The Dude

I have been mountainbiking for about 2 years, but never really with a trainingprogram. I've basicly just been out riding as fast as I can, but now I've made a heart rate program to take a more scientific aproach. This is how I train.

The program is for 8 weeks. The first week with only 6 hours training, and the last with 9. Week 5 is an easy week.

Basicly I do 3 trainings a week. One training is about one hour long with 1,5 min intervalls at 90% heart rate and rest for about 5 min at 60-70% heart rate. The second training is about 1-2 hours with 5 min intervalls at 80% heart rate and 5 min rest at 60-70% heart rate. The last training is a distance run on 3-5 hours with 70-80% heart rate.

Do you guys think this sounds as a good training program? All comments are welcome!

Snowplug

It all depends what you are training for.

If your goal is to just stay fit and enjoy riding, your programme is fine. If you have other goals however, let me know and I will try to help.

Keep spinning,

Snowplug

The Dude

Snowplug, thanks for answering.

Well I guess you could say my trainingprogram is a little bit beyond just staying fit. I have been doing some races and would like to improve. The races have mostly been rather long races (about 4-5 hours).

Does that make you wanna change the program?

Snowplug

Dude

Good training programmes, need to consider quite a bit about the individual, his training background and exactly which specific goals he has in mind. The time frame when these goals are to be achieved is just as important. It is therefore difficult to give you good advice, but I will try.

First some assumptions:

You only work out on the bike, three times a week, right? There is no strength training with weights.

By training three times a week only, your training days are spaced properly, with rest days in between. This means you can mostly recover fully for each training session.

If you have been riding for two years, you have established a reasonable base and you have not had a layoff recently.

With the above background, muscular endurance is most probably your biggest weakness. This means turning a relatively high gear, at a reasonable cadence, up a hill, during a MB race, for enough time to stay with the riders in front.

You are now in the season where you will be participating in races, until the end of fall and you wish to improve.

OK, if my assumptions are correct, I suggest the following:

Your first training of the week is OK, but try and extend the interval times towards five minutes each, doing approximately six intervals. Gradually build up to 95% of your max HR at the end of each interval. Rest between intervals, until your heart rate returns to 65%. Try to make the intervals a bit longer every week.

With a good base, you should be fully recovered for your second training session, as you would have rested one or two days. Try doing pyramid intervals. They are 1-,2-,3-,4-,3-,2-,1- minutes, building to 95% max HR. The recovery after each is equal to the preceding interval. Mix this session with some good MB riding practice, ie. corners, rough terrain etc. following the completion of your pyramid intervals.

I assume your third and last training session is over the weekends. The best you can do here is keep the hours the same, but try and ride with a group, where you can challenge the other riders at times, really pushing your HR high. Try to get your strength (hills) and speed (sprints) training during these sessions.


Dude, I hope this helps, but for the amount of time you are putting into this, you may as well invest in a good book on Mountain Bike Training. Have a look at Amazon.com, there are a few good ones.

Best of luck,

Snowplug.