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Hello,
I am in the process of writing an e-book on how to get in the best shape for a cross country mountain bike race and I need your advice and help.
Could you please tell me: What are the most important adjustments to a MTB to correctly fit it to a rider and the top 10 ways to prepare for a race?
This feedback is extremely important to me. And as a gift for leaving your advice on the most important adjustments to a MTB to correctly fit a bike to a rider and the top 10 ways to prepare for a race, I’ll happily send a copy of the e-book ($37.77 value) when it’s finished.
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I am by no way an expert on this since I have only raced once with the goal of just finishing the 100km.
1. ride a lot, I tried to et out as much as possible however being married with 4 kids I had few chances for really long rides (4hrs plus) Most of my rides were in the 2-3 hour range. On these rides I would either work on speed on easier trails or fire roads or worked on climbs.
2. "Spinning" classes. 1-2 times a week. worked on my cadence which helped when I am on the bike, Most classes are 45 min but i would show up early to get an exta 15 min to 45 min. depending on the day.
During the class I would also watch how I breathed and try to keep in in check. What I mean is when possible breathe thru my nose out thru the mouth. After a few weeks I nticed i was not losing my breathe aas much at class and on the trail.
Things i need to work on a bit (had no clue on race day)
food- what to eat? I brought pbj sandwiches, these in the past were great when I did long hikes. Found out on the race they killed my stomach biking. Fruit (bannannas and orange slices) were my friends at the SAG stops. Also I am not a sweet tooth at all but the SAG stops had homemade cookies. One really did the trick.i tried one of those gels for the first time on the race, to sweet. Should of listened to the advice I heard from others Do Not Try Anything New On Raceday!
Hydration. drink, drink, drink,….
water was the best, straight gatorade/poweraid was to sweet, watered it down and it worked better for me. HEED drink mixes (Hammer Nutrition) i tried since and seem to be a better option for me.
Recovery, that night, next day my legs were a bit sore but I was suprized not to be tired. I still felt like I had energy.
Again this is what I did/learned from my one and so far only race, than again I had fun and will be doing it again.
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I dont race and dont ride to race although one thing that constantly bugs me because I love to ride and want to ride to the absolute best of my abillitys is the simple fact of committment.When I can,I ride for as long as I can because being a clydesdale rider at 300 plbs. I’ve found is that no matter what else I do,I dont get into THAT ZONE by nickle and dimeing my ride time.which by the way,happens quite a bit due to work and needing to be home to eat a decent meal,get to bed early enough to get decent sleep,etc..etc…The rides I have gotten into THAT ZONE though,have been the rides that are the longer ones of 3 to 5 or 6 hour rides.You really must be ABLE and not just willing to commit to race type training to be your absolute best and ride those longer rides week in and week out.Again I dont race and dont look forward to racing but that seems like the way to go if you want to be the best racer or rider you can be along with a disiplined diet and rest and whatever an indevidule finds to work the best for them.
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When I did race a while back I would typically build up my training rides to +10% of race distance.
Ususally way before the season started I would be doing a combination of weight training targeting my core, legs, and cardio. The cardio was simply using my bike on a trainer and riding every day at least 45min having a 2 days off. Weight training was every other day and building up slowly with minimal weights at first (Leg press 80Lbs) abbs was doing 150 crunches to start and work up from there.
Later on I would build leg presses to 300+ pounds and 300 crunches..With cardio once I had a base I would start intervals on the trainer or if the weather was cooperating on the roads. I would do 15- 30 second 100% efforts either up hills or sprints and then 2 min relax…I would build up to 20 a day..
My road Km would be 30km a day and weekends I would go 100km a day (road)
If it was trails (for bike handling skills) I would go at least 30kmFor specific events that were classics I would do as I mentioned before building up to 10% over the race distance.
2 Weeks before the event I would case it and ride the route.
A week before the event concentrate on resting and eating well..Check your bike over tune it up replace warn out parts and test the bike.
