[Closed] What training do you do?

I butchered a training program from the Merida marathon site and also raced Gorrick Spring series to keep up the speed it worked for me. Got 13th at the English National marathon champs 100km and a few other good results in my first season of racing.
It worked up to my first event (Wiggle enduro 6) and then have just raced since with little structured training.
Getting out and building a good base through the winter (no matter the weather) is key IMHO.

coopersport - with the base i've built up this year i'll be peaking in 2019. 😀

The moment i stop enjoying riding I'll get off the bike! Get out and ride! I have had a few why the f***k am I doing this moments during 6hr enduros but still enjoy my riding.
6 months in the desert on a turbo my change that this year though!

Goan - if you are really interested in training, then take a serious look at The Mountain Bikers Training Bible. its all in there.

basicly it comes down to long slow rides in the winter, and then getting in more and more hard efforts, mixed with sprints and all out lung busting leg burning back breaking intervals... requires you to commit to 500+ hours of training per year and if you have a partner/wife/husband then they'll wonder why they are shacked up with a boring self obsessed freak.

but it's great fun.

This could be quite an interesting thread as I have realised that I should probably start getting out on the bike a bit more and rather than just 'riding' I should probably create some kind of structure.
I bought a guide to training a while back by John Metcalf I think. It's pretty heavy reading & not very useful if you don't have a HRM. I haven't got round to buying one yet.

I intend though to first of all just ride more, as once a week only just about maintains my level, but does nothing to improve it. When I do get out, I think I will be aiming to do:
1 long, slowish ride per week
1 shorter, faster effort
1 interval session.

Slightly OT, but how important are recovery drinks in all of this. I was looking at them yesterday and they are really expensive if you use them all the time. Torq recovery costs £35 and lasts between 10-20 servings depending on your weight. Asusme 15 servings then......that's only going to last 5 weeks. And then there's the cost of energy drink & gel on top of that. It could all start to get quite pricey.

Coffee, cake and riding a bit. Possibly peaked years ago/wont ever peak.

how important are recovery drinks in all of this.

Milkshakes. Get some Nesquik powder which will make loads of drinks. Scientifically proven too.

I've started to increase my training lately as I see little point going to all the trouble of entering and preparing for a race only to finish near the back.

I'm doing two sessions on the turbo at the moment, one Sunday club ride on the road 50-70 miles at 18-19mph average and one session on the roads riding some decent'ish hills.

when you're just starting out training to a structure with 3 or so rides a week, recovery drinks are no use at all. well, they are, but they're just a very expensive way of getting calories down your kneck. At that level you're much better off having a light carb and protein based snack immediately after training (say a milkshake and banana) then a meal within an hour or two (the longer you leave it, the more snacks you're going to need).

there's so much you could write on the subject of training, it might be worth getting a book.

i also wouldn't bother with energy gels and the like unless you're doing a lot of training each week at essentially just needing to keep a stream of calories going in through the hatch all day.

boring road rides twice a week plus occasional commute. trail riding whenever i feel like it. spinning classes in the winter twice a week and weight training twice a week. also lots of xc skiing in the winter (but i live in Norway so thats easy)

**** me that training bible book is £18 😯 Yes I am a tight wad.

HRM makes a huge difference to me mate, I use it when "training" on the meridas etc. lets me see ho |I'm doing as well as feeling, so I dont go out too fsat in the keep up with the nine stone chap in lycra on the 19lbs carbon HT!! NOt that I can 🙄

I have a Polar CS300 brilliant bit of kit it will also pair with a speed and cadence sensor as well. It fits on the bars on an adaptor and is a handy time telling device!!(ie its a wrist watch!!) Good post though its hard to find good info with out being over whlemed by techie info.

I also like the merida programme as a start point too. IT's just the time really two kids under two so not a lot of it but they are only small for a short time so I'll put my peak off!!!!!

kuco - that's a small price to pay for something that's potentially going to make you a lot quicker. It's a FAR better investment than energy drinks etc..!!!! or 18 quid of petrol to get you to a ride or....

It's quite a good book, but not revolutionary. A lot of the stuff is common sense frankly. You can go online to find exercises. It presses the importance of 'periodisation' so breaking your season into 4 week blocks.

I do around 10-15 hours most weeks, at least 1 decent 3-4hr ride, more if I can, preferably on the MTB. Some high cadence intervals, a road race or time trial or something, some short very high intensity flat intervals or hill reps, depending on the profile of the next race etc. You need to mix it up.

