Hi,
I’m going to be away from my road bike for 8 weeks or so but will have access to a mountain bike for that period. What tips do people have for getting the best training on the mountain bike during that time? The additional challenge is that most of the time I will be riding it in a city and not offroad.
Cheers,
dt.
The terrain is probably a more significant variable than is the different geometry of the bike. During the winter I try to get a combination of gravel road rides and singletrack trail rides in - so that I can maintain some of the fitness - plus it is a whole lot of fun.
Riding trails up and down does two things. First it can be the equivalent of interval training, riding up and down those hills, secondly it can help you to round out your pedaling stoke by building the muscles that get lazy on the up stoke of a road bike. Gravel will give you that sustained riding at high cadence… similar to the road.
I love riding my mountain bike on the road. Might want to get some street tires. I have heard that the top triathlete in my area trains almost exclusively on his mountain bike. Make some fun of it even in the city. Parking tower intervals aka concrete switchbacks (my favorite). Also do some spining in the granny gears you can really get some high rpms.