Weekly Mileage - MTB training

[GrantR-PTA]

Hi,

 

I'm fairly new to riding - about 3 or 4 months. 

 

Was wondering what kind of weekly mileage the average guy would need to put in to be able to ride an 80km race. Most of my riding is off road on a MTB at this stage. I try and do two 30 km rides during the week @ about 25/26 km/h and 2 slower and shorter ones over the weekends -  20 km @ about 23 kmh, as I do half the ride with my young son and wife sometimes. These rides are usually half trail and half road. I ride in the Waterkloof Ridge area. I find the area quite hilly So we also tend to do the Klapperkop trails.

 

Would like to hear opinions on how many km a week the average person does and how much is required to ride a decent 80 km race.

 

Regards

Grant

[BarHugger]

Hi. You are doing fine, and with the Waterkloof hills you will be able to prepare more than adequately. Just attack those hills with more gutso and oemph. One thing you might want to consider is to go on a longer ride during the weekends, same intensity as what you are currently doing......say 50-60km. You also don't need to do everything in one go, maybe a longish morning ride with a shorter one in the afternoon. That is the simple answer to your query......enjoy your training.

[Oufy MTB (Roadie)]

try to get some distance in. 80 km is a long time in the saddle regardless, so you want a couple of rides where you get close to full race distance

[dillon]

I do 3 x 30kms (320m climbing each ride) a week with a long ride 60 to 70 on weekends (800m plus climbing). I find this ok for the trailseekers, getting 3hr 30 for these. But when Sabie comes along I need more sadle time and climbing, otherwise it is a long day

[johanpre44]

You are doing a nice fast pace for MTB (I struggle to do 24km/h with my MTB if I stick to the road).

 

Try not do rides longer than 4 hours, proper recovery takes too long (need about 4 days to recover fully). Another thing that the long rides is good for is to get your nutrition right, I have learned that I need to eat a Nougat or Foodbar every 60-90 minutes otherwise I hit the wall (and this is when the day becomes really long). Its also very good if you can practice on long steep climbs (that takes more than 15 or 20 minutes to climb and maybe more than 6% gradient) to build your endurance on climbing and learn how to carry a good pace for the whole climb.

 

Don't discount the slow rides with your family, it helps to build endurance (not to mention good relations).

[arendoog]

I ride mostly marathon event's and have an A or B seeding .Most of my training is done on klapperkop as I live very close .I can only manage 5 to 6 hours a week of training but always try and make them count by riding the climbs on KK and pushing myself .I found out this is not enough for an ultra at the crater cruise ultra and suffered the last 30km  .IMHO 8h of quality training per week  is enough for any event

[GrantR-PTA]

Hi All,

 

Thanks for your thoughts.Looks like I have a ways to go yet. Will need to squeeze out another 2 or 3 hours of riding...

[GrantR-PTA]

Just saw this article. 11 hours of riding on average per week to prepare for the Cape Epic. I often wonder how a Joel Stransky, Stefan Terblanche, John Smit etc get the time to train for this...

 

http://www.bicycling.co.za/news-people/tough-epic/

 

he Absa Cape Epic 2015 route is made up of 739km in total and 16 000 meters of climbing. Riders have five months to get the recommended 20 hours per week of training in to be fit enough and there are sure to be some reality checks, wake up calls and, no doubt, a few texts between rider pairs to get their act together.

While riders nervously contemplate what is to come, event organisers took a  look at some interesting numbers from this year’s race.

Starting with training. Last year riders trained for 5.6 months on average, for a maximum of 18-hours per week and on average 11-hours per week (16 hours per week is optimal in peak times, according to training technology specialist, Peter Figg, from Polar).

Looking at performance numbers, the average speed of the fastest rider was 23.9km/h and the slowest, a dogged 12.3km/h. The fastest time was 30 hours 31 minutes and 59.2 seconds. The slowest time clocked a 59 hour, 23 minute and 29.1 second trial of endurance. No names mentioned.

Interestingly, 90.5% of all riders finished the race, with the highest percentage (87%) of finishers coming from the Grand Masters and Women’s categories. The oldest finisher was an inspiring 68-years-old; the youngest an enviable 18 years.

There were 2174 Mediclinic consultations and the average heart rate through the race ranged from 57bpm to 184bpm.

As tough as this race is on bodies, the bikes also have to hold their own. This year, 79% chose full suspension bikes, 90% rode on 29inch wheels and 62% of riders bought a brand new bike for the race.

Next year promises to be an even tougher challenge. The 2015 course will ask some serious questions of the 1200 riders, with day 5 involving a monster 117 kilometer stage and 2500 meters of climbing. Riders will need every bit of the 950kg of pasta consumed in the 2014 race to get through.