DaveSC

Bought my wife and I mountain bikes recently and we have been hitting it pretty hard. One thing we are noticing fairly quickly is that we have vastly different riding styles. She rides almost every day but only a few miles on paved trails. I ride only a few days a week but I ride more miles and much more climbing on MTB trails. We are lucky to have both types of trails close enough to our house that we can ride either from our driveway.

She expends roughly 300 calories/ride and rides again the next day.
I expend roughly 1500-2000 calories/ride and need a day or 2 recovery. (I am a lot heavier)

I enjoy the hell out of dirt trails with technical challenges and adrenaline inducing switchbacks but I feel like it makes some sense to get opinions on whether I should keep killing myself a few times a week or if I should chill out and put more miles on the crank.

chasm54

What are you trying to accomplish?

digibud

The research is clear on which is more healthy. Cardio improvement comes in response to stressing your body and a half hour of short bursts of high intensity work is much better for you than hours of low intensity riding. That said, if you don't enjoy hard workouts, something is better than nothing. Nice you can each ride in a style you enjoy.

chasm54

Actually, I don't believe this is correct. The research is not clear on which is more healthy. The research is pretty clear on the fact that high intensity training will get you fitter. But whether it is healthier to be super-fit than merely fit is a moot point.

And even if your goal is to be as fit as you can be, there is a lot to be said for building a big aerobic base by doing a lot of hours at moderate intensities, as this gives you the capacity to recover better and therefore tolerate a bigger training load when you begin to incorporate the high-intensity stuff.

DaveSC

I am trying to lose weight ultimately but right now my goal is to get to a point where I can be more physically active.

chasm54

OK. The first thing to say is that digibud is right to stress the enjoyment factor. If you enjoy it, you'll keep doing it, and whatever is "best" is of secondary importance.

The second thing is that getting fit will help you lose weight. It isn't just the calories you burn through exercise, it is that you'll raise your metabolism, have more energy, be more active in general.

So if you're into getting fit, I'd say riding three or four times a week to a level that tires you out is a good strategy. Your wife's shorter, less intense, daily rides will do her good, but your slightly less frequent but more challenging stuff will produce faster results.

Just one word of caution. If you are using a HR monitor to tell you how many calories you are burning, you need to know that their calculations are unreliable and most of them overstate your calorie consumption. For me, at 195lbs, I have to go pretty hard to burn 800kcal per hour.

DaveSC

Thanks, I get what your saying.

On the calories I have tried monitoring a few diff methods and now I just use endomondo's calculations. I figure as long as I stick with the same tool it's simply a yardstick.
I am beating the hell out of myself to do 700-900 kcal/hr at 250LB.

chasm54

Sounds about right. Absolutely flat out, at the highest effort I can maintain for a one-hour TT effort, I'm nudging up towards 1000kcal and am dead at the end.

TrojanHorse

I think what digibud is saying is correct but he's talking about cardiovascular health, not necessarily muscular fitness - so keeping your ticker & associated parts happy requires a half hour of exercise per day (and not particularly strenuous either)

If you are trying to lose weight, you probably need to blend your wife's style with yours... go hard one day and then do some recovery rides on the path. I personally seem to respond better to more frequent exercise rather than infrequent but hard. So even if you go for a 2 mile walk on your day "off" you're probably better off than not doing anything.

Mess around and see what works best for you.

clarkbre

I agree with this statement. Getting into cycling last year, I found that I enjoyed it more just having it as part of my daily activities. If I was going for a ride, to the store, or to pick up my son from daycare, I would make a point to do it on my bike. After a month or so, I found the weight was falling off and it didn't feel like I was straining my body too much at all. The other component was as I was dropping weight, I was getting more in shape so it made cycling faster and farther easier. Either way you go, pedaling your bicycle is going to be good for you.

WonderMonkey

I don't think it matters, whatever gets you out there. If you are looking to spend some biking time with the wife go out with her a few times. Could you still go mountain biking doing that?

Or get a tandem and you be on the back and make her do all the work. Your recovery time = zero.

EDIT: For health purposes I would suggest the more consistent outings.

c_m_shooter

I do best if I ride every day. Which means lots of road miles and 1 or 2 days that I get to actually go ride trails. I can still do an easy road ride on a recovery day after a hard trail ride.

IBOHUNT

Nice FTP! I dob me lid to you sir.
Best I got is ~860kcal and then I need a couch bad.

My answer to the OP question is to do both. Easy days, which need to be easy and then hard days to stress the system.

Now, if I could just sort the aerobic decoupling mess.
How in the world can you go on a 90 minute ride with an avg power of 208W; HR = Z2 and have -11% decoupling? Really Joe F.?

