Due to weather and my bike club being pretty dormant lately I’ve been riding my mountain bike in the trails in place of some of my road rides. I know this isn’t a replacement for a good long training ride in aero, but what are you thoughts on trail riding as a substitute for a long ride? Say…2 hours on the trail versus 2 hours on the road? I have to say…the trails are more fun.
I own a my Specialized Shiv(aero) and my Carve(mtb).
Everyone was telling me I MUST get a road bike before i get a aero bike. So i can train on the road.
I don’t group ride on the road more then 2 or 3 times a year. But i love mountain biking.
So i will be doing all my workouts that are not on the Shiv on my Carve.
I honestly don’t see a reason why it would not work.
Due to weather and my bike club being pretty dormant lately I’ve been riding my mountain bike in the trails in place of some of my road rides. I know this isn’t a replacement for a good long training ride in aero, but what are you thoughts on trail riding as a substitute for a long ride? Say…2 hours on the trail versus 2 hours on the road? I have to say…the trails are more fun.
I used to do this quite a bit when I was in college in CT. Riding the MTB was preferable to riding the trainer, and I could get away with it better in the winter due to lower speed, less wind among the trees, etc. Even now, I still subscribe largely to the idea that your legs, heart, and lungs probably don’t care all that much what bike you’re riding. If you know the trails well enough, you can even time it well for decent intervals on MTB so you can get your interval synced with a less technical section of the trail so it’s a bit more sustained
I’m so glad I bought a cross bike instead of a pure road bike as for training. I currently have the tire pressure way down and have been doing a lot of gravel tracks and light trail riding in this bad weather. While the training is different from long rides on my TT I think it will actually help come summer. In addition to honing my handling skills and mental alertness I find trail riding is a natural interval session.
I think training load is training load until you get into your build phase 8-12 weeks out form a “A” race. Otherwise, anything that keeps you consistently pounding out watts and building your fitness, is a good thing.
I may take out my cross bike on the snowy, crappy roads Sunday just to split up my indoor ride. Get off and then hit the trainer to finish it up.
Either that or I’ll work on my mental fitness and do what someone 1/2 jokingly suggested. Put the trainer facing the corner of the basement. Set an alarm clock/timer behind you for 3 hours and just watch a display with only Power & HR. Your only sense of time should be how many bottles you consume.
it’s fine, especially if you have access to some wide open terrain where you can keep the pressure on without wiping out a hiker or crashing into something. It beats dealing with the motoring public.
I did a fair bit of this the past two years. any workout that wasn’t an interval workout I just did on my MTB in the technical, dense singletrack of the northeast- central NY, to be specific. some observations-
-
beware of injury. Cornering confidence increases incrementally with each corner, until it drops very sharply
-
the fitness served me well- I’m a mediocre pro- for olympic distance racing (~300w in aero for an olympic distance tri) but I wasn’t as prepared for 70.3 efforts as I thought I was. Hence, i’ll be riding the road this year.
-
I had a pretty low position, which made my lower back somewhat sore. I also rode a hardtail. If I could do it again, I would go full suspension, and have a less aggressive position.
-
I found myself to use far more calories and fluid, watt for watt, than road riding. I drank a LOT when I rode the MTB, and ate 1.5x as much.
I did a fair bit of this the past two years. any workout that wasn’t an interval workout I just did on my MTB in the technical, dense singletrack of the northeast- central NY, to be specific. some observations-
-
beware of injury. Cornering confidence increases incrementally with each corner, until it drops very sharply
-
the fitness served me well- I’m a mediocre pro- for olympic distance racing (~300w in aero for an olympic distance tri) but I wasn’t as prepared for 70.3 efforts as I thought I was. Hence, i’ll be riding the road this year.
-
I had a pretty low position, which made my lower back somewhat sore. I also rode a hardtail. If I could do it again, I would go full suspension, and have a less aggressive position.
