Fast mtb training rides?

[deja vu]

Originally Posted by Pat

Does anyone know of any fast mtb training rides during the week? Something that simulates racing?

Ive found plenty of road rides, but none yet for mountain bikes.

Anyone?

Did Pat find or start a fast group ride? I usually ride early mornings in OC, not sure if that would work or not. I'm up for some quick paced riding for sure. If there is anything going on let me know and I will try to make it.

There is a guy on Geoladders (Garret Garicia) who is starting up a Monday night ride at 5PM Blackstar to Sierra Peak and back, sub 2 hour pace (around 11 MPH avg) I've ridden with him and he is fast. I will make this ride for sure sometime. http://www.geoladders.com/schedule_p...hp?hilite=2517

[andy aka rut]

Originally Posted by Rivet

You're bothered by what I said but have no problem with the hate filled statement from Keith B? Interesting.

Sorry Rivet,

I know Keith and can expect that from him. I also know he is a dry humored guy from the other side of the pond. A crazy straight shooter with a since of humor like no other. I guess I was expecting you knew that too.

My apologies! No real harm meant. All in fun.

[aukmal]

Originally Posted by donkey

I usually do Blackstar on tuesday nights at what I would call my "endurance race" pace(~50 minutes from the bottom gate to the top).

I'm always looking for company.....come on out. I usually start pedalling at 4:30.

B

For those of you who are looking for options for fast paced rides, this ride with Donkey is a guaranteed solid ride. Take him up on his offer.

I've had the opportunity to ride with Donkey a couple of times and not only is it fun times, but I guarantee it'll be a good hard workout.

Check out the Cohutta 100 race results for the rider from the Path and you'll see what I mean...keep in mind, that finishing time was even after wallowing behind a large pack of slow riders for 15-miles on tight singletrack.

[andy aka rut]

Ha!!!

Fun??? Chasing down Brian on a fireroad is fun?? Are you kidding me? Brian is simply way too fast. Plan on leaving your lungs, quads and all the blood you own at the base of the climb, 'cause he will already be way out of site by then. The boys got big ol' motors in his legs!!!

Originally Posted by aukmal

For those of you who are looking for options for fast paced rides, this ride with Donkey is a guaranteed solid ride. Take him up on his offer.

I've had the opportunity to ride with Donkey a couple of times and not only is it fun times, but I guarantee it'll be a good hard workout.

Check out the Cohutta 100 race results for the rider from the Path and you'll see what I mean...keep in mind, that finishing time was even after wallowing behind a large pack of slow riders for 15-miles on tight singletrack.

[deja vu]

Originally Posted by aukmal

For those of you who are looking for options for fast paced rides, this ride with Donkey is a guaranteed solid ride. Take him up on his offer.....

When he said he got to blackstar in 44 minutes he caught my attention. I have broken 50 but haven't since. See ya tuesday!!

[bighit8]

Im not real fast but a steady climber, I would like to jump in on some fast paced rides. My goal is to Finish the vision quest next year. Time to raise the bar for myself.

[deja vu]

Originally Posted by bighit8

Im not real fast but a steady climber, I would like to jump in on some fast paced rides. My goal is to Finish the vision quest next year. Time to raise the bar for myself.

it's hard to train for that thing when half the course (or more) is closed. I wonder if by November everything is open?

I remember a trail, a long trail, the Harding Truck Trail.........

[bighit8]

Im just gonna do coal, and any steep climbs I can find, even if short at a fast pace. Turn around, go down and back up for as many times as I can. I want to be able to do Black Star in Under an Hour.

[Bryguy17]

Originally Posted by bighit8

Im just gonna do coal, and any steep climbs I can find, even if short at a fast pace. Turn around, go down and back up for as many times as I can. I want to be able to do Black Star in Under an Hour.

thats apparently a very good way of training, especially if its a somewhat technical climb. I was talking to one of the fastest guys on our team, and he said tis good to just go and do 3-4 laps up and down this one climb in SLO. 800 ft of elevation over 2 miles with a lot of technical stuff. You get a workout going up, and a fun and helpful downhill on the return. i need to get a better seat before i can start doing too much of hat though

[allison]

Originally Posted by deja vu

it's hard to train for that thing when half the course (or more) is closed. I wonder if by November everything is open?

I remember a trail, a long trail, the Harding Truck Trail.........

There's plenty available that you can climb to train for. We all did it this past year. I agree it was better when the entire range was open, though.

You want a really good fire road to climb?

Drive out to Hemet (74 east). Park at the ranger station right after the road split (once you pass the city itself) and climb. Eventually, after like 15-20 miles or something you will get to another fire road. You can turn around, or you can turn right and climb up to Ramona Trail. Descend that, turn left on the road, and then make another left at Little Thomas Mountain before Lake Hemet.

Then when you get back to the fork turn right to "descend" back to Hemet.

I'm guessing it's over 60 miles, and probably has about 10,000ft of climbing?

We never did the whole route (it's absolutely horrid), but we know a guy that was training for some big multi-day events and he used to ride it.

[KonaDupee]

Originally Posted by allison

I'm guessing it's over 60 miles, and probably has about 10,000ft of climbing?

We never did the whole route (it's absolutely horrid), but we know a guy that was training for some big multi-day events and he used to ride it.

Never finished it? Sheesh...amateurs! Heck, even attempting that puts you two so far above me that I can't even see the soles of your shoes...

