[Dirt rider]

I have raced a few XC races (20-40km) and now want to start racing XC seriously. since we are the same age I thought Id ask you for some advice. first off I have a decent XC HT but is nowhere close to being racable on a provincal level. so I have looked around town and have come to a decition of either a 2001 trek fuel 80 or a 2001 gary fisher sugar-3 (both are unsold stock at shops). the sugar is more expenceive but I like the feel of it better and is much more of a race orientated bike than the trek. what sort of workout/training regiment should I do?, I know training requirements change from person to person but what are the key areas to focus on?.


if you need more info just ask...

 

[indieboy]

hmmm well both are solid bikes. if you like the feel of the fisher then go for it. my recommendation might be to hold off on getting a race bike right now and finish out the season on what you have. my first year of racing i raced on a specialized rock hopper. i had a few pretty decent parts on it but i had some trashed out ones as well. so yeah keep saving up and look for all the new stuff at the end of this year. the new line ups for a lot of the companies are looking extremely nice. a lot more bang for your buck. ok here's the hard part, training.....everyone's training is set up a bit differently. i've done several different methods in the past and i've found a lot of different things worked for me and a lot of stuff didn't. right now my coach has a pretty good method set up for me. but i'll give you a general wrap up of it. now all of this is assuming your race is on sunday. things have to be mixed up if your race is say on friday or saturday. but monday's are always active recovery days. simply meaning that you go out and spin slowly to work out all the lactic acid from the race or hard work out the previous day. tuesdays i use for sprint intervals. there are LOTS of different sprint work outs. most ppl like to go out and do what are called cruise intervals, meaning that you are at a steady speed already and sprint otu of the saddle for the alotted time, recover, and repeat. now these are not what i'm doing, i'm doing what are called form sprints. these sound stupid but they realllllllly help, you start from a track stand in typically 39-17 on your road bike, and stay IN the saddle and spin pretty much as fast as you can for the alotted time, generally about 10-15 seconds, and repeat. so what you are doing w/ these is you are starting from 0 and building up speed and holding it till the end of the interval. these does alot for your leg speed and helping you get that explosive instant speed you need when someone attacks on you or the pace picks it up. ok wensdays are generally volume but there is a decent percentage of the time spent in my middle zone and some in my high zone. then thursday is volume as well but time is mostly spent in my light, and easy zones, w/ some middle. friday is an active recovery day.ok saturdays are different for me. i like to open up my legs the day before an event, so generally the day before a race i will try and find a road crit or i will go and do the same amount of intervals i did on tuesday but spending less time on the bike. then sunday is race day. now my weeks are never really in a pattern, my coach changes things around based off the information i give him from how i felt the previous week or how we are setting up a peak. hope that helps some what. if you could give me more information i can help you out some more.

 

[Dirt rider]

Originally posted by indieboy
hmmm well both are solid bikes. if you like the feel of the fisher then go for it. my recommendation might be to hold off on getting a race bike right now and finish out the season on what you have. my first year of racing i raced on a specialized rock hopper. i had a few pretty decent parts on it but i had some trashed out ones as well. so yeah keep saving up and look for all the new stuff at the end of this year. the new line ups for a lot of the companies are looking extremely nice. a lot more bang for your buck. ok here's the hard part, training.....everyone's training is set up a bit differently. i've done several different methods in the past and i've found a lot of different things worked for me and a lot of stuff didn't. right now my coach has a pretty good method set up for me. but i'll give you a general wrap up of it. now all of this is assuming your race is on sunday. things have to be mixed up if your race is say on friday or saturday. but monday's are always active recovery days. simply meaning that you go out and spin slowly to work out all the lactic acid from the race or hard work out the previous day. tuesdays i use for sprint intervals. there are LOTS of different sprint work outs. most ppl like to go out and do what are called cruise intervals, meaning that you are at a steady speed already and sprint otu of the saddle for the alotted time, recover, and repeat. now these are not what i'm doing, i'm doing what are called form sprints. these sound stupid but they realllllllly help, you start from a track stand in typically 39-17 on your road bike, and stay IN the saddle and spin pretty much as fast as you can for the alotted time, generally about 10-15 seconds, and repeat. so what you are doing w/ these is you are starting from 0 and building up speed and holding it till the end of the interval. these does alot for your leg speed and helping you get that explosive instant speed you need when someone attacks on you or the pace picks it up. ok wensdays are generally volume but there is a decent percentage of the time spent in my middle zone and some in my high zone. then thursday is volume as well but time is mostly spent in my light, and easy zones, w/ some middle. friday is an active recovery day.ok saturdays are different for me. i like to open up my legs the day before an event, so generally the day before a race i will try and find a road crit or i will go and do the same amount of intervals i did on tuesday but spending less time on the bike. then sunday is race day. now my weeks are never really in a pattern, my coach changes things around based off the information i give him from how i felt the previous week or how we are setting up a peak. hope that helps some what. if you could give me more information i can help you out some more.

thank you...