Barn burner here in Az they had 104 mile race, 4 laps, with both tandem and fixie division. Beasts.

John

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Yep, agree. For me, MTB'ing is especially tough on the ol' roadie arms. ;-) Usually takes an extra day or two of recovery after a mtb race and/or hard workout.

That race is no joke I heard, I rode similar terrain for 50 miles in the Landmine Classic the week before (also in Mass). Still recovering now, it hurt. I've ridden my mountain bike in a few countries but the north-east USA is the hardest for relentless gnarly single track. I also did the new hampshire100 in August, it was epic, but I find the shorter races more scary because of the speed these guys are covering the single track. Impossible to just train on the road for something like that.

Exactly how I felt when I did the Nimby50 (http://www.nimbyfifty.com/) back in May. 11km long climb through 100 switchbacks. Over 4500ft in total gain. I wasn't DFL, but certainly BOP. Winner finished this badass course in just over 2hrs. Top female was 20th OA, in 2.5hrs. Crazy!

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"The runner-up John Dunbar, a US Navy Seal, led after the second transition and had a chance to win but ran out of water on the marathon course; his support crew resorted to giving him beer instead." -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironman_Triathlon

OMG yes! I did a triathlon 2 weeks ago and the blisters on my hands and bruising are finally going away. my hands were hurting SO bad along with my back. Yeah, it was beautiful but i'm not sure what scared me more, the uphills or the downhills. there was NO rest unless you stopped (and the deep sand gave you an opportunity to do that) and forget about getting nutrition either eating or drinking unless you stopped. I had a tree jump into the middle of my handlebars twice, slabs of rock reach up (to my barely moving figure), grab me and slam me to the ground. If I had not realized I was already on teh 2nd lap until it was too late, i totally would have DNFd.

I was talking with some others afterwards and we ALL remarked on the same thought before the race, "only 21km. How hard could that be?"

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And that's why real mountain biker usually recommend an efficient fs for novices. There really a benefit to having the rear sus soaking up some of those bumps. Still - that's a pretty good result for not riding too much!

Its also why we tend to train in time - not miles. Miles mean nothing when it takes a hour to cover five miles!

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Vale!
Tracy T
http://www.thelencoaching.com
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Haha! Indeed it is. MtB is no joke as it can be extremely physical as you know. There is no comparing it to road biking. You have to do alot more. Check your line, constant mental focus, using more muscle groups to handle the bike, balance, trail shock absorption. It all goes together.

 
I got into MTB riding last year. The bike (Giant Anthem X4 29er) came with a 22x36 granny gear.

I thought to myself "22x36!? That is ridiculous low. I'll never need a gear that low." I run a 34x27 low gear on my road bike and can get up some really steep stuff with it. I knew the MTB was heavier, slower rolling tires, etc. Needless to say, I've used that 22x36 a lot. You can't just "stand n mash" up steep hills either. The body english required to keep the front wheel down and bike tire biting is crazy at times and hitting a 25-30% grade is pretty "normal". Fun stuff though. It's a nice change of scenery throughout the year.

Yup.

The grade of the slope is only part of the battle on a mtn bike. Add sand, roots, rocks, etc., and all of a sudden even a seemingly wimpy 5% grade (on paved roads) becomes a real battle royale just to get up it on gnarly mtn bike trail.

My hands and upper back get TORE UP, even short training rides! That, and my forearms cramping constantly after an hour of riding, which is somewhat surprising because I figured they'd be conditioned from other activities...

But I love it and wish I rode more trails.

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mark

Even power, weight low on the front end but over the rear as well. Timing on the power production and pedal positioning is also important. It's not the stand up and just dance on the pedals. If you have the chance to watch how mtb'ers climb on techical trails. It's an art for sure.

And we love our dinner plates on the cassettes. I have 24x36 on both my bikes - but you also have to consider wheel size when looking at the gear ratios.

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Vale!
Tracy T
http://www.thelencoaching.com
Some light reading::: http://www.tracythelen.blogspot.com

Glad to hear you survived and hope you can get out and enjoy the trails more!

Don't be afraid to play with suspension settings some to help smooth things out some. I usually keep my front/rear Fox shocks at about 75% of the "recommended" pressure and slow rebound for a super plush ride and next to no trail feedback. I've got Rockshox on my hardtail/SS and still can't figure out how to get those dialed in though, so it def. takes some trial and error!

