New Rider Looking for Advice

[viperhunter]

Hey there,

I’m a new rider who is registered for a 6 hour race in the upstate and the end of June. Not really looking to do anything but have a good time. Can anyone recommend what steps I should be taking to prepare? I ride a 16 mile loop that is fairly nice for my area and I will be able to ride the race trail at the end of May. I ride 5 times a week anywhere from 7 to 12 miles on the road due to work and location and the trail only on the weekend.

Also, the race is in the mountains and I have none around me! lol

Thanks 😃

[fat_billy]

Ride as much as you can before the race to get ready. Start the race easy and ride till you aren’t having fun and passing guys who started too fast. THEN We’ll see you at the beer tent! Don’t forget chicks dig wounds and good stories. Remeber sympathy in in the dictonary between Sh*t and syphilis. Good luck. 😄 Later,

[Greg Heil ✓ supporter]

7-12 miles a day is nowhere near enough to prepare you for riding 6 hours. Try working on upping the amount of time you are on the bike to the 6 hour mark. Instead of riding the same amount each day, plan a couple of longer rides each week, with one day per week being a really long effort, with a couple of short recovery spins in between

[stumpyfsr ✓ supporter]

Once a week ride 6 hour straight at your normal pace with last 30 min at max you can do. Then you can consider yourself ready for having fun on 6 hour RACE. I wasn’t sure am I ready for 25 mile race until I rode 25 mile. And yeah, nothing taste better then ice cold beer after finish. Have fun and don’t forget to post your race report.

My word of advice is to crank up the road miles on your MTB. Don’t let it get to your head that you need to be on the trail every single day. training in the woods on a daily basis can really eat into your wallet and you may not be getting the saddle time you need on the short trails that you described. Get on the trail one day a week to keep your mtb’ing skills up and use the road to build that base "saddle time" that you WILL need to stay on the bike for six hours. Hop that helps!

[centralpark]

I wishing best for you trial riding on this end of the month.

[Jared13 ✓ supporter]

Let us know how it goes!

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