[Closed] Training for first endurance MTB event

My training for my first 10UTB was just my normal riding, then breaking 2 ribs 2 weeks before, then having the 3rd man in our trio drop out. Ideal.

Are you soloing or teaming? I did my first solo this year at the Glentress Seven and I thought the length worked really well- it seemed to have a lot of first-time soloists. The fact that it's a great course and doesn't suffer as much from queues as some events really helps too I think.

Do longer rides, then do longer rides faster.

Throw in short very fast rides too.

Climb lots of hills, lots of times.

Sorted.

Hmm, interesting approach! I think I'll skip the rib breaking part.

I'm planning on doing it solo, so will definitely require something more than my normal riding.

@steve_b77

You make it sound so easy! Any idea where I can find a more structured version?

How often do you ride? How much time do you have to ride? Initially you're probably best off just trying to get into a regular routine of riding. Be realistic about the amount of time you can commit to it and try and do that for a few weeks just to start building up some sort of base. Try and fit in a longer ride once every week or two. Don't worry too much about speed and distance, just build up regular time on the bike. You're body will be slowly adapting to the increased demands of regular training which you can then build on.

If you do hill reps correctly then you won't want to be doing them more than once a week. In fact you probably won't want to do a second session 8) They are effective but [b]hard[/b], it takes around 2 months (give or take a week or two) for the effects to really kick in.

The usual caveats apply: don't overdo it; rest is as important as the actual training.

Everyone is different, if you haven't trained (properly) before then you won't know what works for you though the generic training programmes will get you quite a way. Something along the lines of: hard day; tough day; rest day and repeat would be a reasonable starting point. Each week should be slightly harder than the last then every fourth week ease off to avoid over-training. Lots of stuff on-line, just don't build up too quickly.

If you do hill reps correctly then you won't want to be doing them more than once a week

So true. Hill reps = want to give up and go home half way through first rep, want to die on 3rd rep, can't drink for fear of throwing up on final rep. How does my body forget such pain in only a week.....

Joe Friels book might be good for you. Unlike me, read it twice then make a proper plan and stick to it. Also to add the the above if your Endurance ride is in a loop basis (ie one of the 24hr courses) spend a lot of time on a familiar loop going around and around, or at least on the bike for many hours. Don't discount the boredom/tiredness/mental factor of being in the same bike for hours.

Also, change any components early and don't fall into the trap of changing bits or altering seat height etc near to the event. Get comfy now and stick with it.

INE but from learning a bit the hard way as well as on here/elsewhere and experience of sorts, start maybe 6 months or more out and do little more than long, steady (ie slow Z2 stuff) rides for the first 3 (based on you saying 'start from basic level'). Increase the hours you do rather than the intensity at first. You can't do loads of high-intensity stuff each week from nothing so try to do steady rides of 3-4hrs or more 2x a week plus some other stuff like commuting, road miles etc. Apparently you get a lot of benefit from going to 3-5 rides a week from 1-2 just from time+repetition so even if it's just an extra hour or 2, 1-2x a week, it'll help. I find it helps mentally as much as anything, you just get used to the hours and it falls into place.
Fasted rides (1.5-2hrs steady-mid pace before breakfast but not bonking) can help endurance efficiency and weight loss.
3 1/2 months before the event, start doing 1hr at high intensity 1x a week. Threshold sessions / longer intervals, 4 min+ hill reps are ideal.
Aim is to be able to go longer and get saddle time in then raise the capacity of the engine, in that order.

+1 for Joe Friel's book, or his blog, for some good info on the basics.

The Joe Friel book is good. You need to do some slow sessions to increase duration. You need to do some hard sessions and limp home a couple of times so you can learn how to avoid it. On the other hand, trying to create your own training plan and "working out" to a load of pre-prescribed intensities and durations can be a real pain in the hole and a drain on motivation.

If your only goal is completion then all you need to do is add in one big ride every weekend, and work that big ride to about 8 hours, a fortnight before the event. Make the rides interesting.

The two key things to get out of the training are the ability to cope with the time on the bike, and the ability to manage your exertion over a long period.

Just ride your bike. Seriously. For the first part, just make a conscious effort to do longer and hillier rides. Progressively increase your distance over time, and also your hours in the saddle. Make sure you're au fait with what to eat and when to eat, and build up to the point that you can churn out a ten hour ride without thinking about it.