I cannot even imagine doing 60+ miles & 10,000+ on fire road. It may just be me, but long rides on fire roads are far more grueling than single tracks.

With single track, your brain is forced to focus so much more on the trail right in front of you. You're too focused to notice fatigue.

Fire road, on the other hand, gives your mind a chance to wander and your body a chance to *really* feel the miles accumulate. You look up and see the miles still left to ride sitting in front of you like some angry troll demanding his bridge toll.

But we still do it all...willingly. And with a smile.

[allison]

Originally Posted by KonaDupee

Never finished it? Sheesh...amateurs! Heck, even attempting that puts you two so far above me that I can't even see the soles of your shoes...

I cannot even imagine doing 60+ miles & 10,000+ on fire road. It may just be me, but long rides on fire roads are far more grueling than single tracks.

With single track, your brain is forced to focus so much more on the trail right in front of you. You're too focused to notice fatigue.

...

Technically you get about 6-7 miles of singletrack when descending Ramona Trail, but that'd be it

If you've never done 45mi of predominantly ST I can see how you'd say fire roads are more grueling... but, we did a training ride last year on mostly singletrack and OMG was it a difficult day. We were all totally wiped out. (SJT - Trabuco - HJ - did we do UHJ? - Main Divide - WHT - Trabuco - SJT). It felt *much* longer than it was!

Either way, long days in the saddle are difficult no matter what you are climbing.

My longest mountain bike ride to date was VQ. I hoped to do higher mileage as training, but we never were able to get in the mileage with the lack of the OC side of the mountains open. Hopefully next year.

[sdyeti]

I will attest that the small portion of this that we rode on one of our Mann-imal training rides was NOT fun, but it was a lot of climbing if that's your thing!

Originally Posted by allison

You want a really good fire road to climb?

Drive out to Hemet (74 east). Park at the ranger station right after the road split (once you pass the city itself) and climb. Eventually, after like 15-20 miles or something you will get to another fire road. You can turn around, or you can turn right and climb up to Ramona Trail. Descend that, turn left on the road, and then make another left at Little Thomas Mountain before Lake Hemet.

[KonaDupee]

Originally Posted by allison

If you've never done 45mi of predominantly ST I can see how you'd say fire roads are more grueling... but, we did a training ride last year on mostly singletrack and OMG was it a difficult day. We were all totally wiped out. (SJT - Trabuco - HJ - did we do UHJ? - Main Divide - WHT - Trabuco - SJT). It felt *much* longer than it was!

Either way, long days in the saddle are difficult no matter what you are climbing.

I've never done that much single track all in one sitting...


But, did you notice the fatigue while you were riding all those miles of ST, or was it more a ton of bricks once you stopped?

[sdyeti]

KonaDupee...I agree that singletrack makes things go by so much faster. But, our last VQ training ride started climbing San Juan up to Blue Jay, then across MD, down Trabuco, up Holy Jim, across MD to WHT, down WHT, up Trabuco, then back down MD and all the way back to the bottom of San Juan.

Starting with that much singletrack was exhausting b/c San Juan is still fairly technical of a climb. Now, if it was all smooth singletrack, that would be a different story.

So, if you want mindless climbing where you can zone out and find a really good rhythm, fireroads are where it's at (and I still don't love them, but now I tolerate them).

Originally Posted by KonaDupee

I cannot even imagine doing 60+ miles & 10,000+ on fire road. It may just be me, but long rides on fire roads are far more grueling than single tracks.

With single track, your brain is forced to focus so much more on the trail right in front of you. You're too focused to notice fatigue.

Fire road, on the other hand, gives your mind a chance to wander and your body a chance to *really* feel the miles accumulate. You look up and see the miles still left to ride sitting in front of you like some angry troll demanding his bridge toll.

But we still do it all...willingly. And with a smile.

Damn...how did we post the same thing almost simultaneously?

Originally Posted by allison

Technically you get about 6-7 miles of singletrack when descending Ramona Trail, but that'd be it

If you've never done 45mi of predominantly ST I can see how you'd say fire roads are more grueling... but, we did a training ride last year on mostly singletrack and OMG was it a difficult day. We were all totally wiped out. (SJT - Trabuco - HJ - did we do UHJ? - Main Divide - WHT - Trabuco - SJT). It felt *much* longer than it was!

Either way, long days in the saddle are difficult no matter what you are climbing.

My longest mountain bike ride to date was VQ. I hoped to do higher mileage as training, but we never were able to get in the mileage with the lack of the OC side of the mountains open. Hopefully next year.

[allison]

Originally Posted by KonaDupee

I've never done that much single track all in one sitting...


But, did you notice the fatigue while you were riding all those miles of ST, or was it more a ton of bricks once you stopped?

I think we were around mile 22 and none of us could believe we weren't even halfway done and that was all we had for mileage. Climbing singletrack is just exhausting, particularly when you are in the midst of it

[sdyeti]

I think that was the ride that made me cry.


...no, wait, that was the ride where we did the HAB up WHT.

Originally Posted by allison

I think we were around mile 22 and none of us could believe we weren't even halfway done and that was all we had for mileage. Climbing singletrack is just exhausting, particularly when you are in the midst of it

During. Beginning, middle, and end.

Actually, I felt great at the end railing down San Juan at twilight with the night lights, realizing it was almost over!!

Originally Posted by KonaDupee

I've never done that much single track all in one sitting...


But, did you notice the fatigue while you were riding all those miles of ST, or was it more a ton of bricks once you stopped?