Hey yall i race mountain bikes and I’m trying to figure out how I should train for nationals, like how much should I ride, how much should I do TrainerRoad, and when should I start resting before the race, my season just ended a couple weeks ago and this year and last year I used TrainerRoad alot and I really think it helped me because I podiumed every NICA race I did and won 1 I mostly did like 3 hours a week of hard trainer stuff and sometimes I got to ride with my team but my Mama and Daddy work alot so it’s hard to make all the rides, also they have never raced bikes and my town don’t even have a NICA team so I don’t really have a ton of info besides what Trainer road tells me and my team coaches are rad but they are mostly just out there having fun and helping kids ride, I actually like the trainer alot because when I finish something hard it makes me feel like I did something big and I feel proud of myself, me and my dad listen to the TrainerRoad podcast alot too and coach Jonathan has to be the nicest person I ever heard talk, after the season my dad told me to take a couple weeks off and rest so I just been riding around in the woods at home for fun and not really doing workouts, now school is out and it’s summer break and I don’t really have much I have to do so I have time to ride but also plenty of time to rest too, I just don’t know what the best plan is from now until nationals, should I keep doing about 3 hours a week of hard stuff, should I ride more since it’s summer, should I ride outside more instead of the trainer, and how many days before nationals should I stop doing hard stuff so my legs feel good, I’m pretty good in the woods and downhill stuff is not really my problem and I have some top 10s on Strava on some downhills around here, the thing I don’t get is alot of my races feel like go hard then slow down then turn then go hard again over and over but TrainerRoad gives me like 6 or 7 minute hard stuff sometimes and I tell my dad that don’t feel like my races, so does that still help or should I be doing shorter hard stuff that feels more like racing, I really want to do good at nationals but I don’t want to do too much or mess up and make it not fun anymore, what would yall do if you were helping me get ready for nationals?
That’s awesome you’ve been doing so well in all of your races. I’m sure general advice would be to have fun riding your bike and work in some TrainerRoad workouts when it makes sense and most importantly make sure you’re recovering well and not overtraining. I think if you’re really serious, which it sounds like you are, and the fact you’re asking for advice here even more so. You might reach out to someone like Kate Courtney on Instagram and ask for advice about professional coaching. If you’re looking to be competitive at the national level she’s someone from Northern CA that’s been incredibly successful at the highest levels and started racing young in this areas local scene and she’s very supportive of developing the next generation of women’s riders so she may have some very specific advice relevant to your situation.
It’s difficult to answer without knowing where you stand in your training and when is nationals. Some generic advice would be to spend a lot of time this summer on the mountain bike, both for fitness and skills development, and ride with your team whenever you can. Riding with better/faster riders is an excellent builder.
Besides that, TrainerRoad can build a plan for the event, which will give you an idea of periodization and also keep fatigue in check. Good luck, if you provide more info I’m sure you will receive more replies.
Welcome to the forums @Nicagirl1 well done on your races! @Jonathan coaches a local school cycling team iirc according to the latest podcast so he may be well placed to advise you.
The community here is international, and can advise on training plans generally, so if you know how long until your next big race it would help us to help you. Structured training is great, but a planned break is a great idea.