A day before hydrate yourself and carb load.
Day off pack all that you need make sure you have your credientials
Food snacks, Spare parts that you need….Tires, spare links, inflator, pumps, Derailleur hanger (If you need one) etc.
emergency money… -
Speaking of which I have a 24 hour event in 24 days..Hmm better get started on those extra kms…
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Does that mean your training rides for it will be 26.4 hours? 😉
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Nope I am doing the event solo…However seeing that I am doing two laps at a time for a stint I will be on the trails for 35km a time so I will be doing 39km rides for the next little while non stop with a 2L Octane XC camelbak and nothing else for training…
I am on a 4 man team this year.
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"MountainbikeHawk" wrote
Could you please tell me: What are the most important adjustments to a MTB to correctly fit it to a rider
Most important adjustments: Your seat fore and aft position. There’s a lot of writing out there about getting your seat height correct, but the measurement that will determine how much power you can get in the pedals is more your seat fore/aft position.
Second most important measurement: handlebar height. If your handlebars are too high, your triceps and lower back will be hurting big time from supporting the weight of your torso. If your handlebars are too low, your lower back will be hurting from being tensed the whole time.
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"MountainbikeHawk" wrote
Could you please tell me: What are … the top 10 ways to prepare for a race?
So, since I’m a writer by profession, would I get a co-authorship for this? Just checking.
1. Know the course. If you want to know the demands for a particular race, you need to ride the course beforehand. You’ll realize where you’re weak relative to the course and you’ll be able to adjust your training to it. If you need better technical ability, work on that until race day. If you need to be able to climb steep pitches all day, at least you’ll know before the race. If the race is going to last for a long time, say 24 hours, you’d best make sure you can stay in the saddle for a lengthy period of time.
2. Aerobic conditioning. Unless you’re racing downhill, the main energy system you’ll rely on will be your aerobic system. If you’re basing your training on heart rate, this means keeping your HR between 60-85% of maximum a lot of the time (as much as 90% of total training time). If you don’t have an HR monitor, don’t bother buying one. Just be honest with yourself in training and try to spend a lot of time riding at a comfortable intensity.
3. Anaerobic conditioning. Spend some time going all out. Make sure you can climb with your HR in the red zone for as long as your course demands. Do interval training and be prepared to accelerate on the fly.
4. Muscular strength. If possible, do this on the trail on a bike. You need some snappy power to roll over steep pitches and rocks. Make sure you feel the pinch from time to time in training. Remember, your goal isn’t hypertrophy; it’s fast, hard muscular power. Include plyometrics as they increase your muscles’ rate of force development.
5. Train your brain. If you’ve pre-ridden the course, you know the descents you’ll be facing. The course will be filled with other riders during the race, and mountain biking demands that you be constantly prepared for the unexpected—nice, eh? Prepare yourself to descend safely as well as swiftly, to handle getting stuck with the bad line, to make adjustments on the fly. Make sure you can switch your brain into "awareness" mode even after hours of riding hard so you don’t break your neck on the descent.
6. Taper. In the days before the race, dial back a little bit. There are two kinds of taper, you pick the one that you think fits you best: You can do less weekly volume (training time) but keep the intensity high or you can lower the intensity and keep your volume up. But don’t shut it off completely whatever you do.
7. Warm up. Before the start line, take your bike out and do some kind of warm up (unless you’re doing marathon or ultra/24 racing, in which case you can warm up on course). Figure your warm up out before your A race. Do a lap on the course or hook your bike up to the trainer. Get your juices flowing and your heart rate up with a couple of quick intervals and then ease off so you don’t blow your legs out completely.
