The XC MTB specific training thread

[Snabb]

So what do you guys do for winter training this year?

In my part of the world it gets dark around 3 pm now and while we don`t have any snow yet it`s really wet and miserable outside.
Time to hit the trainer!

My goal this year is to really get my ftp up as much as I can during the winter. So my first 8 weeks will have a Level 4 and 5 focus.
1 or 2 rides outdoors during the week on my cyclocross. Mostly endurance and tempo rides. This year I`m going to do some 10-15 sec sprints during the rides to keep the system sharp.

Last race was the second week of october since then a couple of weeks of unstructured training. Tested my Ftp last week, now it is time to lay down a plan. So any ideas will be welcome. Todays session will be 4x4 @ 120% + 20 @ 90%. Time to hit the trainer

[devinci]

humm, not sure about hitting the L5 that soon, apparently the gains are quite fast and you can plateau quickly.

Personnaly, my winter training has started. I do a bit of L4 on the trainer and quite a bit of L6 as well. My L6 workout consist of short, sharp efforts of 15-30sec with short recovery, the purpose being to increase anaerobic repeatability, I dont really care about pure anaerobic power as there is a point in mtb racing where producing too much power will have your rear tire loose traction. I also do a faire bit of weight lifting, heavy stuff and I dont think it'll help my cycling power, but life is more then riding a bike.

I will start hitting L5 after christmas and lower the L6 volume. So jan-feb will be more L4-L5 for me, with gym circuit training. Meanwhile I still ride my MTB outside whenever I can, even after a L4 workout, to keep my skills sharpened up.

[ACDC]

At the minute I'm mainly doing 90-120min sessions on the trainer after work, SST (3x20's) and some L4 stuff (2x20's) with a 3-4hr LSD road ride at the weekend with some short tempo intervals thrown in at the end.

I'm looking forward to a long spell off work over Dec/Jan (4wks) so then I'm going to focus purely on lots of 3-6hr LSD road rides with some SST intervals included in 3 & 2 day blocks. This should set me up nicely for L4/5 build work during Feb/Mar for my first planned peak in Apr

[Snabb]

Bump!

A little update. My tested FTP was 275 watt in the beginning of November or 291 watt for 20 min.
I use the 20 min x 0,95% to calculate my ftp, I know there are different opinions on what is best but that`s the testing I`m going to stick with thru the winter. Been doing L4, sweet spot and a little bit of L5 work during the winter. Because of the weather I haven`t been riding outdoors as much as I would liked to but at least I have kept the intensity up. My 5min power is now 375 watt and FTP was in January 300 watt. Will do a block of training next week and then rest up for 2-3 days and test my Ftp again, I think that 325 watt for 20 min is going to be quite easy. The goal is to have an ftp of 325 watt on the trainer at
the end of April and right now I feel that I`m ahead of schedule. Have added some hours to the program the last couple of weeks and think ì`m starting to feel the effects.
This weekend will be two rides of ca 3 hours of L2 and a block of L3 in the middle of them.

I have plenty of time as racing doesn`t really kicks in here until may with the big races coming in june so I believe that my training form by then will be really good. Need to sharpen the skills with some races and then I`m good to go

[devinci]

thats a nice progression you've had there.

On my side, im about to let the intensity down a bit and start focusing on longer rides/efforts, sweet spot and tempo stuff, hopefully the FTP sky rockets.

[Snabb]

I have the same plan now that the weather is alot better here.
Hope it works out for the both of us.

Really thinking of getting a powermeter for the mtb, do you get any useful data out of it? For marathons maybe you could use it for pacing on climbs and fireroads?

[devinci]

I love my mtb PM and wouldnt ride without it. Very useful for post race data analysis. I also do 95% of my training on the mtb, on the singletrack or tarmc/gravel roads.

[Snabb]

I love my mtb PM and wouldnt ride without it. Very useful for post race data analysis. I also do 95% of my training on the mtb, on the singletrack or tarmc/gravel roads.

I was afraid of that answer
Time to buy a quarq.

[Snabb]

Bump!

Ok so my last post was a bit optimistic of ftp of 325... haven`t seen those numbers yet and it seems that I`m stuck at 300 watts. With racing and hitting the trails quite often I have been doing real structured workouts like 2 times a week.
Did 5x8min last week @ 335-345 watt, was aiming for 105% but went a bit higher like 110 and my legs were thrashed the day after. Yesterday 2hours @ 265 watt(275 NP). I have a race everyother weekend for the next two months so no need to taper will train along as usual and keep improving. My endurance have really taken a step forward and also my AWC so now I just want to race. Think I have more in my body than those stupid 60 and 20 min numbers show

No powermeter yet, If my MTB will stop falling apart every race I should be able to afford one quite soon

[devinci]

hey snabb

good to hear an update. Sounds like you are coming into shape!

on my side, I am doing between zero and one structured workout a week. Most of the time I am just riding the trails at mixed intensity working on my skills. Racing seems to take care of intensity and recovering from races is quite hard as those races are very intense.

RE powermeter, shop carefully. Quarq has discontinued its mtb unit. No surprise as they were having all sort of problems (mine included). I would stay away from used MTB quarq. If you ever look for a new SRM, pm me. Though I would think prices would be similar to europe prices

[devinci]

For those interested, here is last week-end's race power file analysis on my blog, enjoy

http://cyclingtrainingnuts.blogspot.ca/ ... lysis.html

[Snabb]

For those interested, here is last week-end's race power file analysis on my blog, enjoy

http://cyclingtrainingnuts.blogspot.ca/ ... lysis.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Impressive! Are you planning to do any marathon races aswell?

[devinci]

Ah, XCM.. there are too many things I dont like about them to start racing them. I find them too long, not technical enough, hard on equipment and I hate not knowing the course before racing it.

I concentrate my training around XCO races. I race quite a bit, logging between 25 and 30 XCO races from May to september. It's quite a lot of racing for such high intensity stuff, my body needs to recover a lot

[AlexJ]

Hi Guys new on here.

just looking for some options on a few things.

Been first year Elite for me moving from Junior ranks.
climbing is what i would call my strength being light at 59kg 5ft7 and so when the course's have more climbs i go far better!
but what a tend to struggle with is that Raw power on flatter course's ( the ones which tend to be more man made one) where climbs are if anything very short 1-2min.

and i seem to loose/be put under more pressure here more than anywhere else.

What sort of sessions would you say i should look at doing?

should i add some low cadence efforts at threshold at all?

i have both a PM on my MTB and Road, i looked over my file from this weekends national champs and i thought i'd be putting out more than i did!

[devinci]

yeah race files are sometimes showing surprisingly low numbers for the actual perceived exertion.

I would not bother with anything low cadence and would focus on increasing FTP using race specific workouts if the race season is still long for you. Some steady efforts, some L5 hill repeats, some over/under work would certainly help you out. Some longer easier rides too.

Check out my blog for some over/under kind of workout ideas.