Posts
1328
Joined
8/1/2009
Location
IL
Edited Date/Time
6/8/2018 11:19am
We all have a few tips and tricks that at some point in our riding lives or careers helped us take a step forward - and here's your chance to share your best tips with the rest of us. Whether it's that one riding technique tip that suddenly enabled you to do something you couldn't previously do on the bike, or a training "secret" that made a big difference, these breakthroughs are as much fun as they are rewarding. So let's hear what you got!
For me, one thing that helped me improve my overall fitness and get over the proverbial hump was learning to push taller gears. Once I realized that I was reaching for the granny gear far too quickly, I started seeing almost immediate fitness gains. Spinning that low gear can get you out of a spot of trouble, but in general I found it was actually causing me to waste a lot of energy on the way up a hill - I would redline and breathe hard, but not really push my legs. There is a sweet spot between building cardio and muscle power, and if you can balance them out by actually pushing a taller gear, you might be able to finish the same ride less tired. Try one more click on your next ride and see what happens!
Peaty putting the hurt on his turbo trainer at Fort William in 2013, photo Duncan Philpott:
For me, one thing that helped me improve my overall fitness and get over the proverbial hump was learning to push taller gears. Once I realized that I was reaching for the granny gear far too quickly, I started seeing almost immediate fitness gains. Spinning that low gear can get you out of a spot of trouble, but in general I found it was actually causing me to waste a lot of energy on the way up a hill - I would redline and breathe hard, but not really push my legs. There is a sweet spot between building cardio and muscle power, and if you can balance them out by actually pushing a taller gear, you might be able to finish the same ride less tired. Try one more click on your next ride and see what happens!
Peaty putting the hurt on his turbo trainer at Fort William in 2013, photo Duncan Philpott:
For me? Go trail riding on a single speed for a few times in a row. Without the use of gears, you'll focus a LOT more on preserving your momentum and riding efficiently. When you switch back to your geared bike, I'd be willing to bet you gain a gear or two in the same sections.
Airdyne / Assault Bike - get one. You may laugh, but they will destroy you. If you think you're hot shit, do the '300FY' which stands for Fuck You - google it. I don't think anyone on here can even pass, I can barely get over 200 cal...
Actually on the bike, I've used rides with my wife as training rides. Instead of being all upset that I'm going slower than normal, I take the time to work on skillsets - looking ahead, body position, late braking, no pedal/chainless to pump terrain, cornering. It has been huge: First, I actually enjoy these slower rides more and enjoy this sport with my wife / slower riders; Secondly, deliberately practicing is what makes these skills become more unconciously ingrained in your riding; Thirdly, psychologically when I take the 'bro' ride the next day later, I am chomping at the bit after my more relaxed ride and go hard.
Don't forget that the only people that supposedly ride 100% all the time are professional road bikers, and they have to take testosterone and EPO to not fall apart physically. Fact.
But when i switched to MTB, I found that fitness did not help much. Brake hard, slowly round the corner, and then pedal up to speed again. I needed skills work!
I pretty much stayed the the same until I started going to Whistler in 09, Crank It Up has 60 table tops, do that 5 times a day, A simple question to a guy on the lift one day was, “How do i go faster and not over clear the jumps?”…. “ride A line!”
The biggest improvement to my jumping was when a friend described what he called the ’safety jump’, this was basically lifting the front as you leave the lip. And right away it all became consistent, so five seasons later I can jump fairly well.
This year was completely different, 5 months off work and building trails near my house, each one a little steeper, and with a private access road to the top of the hill! So 5 months of digging and riding really short runs (about 80 metres vertical) I could do about 5 runs in one hour. That got me to start enjoying steep tracks.
So the tip is…..ride the same thing lots!
Oh...and don't work!
Joking aside... Yeah, laying off the granny gear helps a lot.. Trying to ride sections as if you're chainless by pumping. Some time at the pump track helps too. Oh, and riding with people that are better than you are, helps you to visualize the next level. And as AlbertThrasher suggested, sessioning sections so you can string it all together quickly.
- Pump track motos
- Cornering drills using cones
In my experience, doing these two things on a weekly basis in the off-season can produce significant gains, even in outstanding riders.
Thanks
The most basic terms of what we're trying to achieve is:
B - braking before entry
A - angulate the bike, not body
T - twist hips, point bellybutton, point knees, etc.
H - hand pressure on outside hand, inside hand extends
E - extension, pressure control on the tires, etc.
(in that order)
If you're getting beyond 'T' with decent range of motion and strength, you're probably solid. Getting beyond 'H' takes a ton of reps.
I had built up a new bike 1x10, and the crank came with a 36... I was using the bike for trail, so it was too tall. After a few weeks I finally bought a 32, and I was stronger after using the tall gear. It was especially helpful with those punchy climbs where I'm trying to maintain max momentum, rather than dropping gears and spinning up.
Track riders have the most amount of wattage output of any cyclist, and as a result, their distances are short. Push at that level for too long and your muscles will fatigue and you will cramp. Your Gran Fondo riders spin a lot to conserve their muscles for distance, but spinning at too high of cadence or too low of gear either causes your lungs to burn out and you won't get anywhere fast.
