sm266

Troll.

foehn

No troll. Just calling a turkey a turkey.

sm266

Not you!! The thread originator. The "I wanna kick butt at this race, but not put in the hard work" guy. Sorry for the confusion.

DXchulo

If you don't want to do any road miles you're going to have to find some kind of cardio workout that doesn't beat you up like MTB can. Running is pretty high impact, so you're pretty much stuck inside on a trainer, on a stationary bike, doing spinning classes, or on an elliptical trainer. There aren't really a whole lot of options.

If you really want to kick ass make a commitment and do something. Your current program just won't cut it.

enduro

Haha, this is funny

I'm a mountain biker, and I love really technical trails...but sometimes it's cool to just GO for miles and miles. What you should do is find a really popular road bike route, take your mountain bike, and try to keep up with the hardcore roadies. Yes, it's hard with 35 lbs of full suspension and knobbies or whatever you have, but it's a good workout and it's a challenge. Why are you against road miles? You say it's boring. But you seem to like racing. So try an impromptu race with a roadie. They don't even have to know you're racing them.

fastequalsfun

Okay, okay, okay. Let's start over. I just realized a few things, one being that you all are much more serious competitors than I am, and another being that I didn't give you near enough information to help me out.

So let's start over. Okay.

I am a 30-year-old female, who works 8-10 hours a day sitting at a desk. I race sport class, but I usually only do one (MAYBE two) races per year, mostly because I'm busy and I don't make the time to enter races with any regularity. The race I want to start training for (starting January) is the Downieville Classic. And when I say "kick ass," I don't mean WIN (although that would be fabulous!) I mean finish the race in under 3 hours. You guys have probably done the Downieville XC race before, but for anyone who hasn't it's basically 3000 feet of climbing (mostly non-technical, but some spots are tricky) followed by 4000 feet of downhill (starting out VERY technical, but getting easier and easier until it finishes on swoopy, buffed-out, sloppy-grin-inducing singletrack).

The reasons I don't want to do any road miles mainly boil down to the fact that I don't have a lot of time to ride, so when I DO go out and ride, I don't want to spend the bike time doing something I don't enjoy. Also, I live in a very traffic-congested area, with narrow roads that have no shoulders, so it's dangerous and scary, and not that much fun. For me, personally.

My main issue with the Downieville race is technical skill. I have great cardio, and although I've only done the race twice, I didn't bonk either time. I know I still need to ride a lot and put in the miles just because it's a long, tiring race (30 miles), but I'm going to spend most of my training (as soon as it gets warm/light enough to ride outside) working on technical skill. Which leaves me with a base to build. A base that will not include road miles.

So I guess my question is two-fold: Part A) Will riding longer rides on easy dirt do what I want it to do for this particular race? Part B) Should I really get my nipples pierced?

Thanks!
fastequalsfun

teamawe

Part A) Yes. Base building/cardio work will ensure that you have more then enough aerobic capacity to hammer the whole ride without running out of gas. Never seen someone over conditioned for a race. =) As for the technical parts of the race, do you do weight work in the gym to strengthen your upper body?

Part B) DEFINATLY!!!!!!!!!

cryptid01

bac

I just spit up my drink!

noisebeam

I believe that non-technical riding improves technical. Here is what I have found. I used to ride only trails. I took a break from that then rode only on road, a hard and fast 9mi commute x2 each day. I started riding trails again and found my biking handling to be much improved. It is hard to explain, but I think even though riding on flat pavement with stop and starts and corners of course you still develop a tight feel and the sub-concious reactions and balance for bike handling that translates to better dirt trail riding. Part of it too course is core strength. All I know is that I can ride the same trails very well now that I had trouble with before (not endurance or strength trouble) and the only training in the interm was on the road.

Maybe the roads are not as scary as you think?

How do you get to your desk job each day?

Al

fastequalsfun

Hey noisebeam.

You know, that is kind of true. I used to ride my bike twice a week to a job I had a few years ago. It was only maybe 4 or 5 miles each way, but I entered a very technical race that year and rode it better than I ever had before, and actually podiumed!! (first and only time in my life), and most of my bike miles consisted of only that commute. Very odd.

Currently, I work from home. Occassionally, my whole company meets about 12 miles away in our HQ office for a meeting or two, but that really only happens maybe once every 2 weeks, so I don't have the same regular commute anymore.

I agree with the other poster who asked me if I did weight training for upper body. (The answer is no, but I will definitely start in Jan, because my arms are w-e-a-k.) But what is this "core strength" you speak of? Like situps and stuff?

Thanks,
fastequalsfun

teamawe

Some here have mentioned doing core work. (think of the core as torso muscles). These work to keep your entire body stable and in control thru all activities. I mentioned working on your upperbody strength since these muscles tend to fatigue rather quickly when doing technical downhill's. The Olympic marathon bronze medalist (female) attributed part of her making the podium on her upper body work in the gym and its ability to help her keep up the turn over she put out. Imagine how much more work your arms, shoulders, back and chest go thru during a 3 hour mnt bike race. =)

Time in the saddle pays divedends even when you dont realize.