[TN]

What does your training schedule look like? (in season)
& what class do you race in?

I have never raced, but I am gonna try a few of the local races this summer. I dont train..per se...but i have weekly milage goals & rides that I just hammer on.

So I am curios as to what you guys do during the week.

 

[indieboy]

Originally posted by TN_Fred
What does your training schedule look like? (in season)
& what class do you race in?

I have never raced, but I am gonna try a few of the local races this summer. I dont train..per se...but i have weekly milage goals & rides that I just hammer on.

So I am curios as to what you guys do during the week.

depends on what races i'm trying to do well at. normally i'll sit down and have a talk w/ my coach and let him know everything and he plans the stuff out. this week i haven't done all that much simply b/c of the weather, i planned to do a 15 hour week but b/c of all the rain it's only going to end up w/ 12 hours.

if you and laura really want to get into racing or just try a few out the best thing you can do to prep is just ride. the more and more you ride the better off you'll be. now the only thing you have to keep in mind w/ racing beginner or just getting into racing is to pick up one key factor that most beginners don't seem to get; recovery. going out and hammering every ride will help build some things but if you continue to do it day after day after day you just break down your muscles bit by bit. typically i like to do my recovery days on monday and friday, this allows me to recover the day after my race and by putting a recovery day on friday it allows my legs to recover from whatever i may have done during the week before head out to my race. hehe by recovery i mean an active recovery, sorry i didn't mention that early which i should have. but by simply going out and spinning lightly and keeping your heart rate down you allow your body to do a few things, the main thing it's doing it giving you fresh legs.

 

[Babar]

Originally posted by TN_Fred
What does your training schedule look like? (in season)
& what class do you race in?

I have never raced, but I am gonna try a few of the local races this summer. I dont train..per se...but i have weekly milage goals & rides that I just hammer on.

So I am curios as to what you guys do during the week.

Try to be consistent like riding everyday for about 1 - 2 hours.
It's much better than riding really long few times and expect better performance.

Take it easy and gradully increase and make sure you give your self a nice resting day too.

 

[Westy]

Originally posted by TN_Fred
What does your training schedule look like? (in season)
& what class do you race in?

I have never raced, but I am gonna try a few of the local races this summer. I dont train..per se...but i have weekly milage goals & rides that I just hammer on.

So I am curios as to what you guys do during the week.

I travel for business every other week, travel weeks I do nothing monday-Friday. I ride every day on the weekends, usualy a 10-15 mile ride on Sat and a 20+ ride on Sunday. Non traveling weeks I ride two to three times per week. Since I have limited riding time when I can ride I go as hard as possible. When the weather does not agree with riding I hit the weights or run with my dog. I race either expert or eduro.

 

[SuspectDevice]

In my XC racing days training weeks ranged from 9-15 hours.
I use a periodized program that gradually gets more specific to mtb competion.

non-competiton weeks:

Mondays and fridays are pretty much always rest days. Tuesday is for working on the cp system. wed is for working anaerobic power. Thur i usually did a longer ride at moderate intensities with ~20 minutes of race simulation at the end. Sat was a cp workout and sunday was much like thurs.

race weeks:
mon- recovery
Tue-1/2 the sprint workout
Wed- day off.
Thur-recovery ride
Fri- 1/2 sprint workout and some moderate intensity
Sat- race day
Sun- race day.
I raced jr. Expert and then semi-pro for a bit.

After xc racing became wayy to un-fun i started just doing road and CX racing.
training weeks were 12-26 hours with an increased emphasis on efficency of oxidative processes and aerobic power.

training weeks are generally the same but the way that i implement the workouts and the distribution of substrate utilzation changes a bit.
Once CX season starts every week is basically just a recovery week so i only recover and try to adapt to the streses imposed by racing 3 times a week. so it looks like this:

mon- recovery
Tue-1/2 the sprint workout
Wed- training race
Thur-recovery ride
Fri- 1/2 sprint workout and some moderate intensity
Sat- race day
Sun- race day.


Now that my body is too beat metabolically to race road or XC i just race dh, bmx and 'cross. my training week looks like this now:

mon- ride to the dj's jump for 1.5 hours, ride rollers before bed.

Tues- hike the local abandoned ski area and ride the dh bike for~2.5 hours. pretty soon after i get more dh bike time in this will turn into ~2 hours easy on the road bike and then time at the jumps.

Wed- 2.5 hours on the road bike, training crit sandwiched by high cadence work.

Thur- Xc training race
fri- bmx race
sat- dh practice: rollers in the morning, after runs and before bed.
sun- dh race

i can get in a lot less riding now that i focus pirmairly on my lactic and cp systems. I really miss the long road and xc rides but my body and my schedule can't take then anymore.
Come August i will start adding a little bit more volume in to get ready for 'cross season and cut down on the jumping and bmx racing.

 

[douglas]

training program?
That's what I forgot, no wonder in my last race I was last!

 

[Echo]

In season, I just stay in shape by riding. Which means I won't ever threaten to win in the Expert class, or Sport for that matter because in XC most of the Sport riders are as fast as the experts.

I'm that guy who the rest of you Experts use to pad your stats. But I have fun and I'm always in shape for whatever ride is going on, so that's what matters to me

 

[The Toninator]

I'd race beginner if i were you. Also find out where the races are going to be held and go out and ride them for fun and find out what they are like.
your training just to place mid pack and about should be about 3 days a week of at least the distance of your races or at least the time. 2 days moderate on day intense.
then once you get a couple under your belt or you decided if you want to be a wiener you start on a "real" training schedule like cpbout has.

 

[sub6]

not that I do this now, but in college my training schedule was something like this:

Monday - HARD. Lots of AT (anaerobic threshold) work, until ya drop

Tuesday - recovery. Active recovery, as indie mentioned, is key otherwise you get "flat" and rusty. Steady state (easy, long stuff) is the name of the game.

Wednesday - pretty hard, a little less AT, good day for sprints

Thursday - hard, lots of AT

Friday - recovery

Saturday - HARD. Enough AT to kill you, followed by like 30 minutes running stadium stairs.

Sunday - sleep. Or race. If you race, take Saturday easy, obviously.

I'm purposefully kinda vague on this because a strict routine sucks a lot of ass. Keep it loose and you'll be happier.

This type of training prepares you for more of a "short game," if you will. If you're looking to do longer races and such, I'd switch up one of those AT workouts with a super-long SS workout.