IMHO once you get a better feel for trail riding, you can probably get away with 75%-90% of your training on roads if its a PITA to get to trails regularly, though getting a feel for the trails may take some dedicated effort :)

I ride a Spec SJ Evo 29er, its a 1x10 with a 33 and a 11-36 cassette. funny thing is that my garmin says i hit 32+ mph on one stretch. must be a GPS blackout issue. i do remember being in the 11x33 and pedaling hard but i wasnt "spun out" and that gearing aint going to get me to 25 mph and no way to 32. My lower back and hands were killing during the race. gripping too hard me thinks. hills are an adventure and i find it easier to go lower cadence and work the legs harder to keep the rear wheel from spinning out.

Glad to hear another tri guy is getting into mtb. I'm coming from the other side, having raced mtb for a few years, then into xterra and now eyeing some road tri's. I have little success in getting my local triathletes into the xterra game. good luck with your riding!

I always try to get the local tri geeks to go out on MTBs.. for what ever reason they aren't having it, which is a bummer, MTBing is so much more fun and exciting then TT riding, Not that I dont' enjoy TT, but MTB woohoo..

Mtn biking saved me last year. I was so burned out that I was ready to give my tri bike away. Got a mtn bike and learned to ride the trails. One of the most fun things I do now (in the off season). When I mtn bike, it is purely for the joy of riding. No competing, no bike computers, no interval sets, etc....just a chance to ride my bike for fun. It's definitely hard but so worth the pain

Doing an Ironman seems like sissy stuff when you compare it to a 24 hour solo mtb race. Even on a relay 24 hour mtb races are really hard/

Doing an Ironman seems like sissy stuff when you compare it to a 24 hour solo mtb race. Even on a relay 24 hour mtb races are really hard/


Yeah but they don't have to swim and walk/shuffle, I mean run, a marathon so how hard could it be?

Coming from the tri to mountain direction, I've got to say that the ease with which you guys and gals crank over really daunting terrain amazes me. My wife and I have recently added Xterra and MTB races to our road tri repertoire. . .not that I'm any good. (If the only people you beat are the DNFs, are you DFL, or are they?) But it's fun, the peeps are really laid back, and there's nothing but upside potential to my MTB riding, if I can manage not to break something. . .gotta love those POC VPD pads!

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Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.

Congratz on your race, sounds like a pretty interesting one. I'll be heading for the Belgian Ardennes soon and ride my mtb to my heart's content or untill my legs are filled with lactic acid, whichever comes first.

So many others here on ST and myself have been saying this more times then anyone cares to remember: MTB'n will help you in your TT and Tri in general:

• You need a strong core (good for swim and run).
• You need strong leg-muscles all over (good for bike and run).
• You will have to keep focus or your focus will be pushed back to you by forestground. (good for the long-distance athlete who's mind tend to wander sometimes).
• You sharpen you bike-handling skills a lot which will defenitly help you in your descends during races.

Pretty sure that some good MTB'n experience is worth a good deal of time. Unfortunately, for the ST-data-obsessed crowd, I don't have empiric data at hand though as to how much watts you'll gain and how many minutes you will shave of your PR. The improvements mentioned above combined with before-mentioned mental aspect of being outdoors in a rapid-changing scenery as opposed to beating another player on your rollers will give you

It's my favorite (read almost only) bike-training in the off-season, along with offroad running. Too bad too many tri-guys just like their rollers so much whilst they could be enjoying the outdoors

Go out there and enjoy !!!

S.

Personally I find the shorter races on technical terrain much harder, because of the speed over the single track. A 50 miler or 100km is done at a much more manageable pace. But agree 24 hr races, that's crazy.

yes, it is.

i raced an 18 mile xc race saturday on a very technical course and am more sore two days later than I have been after 100 mile mtb races. Regardless of the distance, mtb'ing can absolutely SHRED you.

I think mountain bike racing distracts you from the discomfort/pain of the effort more as compared to pounding out miles on the road, since you HAVE to pay attention to the trail in order to be fast and ride efficiently and not run into a tree or off a cliff. That's why I like about MTB and CX, rather than road because there is a distraction from the pain most of the time.