Mtn bikers fall somewhere in the middle. Our rides/races are shorter in distance, but longer than a track race. But they require more power and more frequent short bursts of high intensity than a typical Gran Fondo.
Power and Cardio are equally important in mtn biking. As a result, if you never push a higher gear you never build power, and you will never get stronger. If you never spin and built cardio, your lungs won't work efficiently and when it comes time to push yourself, your body won't be able to provide your muscles with the oxygen it needs. This is why you should spend just as much time in the Gym as you do on the Road Bike/Trainer.
I tested this recently on a ride. I was climbing up a hill until I felt I was grinding too much, and my muscles started to fatigue. So I shifted a few gears down where an "average" rider would feel comfortable spinning and pushing themselves. I found my heart rate increased, but I was moving 3-4 mph slower, and my lungs were burning up faster forcing me to move even slower or HTFU and start pushing that harder gear again.
Personally, I tend to go on rides for 1.5-2 hours... not all day epics. So, I don't really need to worry a whole lot about conserving my energy by spinning at all time. It also depends on what bike I'm on. If I'm ripping my trail bike, I tend to "grind" up those punchy ascents (although is it really grinding if its 4-5 full pedal strokes?) because I've got a lot more momentum going into them. Shifting down to spin for such a short amount of time before coming downhill again isn't all that efficient. If I'm instead on my fat bike (now that conditions have gotten so soupy), I tend to spin a lot more, it takes more to get that thing up any kind of ascent.
I started riding a few years ago and jumped straight onto a DH bike, so my style has always been to not really think and just plow with all my weight over the back end. Knowing how this was holding me back during winter I built up a Meta SX hardtail, and for the first few rides I struggled to maintain any speed or momentum. Over the next few months though I started to weight the front wheel more and let the back float, I started seeking out faster, better lines and began popping/gapping small features to maintain momentum, as well as hucking bigger gaps without a shock to preload. It didn't take long before I really started pushing the hardtail and started to even beat my old PR's from my 2015 Reign.
Now that I'm back on a Capra my whole style is much more confident, smoother and faster, and I generally have more fun jumping and floating around quicker more interesting lines!
Also I agree with Iceman, I was horrible at climbing until I sold my 2013 2x10 Reign and bought an ex-Justin Leov Remedy 9.8 with his set up: 38t Saint front ring matched to an 11-36t cassette. It only took a few hellish rides before I could out climb pretty much all my riding mates, and it just felt normal.
- Get in the gym. Relative strength must be built in the gym, not on the bike. Lifting heavy can improve strength, power, neural efficiency, muscular balance and injury prevention. Deadlift, hip thrust, squat, benchpress and accessory work like bent over row, chin ups, overhead press etc should make up the majority of your program.
- Get a stationary power based trainer. There are lots of trainers and apps available these days which enable you to test your lactate threshold power and train very specifically to improve it. I use TrainerRoad paired with a wahoo Kickr. Not cheap but they give you an amazing quality of structured training.
- Sprint. HARD!. Incorporate some outdoor sessions on the bike of all out sprints. Try 10 sprints of 20-30 seconds with 2 minute rest in between. These have been proven to improve neuromuscular activation which can assist in efficiency and power output. Short hard interval sprints have been shown to activate the AMPK enzyme to a greater degree than steady state training. This enzyme activation is responsible for improving metabolism of fat and carbohydrate during exercise as well as increasing mitochondrial mass in the muscle which improves lactate threshold.
- Get mobile. Yoga, stretch, foam roll etc as much as possible. Consistently doing this 2-3 times per week for 20-30mins would be ideal! Don't do it for 2 weeks, discover you haven't magically transformed into the most flexible yogi in the world and chuck it in. Stick with it, make it a part of training just like riding your bike and you will be able to enjoy riding that bike for longer in years to come.
Beyond that though, I'd say indulge in as many 2 wheel disciplines as possible (even the motorized ones), the more types of bikes you ride, the more small things you will learn and more skills you will gain, All disciplines have crossover and benefit one another.
Honestly riding road bikes twice a week improved my fitness on the MTB in a way that just riding my MTB never could. Now I really don't enjoy riding road bikes, it's actually kinda lame, but thinking of it as cross training for my MTB rides gives me motivation. Being in better shape allows you to shred harder over longer rides, That feeling of being able to keep going is a great feeling.
Riding a moto will help you get comfortable at speeds you'd normally never hit on a mountain bike. Hop back on the MTB after riding motos for a while and you'll be ripping with ease.
I was already a pretty fast rider before, and actually this didn't help my speed much, but now I am much lighter on the bike and break a lot less gear by being able to hop over big obstacles and can nose turn around any switchback, and generally just place my rear wheel independently from the front at speed.
Following faster guys is good advice if they ride clean! But also consider trying to watch an EWS level rider at a race or event to understand just how wide (or tight in some cases) line choices can be. A lot of their their speed comes from technique, but so much comes from line choice also.
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