DaveSC

Some good advice in here. I think I am going to try to ride more often and see what happens.

TrojanHorse

+1. I guess I need to ride more.

FrenchFit 

I agree, but my money is betting on the long term studies indicated that the hi intensity, super-fit have a rude awakening 5-20 years down the road. My guess, it's a short term fitness strategy at best with negative implications later.

chasm54

The evidence so far is confusing. There have been studies showing that long-term endurance athletes may have a higher incidence of scarring to the heart muscle that becomes evident in later life. But they were talking about marathon runners, ironman participants, pro cyclists. On the other hand there have been studies that show that those who exercise intensively enjoy longer lives, and retain greater functionality into old age, than those who don't.

So like everything else, it may vary with the individual. My guess is that very few people here are at risk of taking things to those sort of extremes, and that either strategy will keep most of us alive a lot longer than if we just sat around. So I'll take my chances.

Myosmith

Don't overthink it. Any ride is a good ride and the more you enjoy it, the more likely you are to stick with it. People get hung up on the "best" way to ride. Asking what is the "best" way to ride is like asking what is the "best" food to eat. There are many, many aspects to health and fitness so there is no one "best" way to accomplish everything. Each riding style has its benefits. I think its good to mix things up a bit to get the benefits from multiple styles of riding. Do some hammering hill repeats one day, a long steady endurance ride on the weekend, thrash MTB trail, go on a picnic cruise with the family, take the fat tires out in the snow or on the beach, pick a fast club ride to challenge yourself, whatever . . . just keep it fun and interesting.

Ride lots . . . Have fun . . . Stay physically and mentally healthy

Lazy Dog

Continue to mix it up and listen to your body. There are days where my legs feel fresh/strong and I'll decide in the middle of the ride to take on some tough hills, extend my mileage or pick up my pace. Then there are those days where my legs are burning right away and I simply back off and treat myself to a recovery day. Lastly, there are those days where I wake up sore or tired after a hard workout and I simply skip my ride entirely for that day and pick it up the following day after some rest. I think that if you settle into the same routine everyday and do the same route, duration and pace, your body will start to accommodate and you won't experience the benefits you want. Keep switching it up and mentally you will enjoy it more and you'll, in a sense, keep your body guessing.

chasm54

I see things have moved on a bit since the days when you didn't understand HR-based training. Aerobic decoupling? Whoo.

IBOHUNT

With an FTP value as poor as mine, which is 50W lower then the next worse guy that I regularly ride with, I have to try and learn what I need to do to get better. I'm tired of being spat off the back at what I used to think of stupid fast speeds.

I'll probably just go get a tattoo on my left arm "On your Right!". Dag gum old ladies and their walkers!

chasm54

LOL. You just need to remember how you were twelve months ago, and keep doing what you're doing. It's all good, you'll continue to improve.

That's what I keep telling myself, anyway...

Wooden Tiger

Longer or tougher. Hmmm, that's a good question. How'bout longer AND tougher?

I guess I'll go against what everyone is saying and just say that if you wanna lose weight, you'll lose weight either way. IMO, I'd lose weight in the fashion I most enjoyed, and for you it seems to be MTBing. That's not to say you shouldn't do any road riding as your wife prefers, but maybe just kinda switch it up from time to time. That way, both of you can ride together and be happy.

digibud

why? I'm not sure what the downside to better cardio fitness would be. I think the rude awakening is that many of us, including me, get in some serious training here and there and build good cardio but still end up spending endless hours sitting at a computer. I'm not sure how smart that is...I personally am working to incorporate some HIIT into my longer rides which is easy for me because there's almost nothing local that doesn't involve some decent hill work and all I have to do is push just a little harder to move from 80% of my max HR into anaerobic territory.
I'm very curious as to your last sentence and what makes you think that. 20 years down the line I'll probably be drooling and mistaking my great grand daughter for my daughter .

FrenchFit 

Well, I'll admit it is anecdotal bull, but I 'pushed just a little harder' playing tennis in my twenties and ended up needing knee surgery in my forties, 'pushed a little harder' windsurfing in my thirties/forties and now have shoulder problems in my sixties. I have no regrets, but I would not be advising my kids to 'push a little harder' with their cardio development. I don't think going anaerobic is any big deal, but consistently banging against your limits as a weekend warrior, I think that is short-term focus. My daughter crewed in college, but her cardio performance was the result of careful training, monitoring and development, it wasn't get on an MTB on a Saturday and throw yourself at hills until you puke. Cardio development is done carefully, not recklessly.

And, for any coaches of young athletes out there, if you see a kid flagging out there in soccer, distance running, rowing, etc. you do not tell them to HTFU, you pull them out and allow them to recover. Good advice for adults as well.