Enduro Training Programmes

hi all

I’ve ridden a few enduro races in the last 18 months from Mini Enduro and Enduro1 to ArdRock and King & Queen. Really enjoying the racing (although I am not quick and regularly in the bottom 25%) and it’s pushing me to riding trails I would have never even considered a couple of years ago.

Looking at next year I’m thinking about a few different races but want to improve both in fitness and riding ability so am looking for recommendations for what training people suggest.

I’ve already done a couple of courses with ProRideGuides and some tuition is definitely going to be in there as well as gym stuff.?!

What do people recommend?

Thanks

Race xc and work on the technical stuff

Well, a bit of googling with cough up some companies that are willing to give you a coach, 1to1 consult, training plan, or some combination of the above.
But it sounds to me like from your starting point like you can probably make some significant gains with some self coaching.

As always, i’d recommend getting a copy of Friel’s training bible, it will teach you the basics of building a training plan etc

As for what to do, you need to break the discipline down into its constituent parts:
A) Enough basic endurance to get round both practice and race day and not be dead on the bike by the last stage.
B) Short intense efforts ranging from 5s to 5mins
C) Technical skills

So then onto how to achieve those things:
A) Enduros don’t typically require too much endurance, as the number of kilometers covered don’t tend to be too long, and theres plenty of time to rest and ride slowly during transitions. A 3-4hr easy paced ride most weekends should have you covered in this regard.
B) You don’t need to make prolonged hard efforts like in Road/TT/XC. Your longest efforts are likely to be a couple of mins up a fire road linking singletrack sections. Short hard intervals a couple of times a week, probably better done on the road.
C) Keep 1 session a week for technical riding, sessioning things you find tricky etc.

Andy’s advice is spot on, make your training specific to your event. There are a lot of resources available to help you do this.

Free resources (if you want to spend time looking around and building a training programme – may take some trial and error):

1. GMBN have done a number of videos covering intervals, building a base, various gym exercises and intervals.
2. Dan Atherton Enduro Training Tips – google this for a bike based training plan
3. Forums!
4. Blogs and website articles – just google mountain bike training and sift through

Paid resources (ready made plan, day by day, step by step):

1. James Wilson has a number of programmes, I have used his kettlebell programme with success and am basing my winter training this year on his ultimate programme. Recommended for building the strength side of things. Less cardio intensive though.
2. Various other plans are available e.g. EnduroMtbTraining, TrainingPeaks etc.

Advantage of the paid route is that all the research is done for you but you must commit to it. Usually they require three evening sessions and a weekend ride at a minimum to really get the benefit and it can be hard to keep that up over an extended period.

Advantage of the free workout is that you can build up a programme on your own which suits your lifestyle.

Either way my advice would be to have a weekly plan (which you update in 4-8 week blocks).

As a starting point you could follow Dan Atherton’s plan, for one/two days a week (can be done outside or on a turbo trainer/spin bike), then add one strength day and one technical riding day for your bike skills:

E.G.:
Mon: Dan’s plan – on the bike session
Tue: Rest
Wed: Strength training – take exercises from forum or GMBN etc. (make sure you get technique right and maybe invest in a couple of personal trainer sessions if unsure)
Thur: Dan’s plan – on the bike session
Fri: Rest
Sat: Technical ride – basically your usual weekend ride but try and pick a challenging route or even a location where you know enduro races take place
Sun: Rest

It is always beneficial to get lots of stretching in (yoga on pinkbike can be good) and make sure you warm up/cool down etc. If you feel you need less rest days you could add in an extra strength session but be wary of overtraining.

Let us know how you get on!

Ard rock?

Sprint, sprint, and sprint again. Then, after you’ve got your round in, repeat until you boak.

Its meant to be fun, do you really want to train to have fun?
Drink a bit less beer and eat a bit less chocolate on the run up to the race perhaps?

Drink a bit less beer and eat a bit less chocolate on the run up to the race perhaps?

How is that more fun?

How is that more fun?

That isnt fun, but as a non professional, thats about as much training as I would be prepared to put in 🙂

Hence why I dont enter enduro anymore, cant be doing with all that cycling up hills.

trainerroad is v easy to use on the turbo and has a gravity training plan which would get you properly shaped up – some vicious interval sequences.

Practice riding some technical trails while your heart rate is already near max for the mid stage sprints.
Sticking to the right line is much harder to do when you’re ****ed

Increasing core strength & conditioning can make a massive difference to technical riding (and life in general), especially if you are a desk jockey rather than a manual worker.

It is one of those things that you are told, forget/ignore and then, many years later, when you do finally get around to working on your core strength, you think,
“Why, oh why didn’t I do this years ago????”

Start off with simple bodyweight exercises a couple of times per week. variations on Pressups, planks, pullups, squats, lunges, skipping and the like rather than focussing on “abs” exercises like crunches.

Vary your riding, with hard efforts, and become comfortable/relaxed on technical terrain -good core strength will assist with this.

ps. Do try to avoid over-training. I fell into this trap earlier this year and felt tired a lot. Get a lot of sleep.

Thanks guys, some much appreciated tips

I know Intervals is going to feature in this 😥 but then no pain no gain. Someone also suggested learning to ride flats rather than clips so will see how much skin I have left on my shins after that too!!

I know Intervals is going to feature in this but then no pain no gain. Someone also suggested learning to ride flats rather than clips so will see how much skin I have left on my shins after that too!!

You can make intervals more interesting and relevant as well – fire road sprints into tech sections as fast as possible, conditions the brain & body a bit into what a race is actually like & trying to ride fast, hard stuff whilst hanging is a great exercise.

Wouldn’t worry about the pedal thing. Ride whatever you feel comfortable with. Flats or clips is fine. If you’re good enough, or fit enough they really don’t make a difference (as a certain Sam Hill has proven this year).

You can make intervals more interesting and relevant as well – fire road sprints into tech sections as fast as possible, conditions the brain & body a bit into what a race is actually like & trying to ride fast, hard stuff whilst hanging is a great exercise.

Whilst i think that’s great advice, it may be something to do in the late build or peak stages of training to make it more race specific, however from a physical perspective it can lower the quality of the interval session, so i’d stick to road/turbo/fire road to start with.

It depends just how geeky you want to get, i love reading about different approaches to sports training and you can go so far down the rabbit hole 🙂

A couple of books for you to look at Functional fitness andMaffetone

Also have a look at this website The Tall Cyclist[/url]

I know none of them are enduro race specific but if you can understand the basics of why you train a certain way for certain sports then you can apply that knowledge to your situation.

There is definitely something to be said for improving your base of all-round fitness rather than purely cycling/mountain biking fitness.