8. Nutrition. Eating healthy is integral in the months before the race, but on race day your body needs an unencumbered source of carbohydrates. Gu is good, but so is bread with jam on it, juice, soda, whatever. Be health conscious on every other day except race day. When you’re not racing, avoid foods with any partially hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup and excessive saturated fat. Try to eat more vegetables, more accessible sources of amino acids (meats like fish, eggs, chicken, sometimes beef), healthy fiber-loaded carbs, fruits, cheese, nuts, healthy stuff, etc. Then, like I already wrote, let it loose on race day. If you’re doing an ultra-endurance or marathon race, make sure to carb-load in the days before and keep the fat in your diet (cheese, nuts, etc.). If you’re doing a regular cross-country race, don’t worry about carb-loading. You probably eat enough already.
9. SLEEP! Yep, get good sleep. That doesn’t mean sleeping in (as that will leave you lethargic and be less productive), but it does mean getting your regular eight hours worth each night. It helps your body recover and keeps you more aware (see above post on training your brain).
10. Overall fitness. This is lower on the list for a reason. JHK, one of the best U.S. MTB’ers says, "The better you get at mountain biking, the worse you are at everything else" or something like that. If you’re doing mountain biking for health reasons, you should be lifting weights as well. It’ll keep your bodyfat low and strengthen muscles that are secondary to your race (i.e. "core" muscles). But remember that your purpose is more to avoid injuries than to get bulky. Hypertrophy-oriented weightlifting has been shown in studies not to have much relevance for cycling, though there are plenty of successful cyclists who include it in their fitness regimens.
Hope that helps, best of luck with the book, let me know if I can help in any other way.
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I totally agree with SackAttack.
Btw, the way I learned to adjust fore/aft is to get on the seat, put the pedals in the 9 o’clock/ 3 o’clock positions, and drop a plumb line down thru the axle of the pedal. The plumb line should line up with the middle of your forward knee joint from the side. Not sure where I heard that, or if it is even correct, but it seems to work well for me.
Backing up even more, take time to get the feel of a bike before you buy it. (Probably too late for the OP, but, anyway…) If you haven’t done a lot of riding and can’t tell if a bike fits you well then find a good salesman who can evaluate it for you. They should be able to tell you if you are leaning too much or not enough, whether the "cockpit" (essentially, the space between the seat and the handlebars) is too big or too small for your body, etc. If you buy the wrong bike you may end up just not enjoying it as much as you should because your body aches from being forced into the wrong position or you just are never balanced over the bike they way that you should be. If you are going to fork out that kind of money you want to be sure you got the right bike before you even think about tweaking the adjustments for a final fit.
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"bonkedagain" wrote
Btw, the way I learned to adjust fore/aft is to get on the seat, put the pedals in the 9 o’clock/ 3 o’clock positions, and drop a plumb line down thru the axle of the pedal. The plumb line should line up with the middle of your forward knee joint from the side. Not sure where I heard that, or if it is even correct, but it seems to work well for me.
Great advice about bike shopping, Bonked.
Yeah, the fit technique you describe is called KOPS or knee over pedal spindle. I don’t use it personally, but a lot of folks find it puts them in the correct general area. However, Keith Bontrager totally trashed on it back in the ’90s (here’s a cf. if you’re interested in reading it: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/kops.html ).
I figure, if it works for you, it works for you. Still, this is pretty interesting reading if you get the urge to read the article.
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How to prepare for a bike race
Not to be mean, but this is your book. Asking others to essentially write it for you is kind of lame.
There is a TON of information directly related to your questions here on Singletracks and on the mighty Google. I would suggest you spend some time browsing, researching and comparing, paying particular attention to the blogs of semi-pro riders like this one or this one.
Then compile the data you have found in an informative, entertaining and easy to read format with some sort of value added feature like interactive online training forms or a section following a real rider (yourself or a willing subject) through your outlined program. Then market the crap out of it, including here, we’re all suckers for new stuff and have been known to plunk down real cash on something that is useful.
Fellow Singletrackers, if you don’t agree with me, save your flames, this "can you guys write my book for me" is a pet peeve of mine that I have also seen on other forums that I belong to.
That’s my $.02 worth.
[/rant]
maddslacker puts away soapbox
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