On-the-bike training
Ahh the pedal-based training! Maybe a little bit simpler to implement and understand for the average mountain biker, training power on your bike is pretty straightforward but there are still, dos, don’ts and clever approaches.
Like we said before, you can’t maintain what you don’t have and that seems to be a difficult thing for many riders to grasp. I hear of countless intervals, tabatas and all sorts of other pedalling based training but very few mountain bikers ever take the time to work on the basics: power.
Right smack-bang in the middle of the continuum, 6-10 secs long, standing start, using strength to overcome the resistance of you, your bike and its tyres, then digging in deep to move fast and add in that speed component to make it a powerful movement. It’s a basic thing that riders often don’t work on. As long as you have good strength then training your basic sprinting abilities with power as the focus will help coordinate your pedal stroke and upper body movement, it will build more fast muscle mass and undoubtedly improve your enjoyment on the trail or race times between the tape.
2 sessions a week of 5-8, 6-second all out sprints from a standing start with 3 minutes recovery between them for 1,2,3 or 4 sets (whatever matches your level and needs) for 4-6 weeks can lead to huge improvements in performance.
Powering out of slow turns, hammering the first few pedal strokes up a steep climb or the start effort in your next enduro race. Powerful pedalling is a crucial and an overlooked part of training for nearly all mountain bikers in my experience.
The continuum you ask? Well it’s pretty simple really: grinding a big gear uphill is strength, spinning super fast (e.g. speed or cadence and cadence change) is speed work and everything else in between falls where it falls. Using the same training plan as above if you just modify it and change the standing start for a fast rolling start then straight away we shift more towards the speed-strength end of the continuum.
Train what you need to excel at your event or discipline. Frequently though the ability to repeat sprints that are either in the power (getting up to speed out of tight turns) or speed-strength (quick, powerful pedalling while travelling fast) categories of the continuum are characteristic of MTB, especially enduro and trail riding. So that’s the focus: build powerful pedalling stroke by strength, speed and direct power work and then work on building the ability to repeat that power over 2 to 15 minutes or more at a time. Obviously your last sprint will not be as powerful as your first but improving the power of the first sprint and reducing the deficit between the first and last are the goals!
Years of road influence on training for MTB has led to power being neglected or misunderstood by many, so hopefully you can take my ramblings above onboard and implement some change in your own riding and training and remember you can’t maintain what you don’t have, so start simple and at the beginning!
Finally, don’t forget to transfer all that powerful gym work over to your bike by aiming to be powerful on the bike as well. Whenever the opportunity comes up, move fast and with purpose. bunny hop, explode out of turns, hop and transfer across the hill. Apply that power to your bike riding.
Point1 Top Tip
Warm-ups are a critical part of the training process, especially for Point1 athletes. I almost always include a leg speed, high cadence or short power portion in the bike warm-up of my athletes; not only is it a great way to “prime” the system in your warm-up but it also serves to maintain or improve leg speed, a key component to powerful pedalling. As speed is one of the quickest traits to suffer if not trained I always include small amounts of speed work in our training.
Try 3-4 high cadence (155 rpm +) 6-8 second seated efforts in a very light gear while travelling downhill in your next warm-up (2 minutes active recovery between efforts). Add that in for 4 weeks to your warm-ups and see some big changes in your leg speed.