Recovery drinks are not particularly crucial, but do help, as do things like compression tights.

You need to base to actually get strong from though, which means long steady miles over winter, you'll struggle to build speed without a good base fitness.

Frankly, you can do a lot worse than just riding your bike as much as you can!

Yeah I know CP. Play do it for £13 but wait 10-15 days or get it tomorrow of Amazon for £18

Sounds like my best bet is over winter is to do some long steady rides to get a decent base built.

Yep!

a winter base with some interval training and increased in the spring makes all the difference. I used a SS for interval/high cadence training - went mtbing with guys on gears so spun like a loon !

I got the winter base in this year(cycle touring round nz) but didnt get the interval training in due to injury and its bit me in the arse all season when i go to sprint - feel like im just getting up to race speed now !

I think that I will not bother with the recovery drinks. I did think that a milkshake & a banana immediately after will probably do a good enough job for the moment.
I've drank Mars Refuel on weekends away before and it seems to help reduce that heavy legs feeling the day after your first ride. And it tastes bloody lovely!!

Me and a mate are doing some interval sessions tonight. Am actually looking forward to it! Takes me back to my running days.

To start with, just ride within your limits, gradually building up the miles you do. Do this at about 65-70% of max heart rate. A good time to do this is through the winter. Do maybe one or two long rides a week, with a couple of shorter ones and remember to leave days for recovery. Endurance takes weeks to build up so be patient.

Once you have built up a decent endurance, this can be maintained with just one longer ride a week. Then get some structured stuff going. Work on your power, muscular endurance and anaerobic stuff with a mix of long and short intervals. Do maybe one hour a week of really intense intervals on the roads or a turbo. Look at your weaknesses and spend time doing workouts that combat the problems (i.e. poor climber= hill repeats).

Then just enter some races and see how you do.

Once you increase the workload of training, the recovery drinks will start to become useful. The Torq ones really do work.

I've never really got my head around HR zones by max HR, 70% of my max would be around 145 bpm, at which point I'm barely moving! I do most short intervals at >90% MHR, my average HR over a 10 mile TT last night was 96% of MHR.

I define my zones by knowing what is realistic, seems to work for me.

njee20

by your max HR do you mean your actual Max, or your max value based on your age and gender?

The former is much more useful, as the latter is usually very conservative

njee you need to be at % on hrrange not max (hrr=hrm-hrrest)

so for me max=200 rest=40 hrr=160 there fore 70%=112+40=152. 😀

my max attained when running is 209 my max on the bike is 200....i work my zones out using 209 as max

Goans basefitness/milage is astronomical - trust me ....

I found The Mountain Bikers Training Bible to be hard going,it's fine if have loads of free time,but not much good if you have a family etc &tuime is limited.A far better book imo is Performance Cycling by David Morris,it just tells you what you need to know & has a useful well thought out 22 week training plan to it.
It's cheaper too 8)

by your max HR do you mean your actual Max, or your max value based on your age and gender?

Actual. I'm 23, so my theoretical max is what 199? I averaged more than that last night in the TT.

Not really thought of doing your 'HR range' that's a bit more like it, but still puts 70% of my MHR below the pace I easily managed for a 12 hour solo!

Fairly irrelevant, I've got zones which work for me, was just commenting more than anything.

Joe Friel's Training bible is a good book, did find it a bit tough to understand at first but once I had read through and got a basic understanding of what was being said I was away. You will need a HR monitor to get the most from it though as a lot of the sessions require you to ensure you are in the correct zone for the session your are intedning to do.

The best way of training is using a powertap and training by power and comparing it to HR. Just unfortunate that they cost a bomb and Cycleops haven't even finished designing one which can be used with disc brakes!

Might try and blag one off the university some time...

Aye Trail_Rat, my base mileage is OK I suppose. 😉

on the other hand its a shame about his speed work !

tombell http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=39932 just need to win the lottery

T_R - It was the lack of RAD SKILLZ (TM)) that held me back for a bit there, but they seem to have returned now. My speed endurance is ok, its the top end speed that isn't quite what it could be.

Someone that knows about these things told me that there are many great mountain bikers out there that make crap racers. How do I avoid being a crap racer..

my max attained when running is 209 my max on the bike is 200....i work my zones out using 209 as max

If your max is 200 on the bike, then you should work out your zones based on that, not your running max.

If you were doing running training, then your zones will be different as your max changes between different sports/activities.

Have been training for the last 10 weeks for a C2C from very unfit.