Then do the same but faster.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1884737714?pc_redir=1407641345&robot_redir=1

this one ?

Not seen the MTB one but most refer to [url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cyclists-Training-Bible-Friel-Joe-ebook/dp/B00AWE96CW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407778625&sr=8-1&keywords=joe+friel ]this one[/url]. Though you may be better off with something a little more prescriptive, depends on how much thought you want to put into your training.

Thanks for the tips, I'll definitely check out that book.

http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/training-program-for-xc-racing

Some good advice here from a similar post I made.

Regardless of what you do be prepared to hurt badly doing the event. I'd also suggest finding your own pace. It's very easy to get caught in the initial blast from the line. If you can manage it great but if not the worst thing is going into the red early doors and blowing out.

Done a few events and you would be amazed how high up the field just finishing can place you!

Joe Friel book ordered.

What about strength/core exercises? Anything I should focus on?

Try this: http://www.ratracecrossing.com/portfolio/training/

What about strength/core exercises? Anything I should focus on?

What about strength/core exercises? Anything I should focus on?

I've sort of been doing the stuff out of [url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tom-Danielsons-Core-Advantage-Strength/dp/193403097X ]this book[/url], but I did get a pilates instructor to guide me through the first few sessions and modify some of the exercises. Yoga, pilates, both good.

Otherwise I think it really depends on how much time you have. I've not got much so reckon my time is better spent on the turbo than down the gym.

I went from a social cyclist to soloing a 12 hour event last year. Here's what i did, YMMV.

Lost weight. I did 5:2 as it worked for me, but sounds like whatever you're doing is working perfectly. Carrying too much excess weight around gets harder and harder the longer you ride.

Rode my bike more. You say you do rides up to around 30km, but what does that mean? 30km pootling on the towpath is not the same as 30km fast around the Peaks. I steadily increased my riding, but the key was to do the right sort of riding. i was never going to be fast, i just wanted to make sure I'd complete, hence i geared my riding for that. which is where.....

I got a HRM and worked out my different zones. Using the imperfect but good enough for me method of doing a 30min time trial, taking my average HR over the last 20mins (after realising you'll never keep the first ten mins going!) to find my threshold, and then back-calcing my zones from there. From there i identified the ideal heart rate that i could sustain for long rides without depleting glycogen stores and practised riding at this rate. For longer and longer.

Made enough time to do 'normal' rides where you race up hills and **** about with your mates. This for me took the place of doing much in the way of structured intervals or the like. I'm sure if I had, i'd have been faster / better, but this is supposed to be fun still. Being blunt, if you were 20st, are now 16st, and can maybe lose another couple - you still ain't going to get on the podium so don't set an unrealistic goal, and make sure you still enjoy it.

Doing these 4 things, I only really started 'training' in June for an event in late August, and that meant doing more riding, typically 3-4 a week, including a commute on my ss commuter which is a bit like intervals, a couple of social rides with mates of about 2-3 hours riding including some hard efforts, and then one ride a week where i increased TIME on the bike steadily, from about 3 hours up to the longest i did about 10 days before the event was about 8. On these it was all about managing the heart rate and keeping going, and they were vital to find out a/ that after 6 hours the saddle I thought suited me didn't, and b/ that i needed to change my bar height because holding my head up for 8 hours gave me excrutiating neckache (plus I got a tip from another soloist clubmate to lose the peak on my helmet so i could just raise my eyes instead). THIS IS STUFF WHERE YMMV but I'd have hated to find that out after 6 hours on the day - and you'll find something out about you / your setup the same.

Yeah, I've got no illusions of placing well, I just want a challenge. It is also about giving me motivation to keep losing the weight. Having said that, I'd like to not only complete it but complete it to the best of my ability, hence the reason for wanting to follow a training plan and target certain things.

I definitely need to look into working out heart rate zones, it's not something I've ever bothered with before but seems to be key in training effectively.

I guess I need to start riding the hardtail more too to get used to that. At the moment I tend to ride my FS for most things (Orange 5), but I'm guessing the hard tail (On One 456) will be better suited to something like 10UTB, although there's not much difference in weight so perhaps the FS will be the less fatiguing option - something to test out when I start doing longer distances I guess.

I've heard a lot of good things about LW coaching plans

http://lwcoaching.com/mountain-bike-training-plans/