"Any thoughts?"

Of course.

Like, why didn't I go to bed last night?

I wonder what I should snack on?

When is the sun going to rise?

Why don't I have multiple bikes?

Is that a train I hear or my stomach?

Here is a more serious answer. If you have trouble breathing in an aero position it would make sense to practice riding in that position. While the Mt. Bike will improve your general bike fitness, you are not working the same upper body stability type muscles you need to be aero. Get your diaphragm used to being compressed a bit by being flexed over. The fitness will come in time. Unless you plan on racing your Mt. Bike, miles will be better spent on the tri bike in my opinion. In saying that, I train 50/50 road versus tri bike as I have no issues going back and forth and feels it helps my overall biking skills.

You shouldn't be having trouble breathing on your tri bike. Get your fit checked out, scooting the saddle forward and / or raising the aerobar should help. Sounds like your mtn bike fits you better.

Riding a bike is riding a bike, any kind of pedalling helps. Since the ride is short, try treating it as an interval session on a couple of rides

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I don't plan on using my Jekyll for any races except Xterra Saipan in April. I just use it to commute to and from work as the roads here in Guam are quite bumpy and filled with holes. I actually ride my tri bike on average about 150 miles a week. I have been doing this for at least 2 months now but the breathing is not getting any better. At first, I thought maybe it was just me going too hard on the swim and not being able to catch up breathing wise on the bike when in the aero position. However, even after numerous bricks at varied paces, the breathing is no better. Although I feel comfortable, I am starting to feel that my position is not optimal in order to expand my lungs.

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"These aren't Love Handles, I just have Big Kidneys!"

I think the main benefit will be in gaining strength. I rode mountain solely for the last 6 weeks and when I got on my road bike the other day for the first time in a while, I couldn't believe how 'easy' it felt to ride and especially climb...

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Don't hold back

In your situation I am not sure if it will as this seem to be more of a positioning issue and not directly related to what the real benefits of riding a mountain bike are. If some one asked me point blank, "will riding a mountain bike help my triathlon cycling?" My answer would be, "Yes". If you ride alot off road it will make you a better bike handler and increase your confidence in a wide variety of situations on the bike. It may also help with the pedal stroke - in certain situations when riding off road it's counter productive to just hammer away at the pedals, you need to finesse the pedals around to maintain rear wheel traction. They say that world-lass mountain bike racers have some of the best pedaling technique around. Finally, riding a mountain bike or doing some cyclo-cross in the off season is a great way to get away from the road bike for a while - keeps the mind fresh and keen when you come back to the road bike in the spring.

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Are you riding the MTB on roads or on dirt? Dirt commute sounds pretty cool...

Anyway, riding your MTB (or any bike, really) 22 miles per day - on roads or dirt - will certainly help your tri performance. The more riding you can get in, the better.

WRT the breathing and tired legs thing, yeah, you need to be fit.

I ride a mountain bike as my "normal" (or maybe abby normal) training bike.

I have it set up as close as possible to the way my aero bike is. I have the saddle all the way forward on the rails and have Profile Jammer bars on it. Yeah it looks goofy as hell but it works for me.

Additionally, it has heavy tires heavy duty tubes that are "slimed" that I ride with very low air pressure. Due to the rolling resistance of the tires I'm usually doing good to average 17 mph over paved and unpaved roads with that set up.

I think it makes me a hell of a lot stronger than if I just trained on my aero bike or road bike. It feels like I'm cheating when I ride my aero/tt/tri bike with the full aero package.

I also like it because I can go anywhere regardless of road conditions.

Just riding will increase your speed on your tri-bike, regardless of what you ride. I've found that mountain bike racing, xterra racing & even commuting have made me faster in road triathlons because most triathletes don't know how to handle a bike(flame away.) Learning to take corners hard without using the brakes and learning to bomb steep downhills, especially on a technical bike course with lots of turns & hills, can make you tons faster in a race.

Only if you stop riding your tri bike or are burned out by riding just your tri bike. If you want to get faster on the tri bike, ride the tri bike more.

The extra miles will help you no matter what, 150 +5x(22)=260 miles/wk thats good. If you are riding off-road like a mtn bike is suppost to it will also benifit your pedal stroke, studies have shown that mtn bikers have a more efficient pedal stroke than road cyclists. Because of the unevenness of the ground the smoother the pedal stroke the easier it is to glide along. As others have said riding a mtn bikes on trails will help your technical ability as well which all triathletes need dearly.

Branden

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"Here's to the finely tuned athlete on the verge of greatness"-Romeo, Tin Cup

I spent a vacation week this summer doing some pretty hard-core mountain biking. That week fell about 3 weeks before a big triathlon race. I had a great ride (for me) at my race (2:19 for HIM) and think the MTB riding had a lot to do with it - I just had more power and could push a bigger gear than normal. I agree with previous posts that all riding = good riding and mountain biking is great for increasing handling skills, but I also think there was a benefit to me of sport-specific strength work - climbing big hills at slow cadence.

I think a good mountain biking trail that involves lots of hills can be great for overall fitness ...and translate in to better race time...It is a bit like interval training...You have to push to your max to get up the hill without losing momentum and crashing your bike...So, you are forced into doing intervals...

A recent study at some university showed that interval training is a seriously great way to improve fitness...

Re bike position...Breathing will obviously be easier on the mounatin bike...better lung expansion and easier movement of diaphragm..

F.