-
I found myself to use far more calories and fluid, watt for watt, than road riding. I drank a LOT when I rode the MTB, and ate 1.5x as much.
i ride in Western NY and have similar sorts of terrain. I have been using a 26" full suspension carbon bike and really enjoying it. For me, I find doing that additional time on the bike easier when I’m comfortable and the added weight (is maybe 24 pounds) seems to be offset by the ability carry more speed through the real rooty stuff
I think the advantages out-way the disadvantages, and my best year road racing was the year that I trained mostly on a mountain bike.
You’ll handle a bike betterYou have to fight for traction on a mountain bike and this smooths out your peddle strokeYou will incorporate a more diverse bike load (climb, interval, and steady in nearly every mountain bike ride), where as on the road I often just maintain one intensityIf it’s more fut, it’s easier for you to go out and get more training hours.
.
It’s been said on here numerous times, yet I guess it needs to be repeated, again.
It matters much, much more that you are riding a bike and less what bike you are riding.
It’s been said on here numerous times, yet I guess it needs to be repeated, again.
It matters much, much more that you are riding a bike and less what bike you are riding.
Agreed, but I think that riding a lot of technical single track is less preferable to riding more flowing double track. I’d guess that long fire roads have even better crossover. Still, more bike > less bike.
i used a powermeter on my mtb for a little while and found this to be true, the technical singletrack is a lot of fun and decent endurance but it’s hard to push the watts up enough without being a menace to others on the trail and yourself
.
What is this “bad weather” people talk of?
You’re still building the engine just on a slightly different machine. You’re cardiovascular system can’t really tell the difference.
The only difference I can think of is if you’re riding really technical trails with lots of descending that keeps you from pedaling.
Maybe my best triathlon season came after an off-season where most of my cycling was on a mt bike. It was more fun to ride harder on the mt bike in the Ohio cold. Thanks for the post. I just convinced myself to get out on the mt bike this weekend!
Mixing up the bikes for variability and ability to get out in all conditions is awesome. My main focus is tts, so I try to keep the cross and MTB hip angles closer to my TT position. Less optimal than a pure mtn or cross position, but I have seen great transferability. Been on my cross bike for over a month here in Colorado doing sweet spot sessions for spring tts. Fire roads are wonderful for long uninterrupted sessions.
Saw you on the hfp thread too, are you near Columbus? Where do you ride your mountain bike? I’m out of state now but wondering for when I visit my parents.
Saw you on the hfp thread too, are you near Columbus? Where do you ride your mountain bike? I’m out of state now but wondering for when I visit my parents.
I mainly ride the mt bike these days on the roads, multiuse trails and adjacent parks in Columbus in the bad weather. There are well-maintained single track trails at Alum Creek State Park. I’m heading tomorrow about an hour north of Cbus to Mohican State Park. I’ll probably stick to the roads, but there is an excellent network of single track trails (at least for Ohio) there. http://www.spokejunkies.com/...es/mohicanspmap2.pdf They have a 100 miler there in the summer.
**Everyone was telling me I MUST get a road bike before i get a aero bike. So i can train on the road. **
Every person needs to figure out what that “other” bike will be. There is no wrong answer here - anything that get’s you more time in the saddle, more volume , more appropriate intensity, is the right choice. Triathletes like to go on and on about their Tri bikes and that you need to train ONLY on the tri bike. I note that the absolute best TT’ers in the world, relative to the total time they spend on a bike, spend very little time on their TT bikes. In a whole year, how much time does Tony Martin or Fabian Cancellara send on his TT bike? Not much.
Perhaps the best other bike for a triathlete, is a CX bike. It gives you lots of options. You can ride it on light trails. You can obviously cross races on it. You can ride it on dirt and gravel roads. You can put some road wheels on it and go out for group rides, enter Gran Fondos and other sportif type of events and so on . . .
For others at MTB may be the better option. Perhaps you have some awesome trails near your house. Again, if it nets out in more time in the saddle . . then that is the good option.