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MTB training vs. Road training


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Hi all<?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Is there a difference between MTB training vs. Road training?

 

If so, where can I find a 6, 8 or 12 week MTB training program?

 

Thank you
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General training schedules are usually pretty useless, unless you're a general person. But I can help. smiley1.gif

 

 

 

In two points:

 

1 - Ride your bike more.

 

2 - Concentrate on what you suck at.

 

 

 

MTB training tends to bring strength, road training tends to deliver aerobic fitness. This assumes that you are MTBing on challenging terrain and doing your road training on the kind of terrain that lets you train your aerobic system.

 

 

 

James

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Guest colonel

Yes it is different, you ride road on the tar and mtb in the bush.

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My opinion. Take it or leave it.

 

Train on mtb and road. With road you can do hills, tempo rides, intervals.

 

With mtb you can do a normal longish ride where you train on technical areas. Like bikemonster said. Concentrate on your weekness. If you suck on technical hills, ride terain with a lot of technical hills.

 

Don't know if you still ride both, but roadbike will cover all the fitness aspects and all that's left is your technical abillity on the mtb.

 

That's what I do.

 

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like the quote bout general programs and general cyclist.so how do i become an amazing cyclist .any pointers as to trainers,were to join or basically where to start.

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One thing I have noticed is with mtb also you get used to working hard to cycle up hill, all the rocks are bumpy bits sap your momentum and sometimes some of us have to walk it. There obvious is a bit of skill involved as well handling the technical aspects but after doing roadie hills with no cop-out granny gear, I do now find off-road hills easier now, so the two types of cycling kinda feed into each other. And yea I kinda suck at all aspects ?so lots of work to do except the bit of letting go the brakes and going fast down the hills lol

kosmonooit2010-03-21 08:49:04

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Hi all<?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Is there a difference between MTB training vs. Road training?

 

If so' date=' where can I find a 6, 8 or 12 week MTB training program?

 

Thank you
[/quote']

 

Essentialy yes it is different, depending on your goals and level of competitivness.

 

Road training will benefit the normal cycling muscle groups, (cardio and legs), however for mtbking you also need to train other muscle groups which are not used as extensively whilst road riding. <?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

It can be very tiring riding long descents / ascents on a mtb when you have to stand or sit and lean far forward / back  for long periods and often you don?t get a chance to recover on downhills like road racing.

 

The only way to train for this is to spend time riding the actual type of terrain.

Same applies to training methods, best approach is to decide what type of event you are training for and enlist the help of a dedicated cycling coach.

 

On average mtbking is like time trailing, less explosive than road racing, so you would need to spend some time each week training at a constant level equal to or just below your lactic threshold.

 

Road racing requires more explosive or intense efforts (Chasing down breaks, sprinting, etc?.) which require shorter more intense training efforts.

 

 
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Hi due to a race injury to the hand and wrist I have been doing gym cycling which mimicks a bit of road cycling.riding about 10 min at a decent speed and cadence at 80rpm(similar to time trialing),then 100 revs at 4 times the difficulty,then back to 80rpm.I found it really helped to reduce my resting heart rate and improve my cardio.Yesterday did first race in 4 weeks and this type of training really helped as I could go into my red zone and then recover much quicker.BUT be warned ONLY doing road training has its draw backs as my body is aching today due to lack of time on MTb.(back and shoulders)Listening to Burry on TV it seems he does a lot of road work for fitness and as he sais you cant go out everyday on a mtb and ride hard trails as it will destroy your body.So try mix it up and do road as base training and once or twice a week do hard trail riding to improve your technical ability and to strengthen your upper body.P.S as the other guy said work on your weaknesses.I made a point of doing hills and although I'm no Contador I now do not fear tackling climbs and can stay on far longer than 6 months ago.

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