Mountain Bike plans when you don't race

[S376B]

Hi All,

New to TR and indoor training. Up until recently buying a Wahoo Kickr I’ve always ridden my trail bike between 2-4 times per week outside (depending on time of year) with out any structure.

My type of ride is trail/all mountain usually between 20-40k and 800-1500m of elevation. I bought the turbo with the intention of boosting fitness over winter - aim to turbo 2-3 days per week and get out once a week.

Is there anyone else using TR for general bike fitness rather than for a specific race?

Any advice programme structure might work? Would enduro be the closest fit?

Thanks in advance ,

P.s please be kind , it’s my first post and I have attempted to search the forum prior to posting

[Cleanneon98]

I don’t race but just train for my own fitness. I have had great luck with the sweet spot base and general build plans (I don’t do specialty). Maybe do those low volume and you can still get out for fresh air once a week

[Juarez]

Hey,
I’m similar to you. I like to train and I don’t race (much). I am an MTB instructor and start teaching in early May so I like to be fit for the start of lesson time.

I do 3 block son training each winter starting in early October. This season i will do low volume, sweet spot base, then I’ll likely do a lower build and finally a XC marathon MTB plan. I keep them to 3 days because I fatbike and XC ski on the weekends in winter. If I don’t ride outside I add extra workouts to my schedule. I like the simplicity of Trainer Road, but I also Try to do one Zwift race every week and I do the Tour de Zwift in January (sometimes I is the TdZ to replace TR workouts that week.

Feel free to ask me questions.

Here is my blog post on getting started with indoor training:

Getting Started With Indoor Training

This is my run-on forum post which is not yet posted to the blog:

Getting Started with Indoor Training, Beginner Info

I keep sharing the same info (below) so we’ve moved it to a separate thread to make it easy to share. (This is simply to reduce my repeated huge posts inside other threads.) There have been a bunch of new riders posting different questions about getting started with FTP, what to do about the overall difficulty of workouts and plans, and generally how to advance through training. This is something I think about a lot and I’m trying to capture and share some of the novice knowledge to help othe…

[S376B]

Great thank you!

[S376B]

Thanks very much this is a really helpful start!

I have a couple of follow on questions…

1. I previousy tried the dirt destroyer program on Zwift, admittedly i didn’t finish the programme due to the inflexibility of zwift timetable. However the program focused heavily of low cadence work 65-75rpm. Do you try and incompass sloer cadences into your programming?

2. Are you using a roadbike or mountain bike in your trainer? I’ve opted for mountain bike to maintain a similar riding position although it certainly has its disadvantages in terms of gearing.

Thanks Again!

[Cleanneon98]

I’d think the MTB has an easier climbing gear, though if you’re doing ERG mode that makes 0 difference. Your mileage may vary, but my road bike has a 36x28 easy gear (36/28=1.28) while my MTB has a 32x50 (32/50=.64)

[S376B]

Yeh i’m thinking thats the weigh off, I won’t have the gearing for zwift races (fine in erg mode) but on a plus i’ll be in a similar riding position to my trail bike.

[Juarez]

Hey,
On my Trainer is my road bike. If you have a road bike, use it. Better to have more closely spaced gears, even in erg mode. (Although when using erg it doesn’t matter as much what gears you have as the trainer handles power).

See this post:

Does gear choice matter?

Gearing in ERG Mode Technically, if you are doing target power training, gear selection does not affect your training. 260w is 260w in any gear. But an easier gear combo has slightly different leverage action from harder gears, and when you ride in a harder gear your flywheel has greater momentum which also factors in. There is some validity to using appropriate gearing on the Erg trainer to better target different muscles that are triggered by different gearing. The short answer is “Ride i…

I use the cadence recommendations in the TR instructions for most workouts. This is usually 85-95 for normal cadence, up to 120 for high spin work, and as low as 65-70 for slow work.

When mountain biking my cadence is usually 65-95.

[nforrest]

I’m in the same boat as you, except I use the trainer year-round and then just get out on the MTB as after as I can - usually about twice a week.

I just set up an MTB plan on TR without and events and it lined me up with SSBLV1, SSBLV2, Short Power Build, Gravity Low Volume, then repeat. It’s a year of training planned out, 3 sessions a week for 30 to 90 minutes each session.

[S376B]

Yeh that’s very similar to what I’ve had planned out only difference is the xc marathon as the speciality.

Out of interest to you complete your three indoor rides and then outdoor on top of that?

[nforrest]

Yes - that’s exactly what I do.
I try hard to hit all 3 trainer rides during the week and then also ride outdoors when I can - about twice a week, but sometimes only once. My outdoor rides are usually with friends and the pace is pretty casual - lots of stops to regroup, BS, etc. so the intensity isn’t very high.