On a Mountain Bike

Updated 04/25/04 Added link to article on Maintaining Energy Levels, obviously an important part of endurance.

Remember the article about Learning Gears? In that article we discussed how to find that ideal gear that was neither too hard nor too easy, the same gear you would use to Spin (as covered in Spinning). We are going to use that gear to develop your Endurance. You should also bear in mind everything in the Target Heart Rate / Monitors article as that also comes into play. *Final note, you may want to look over the article on Maintaining Energy Levels.

Let's begin. On your next ride make a conscious decision that you are going out not only to ride, to get away from it all and enjoy nature, but also to train for endurance. Plan your loop to include mostly smoother, faster trails and leave out the harder, more technical areas. During the course of your ride keep in mind that you always want to be in that perfect gear, not too hard and not too easy. Practice the technique of spinning.

Some background. Because of the nature of riding on trails with turns, climbs, descents etc, many mountain bikers will find that they usually pedal, coast, pedal, coast while on the trail. Other riders simply ride too hard for a short time and experience pain in the legs or a loss of energy and are forced to pedal, coast, pedal, coast... And yet others pedal, coast, pedal, coast because it doesn't occur to them to do it any other way.

The unfortunate result of this behavior is that your body becomes trained to provide energy to the muscles in this same manner and thus many mountain bikers find that they cannot pedal continuously for any significant period of time. On the other side of things, a road biker generally pedals non-stop for long periods of time. This is why so many serious mountain bikers take to cross-training on a road bike. But it isn't necessary to go buy a road bike and different mountain biking equipment to cross-train as long as you follow these instructions.

Again, design a loop mostly of faster, wider trails.

To view the entire article, click here. (Requires Membership)

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Endurance Training on a Mountain Bike
Endurance Training on a Road Bike
Endurance Training on Foot
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