Pain Freak
Dead or Alive
I don't know if others are aware of it or not, but a lot of the top racers like Tinker do most of their training on road bikes. But to do it right you may have to get a trainer.
Training
- Thread starter Pain Freak
- Start date
crispy
Wannabe
Well for me, I have not done much training or racing, but I did notice that my road bike riding has helped me out A LOT compared to how much road riding I have done.
For example:
I got a new road bike about two weeks ago and I started doing just some nice short rides every morning before class. Last saturday was the 12 hours of Temecula and me and my buddies did it for thes econd time. Laps were about a mile longer, but my lap times were faster than the previous race. And no, it wasn't because I had been doing a lot of mountain bike riding prior to the event because all throughout summer I think I did like 2 mountain bike rides. It was mainly the road bike riding I had been doing 2 weeks prior to the event.
I can't wait for the next race to come up because I am actually training for it
For example:
I got a new road bike about two weeks ago and I started doing just some nice short rides every morning before class. Last saturday was the 12 hours of Temecula and me and my buddies did it for thes econd time. Laps were about a mile longer, but my lap times were faster than the previous race. And no, it wasn't because I had been doing a lot of mountain bike riding prior to the event because all throughout summer I think I did like 2 mountain bike rides. It was mainly the road bike riding I had been doing 2 weeks prior to the event.
I can't wait for the next race to come up because I am actually training for it
crispy
Wannabe
also with trail riding, you only get speed benefits mainly from climbing, when descending on fun trail rides you usually aren't pedaling the whole time trying to pick up speed. When on the road bike you spend 3 hours pedaling with a pretty good amount of effort so when you get to a MTB race you are ready to pedal for hours on end.
Still need those trail rides for the descending speed though!
gurp13
SolarFederationMember
My road riding and commuting has definitely helped me. I'm only commuting 14 miles a day, but it has made a big difference in my strength and conditioning. If you can pound out 50+ miles on the road, how can you not be able to do 25 on the dirt? Sure, I'm not practicing my technical mountain biking skills, but my biggest deficiency as far as dirt riding was always my endurance and strength. Road riding really addresses that. When I ride my bike home at night I do intervals, pushing hard for a block then recovering. This has really helped my aerobic conditioning.
Keith B
Professional Lion Tamer
I've also heard this - however its the consistency of the road riding that gives the improvement so doesnt it therefore follow that you'd get more benefit from road training but riding your mountain bike? You'd have more resistance (rolling and aero) and besides you get kudos for whupping roadies on your MTB:lol:
I know of racers who do that once in awhile. The only problem is the lack of the bigger gears so you'll be spinning out much of the time.
soul rider
EMPTY V
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Even Better Ride Up Harding 3x Thats Training.
crispy
Wannabe
you dont wanna wear out your tires on the road and if you went out and bought roadie tires for you MTB then you might as well just get a road bike so that way if someone hits you on the road atleast your mountain bike is still fine
PHAT TIRE
Riders on the solar storm
My 2 cents...The road bike has definitely helped. I however did notice that when I road on the road more than usual, like 90% of the time when I got the new road bike, it killed me on the mountain. Granted I had higher endurance, the lower speed, higher torque of MTB'ing made me tired and sluggish. To benefit the best from the road bike, I stick to 25% road riding. That road riding is either high intencity sprinting or hill repeats for base strength training or long road rides for leg/mental endurance. I try to stay away from the cruising rides b/c you can't have that mentality on the mountain bike. I guess it's the low resistance on the road that killed me this summer when I went from the road bike to mt bike.
gurp13
SolarFederationMember
Agree, I think you have to stay aggressive on the road bike to keep yourself up for the mtb. I always try to push it, either keeping up a high pace and cadence or hill climbing when I'm on the road bike.