Started at a 15 mile Sunday road ride increasing 5 miles a week to 50 miles. Also Tuesday & Thursday 10 miles increasing to 20 miles at fast pace. Or if it's pouring down an hour on the turbo at 150 bpm.

Changed the mid weeks sessions to intervals riding or turbo after I hit about 500 miles to either 1min / 3min or 3min / 3min @ 135 - 165 - 135, my max being 180.

Have seen some massive drops in average HR, and since starting the intervals am actually enjoying hills. Average speed is consistently up 1/2 mph a week.

Sundays were tiring till recently, have also been taking a break every 4 weeks.

Think I can manage without the speedo and HRM now but was really useful to begin with.

you just mean your bike was the wrong shape and size goan ....

matt -read many different theorys but i can sit at 195bpm for most of a spin class so i dont doubt my max on the bike is higher than 200 but i just cant push it there for my legs wanting to blow up. that is my reasoning for basing my max on my running max

tinribz has the right idea for what hes doing !

Holy cow Tinribz! That sounds like what I should be doing!!

Well, did my first interval session this evening......already feel faster 😉

Do you commute? Easy way to get the base miles in - if I just ride straight to and from work every day I get 150kms/week. Add in w/end rides (actually on the MTB) I get around 200kms thru winter.

Down under, we are getting into spring now, so starting to take the long way home couple times a week to increase the mileage and ride the MTB to work and go for a ride from work too.

Unfortunately, the boring hill reps and intervals have to be done to really get race fitness. Try to find a good route to keep them interesting - ideally a partner is good for this as the competition between you will give the incentive to keep it up i.e. "got beat him up this hill today", "gotta outsprint him this time", etc

the R&R/week off has to be down to let your body actually benefit - 4th week is good, can spread to 6th week as you get stronger/fitter, but if you feel crappy (not just tired, but like you can't do anything let alone ride) before that, listen to your boday and take a few days off, and make sure you eat well to get over the hump.

Also, make sure you don't do all your rides based on Road/HRM - it's easy to get disillusioned and bored, plus MTB skills need to be trained just as much as fitness does - too many people neglect them; no point being able to cruise up hill at only 60bpm @ 30km/hr only to go down at 180bpm @ 20km/hr cos you are crapping your pants at how "hard" the descent is cos you've got so used to everything being flat tarmac. sounds obvious, but...

If i'm doing a bike only race/event then i'll still do some other stuff to make sure I am not just riding but the basic rule of training specific to your event holds.
For a major multisport race I'll be knocking on 30-35 hours a week for the 2 big weeks I have planned and a light week is about 18. Adventure race season its a bit less scientific - loads and loads and loads of incredibly long treks (20h+) with immense amounts of climbing carrying a decent pack loaded with red wine and coal (for the hut fire of course).
However for bike stuff i'd echo the commute comment for time in the legs in winter. Put in some short intervals every now and then. Then start to put together a bit more structure. Also do some non-biking core work as well as while its no cardio it will significantly help. Base miles cannot ever be underestimated, as can being well rested and not overtraining. Its taken me about 8 years now of racing to get to the point where I don't over train !

matt -read many different theorys but i can sit at 195bpm for most of a spin class so i dont doubt my max on the bike is higher than 200 but i just cant push it there for my legs wanting to blow up. that is my reasoning for basing my max on my running max

I'd say your right and your max will be higher than 200, in which case its worth doing another max test. No point training to zones if you know they might be out.

Nowt too structured.
Aiming to go well in the 'Grand Masters' next year.
Basically I train every day, something like this.
Sun; Long & fast road ride
Mon; XC run
Tue; MTB 2 hours, a mix of fun fast and techy.
Wed; MTB long distance
Thu; XC run
Fri; XC run
Sat; am short fast MTB. pm xc run
Etc etc.

I don't commute on the bike. The problem I have is it's 60 miles each way.

I have identified some villages that look OK to park the car in & cycle the rest of the way, but I haven't got round to doing that yet!

Do you not get knackered from never having days off oldgit!? I have to have at least one day of not riding/running.

If I suffer any problems it's usually Thursday and Friday that give.
I find that cycling, especially the long ride irons out any aches or pains. But basically that schedule is for when I've no other commitments.

I think also that because I've been doing both on and off since the early seventies and never suffered any 'issues' as a consequence of cycling and running it has become the norm. I suppose I've been lucky, I've seen guys come and go over the decades. That said I'm not a contender.

100k round trip (very hilly)commute 5 days a week - sometimes substitute for a drive and an MTB ride after work.