
No one can give you relevant advice until they know what your goals actually are.

Yep I can understand your point but I think the advice given is what I was looking for.
The more I think about it the more I like the vague 'improve your riding' training riding, training and riding are the same thing, much like food and dieting. There are extremes at both ends of the scale but most people would benefit from minor changes that are based on science. No need for specifics or goals just a journey of informed choices.
I don't want a fad diet or a 6 week mtb training plan but I would like to use the scientific knowledge and data to optimise my ride time over the rest of my riding days.