Since it seems that every traditional training concept I challenge, sometimes I feel that people must think I say stuff just to be different. While a lot of riders are starting to see the light when it comes to things such as avoiding machines like the leg press and incorporating more interval work into their cardio programs, there is one thing that I feel I have not done a very good job explaining my opposition to.

Of course, I am referring to using a road bike for off-season training. While the biggest problem is that road bike riding tends to be used in an attempt to build the mythical aerobic base we have been told we need to succeed, there is much more to the story than just that. Even if you buy into my concepts of “intensity over volume” and avoid excessive base mileage, you would still do well to avoid road bikes during your training.

I do need to make a quick point here - there is a difference between riding for fun and “training”. If you enjoy riding a road bike and want to do it then fine, under most circumstances I would not discourage you to have fun. However, you do need to recognize the difference between fun and training and use sound strategies when deciding how to spend your precious training time.

Now, onto part 1 of The Top 3 Reasons to leave the skinny tire riding to the roadies:

1) It creates a competing neural blueprint – This is an interesting concept that is rarely discussed, especially in mountain bike training. In order to simplify it let me give you this analogy.

You’re brain is like the processer in your computer. It basically tells everything what to do and how to do it. Your muscles are like the hardware in your computer. They do the actual work but need the brain to tell them what to do and how to do it. Your nervous system is like the software your computer uses to bridge the gap between your processer and hardware. How well your processer can make use of your hardware depends in large part on the quality of the software you have installed.

This analogy explains how your body works. Every time you create a movement your brain is using the nervous system to tell your muscles how hard to contract, what order to contract in and how long to contract for. Your nervous system starts to create a “software” program for that movement so that it becomes more instinctual. The more you repeat a movement the better your brain and nervous system learns that movement and the more refined and ingrained the “software program” for that movement pattern becomes.

Because a road bike puts you in a different position and it tends to be far lighter than your mountain bike your nervous system will actually creates a different “software” program for your brain to use in creating that movement. While they look similar, from your brain and nervous systems perspective riding a mountain bike and riding a road bike are two different tasks.

Any time spent training on a road bike is not spent ingraining and refining the movement patterns needed for riding a mountain bike. In fact, since they are similar you may be creating a competing software program – one that is close to but not exactly like the one you need on your mountain bike.

Some top strength coaches in other sports think that this may lead to inefficient movement over the long run as your body tries to figure out which of the two similar movement patterns to use at any given time. This is why you don’t find a lot of baseball pitchers throwing heavy baseballs or golfer swinging lighter clubs in the off season than what they compete with. These other coaches recognize the impact of the nervous system on training and either have their athletes doing the exact same thing they do in their sport or engaging in cross training.

Since mountain biking and road riding are not so far apart you can not consider road riding to be cross training, which also leads me to my second point…

2) It increases the likelihood of overuse injuries – to be continued….

-James Wilson-

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I realized the other day that there were very specific differences in how your body creates the pedaling motion in the seated versus standing positions. In fact, I think that we have been missing out on a big component of mountain bike specific cardio training by not better understanding the impact those differences have.

While I will be writing an article on this in the near future I got some of my thoughts down on this podcast so you can start to take advantage of this new way to look at designing your cardio program.

You can visit http://mtbstrengthcoach.podbean.com/ to find the downloadable MP3 file or if this player is not working.

-James Wilson-

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In my last article I wrote about the differences between “mountain bike cardio training” and “mountain bike endurance training” and how riders everywhere had been unduly influenced by the idea that they are the same thing. As I illustrated with my MTB Performance Wheel, though, cardio training is only one of eight training components that really influence how fast and long you can endure on your bike, making endurance training a different concept entirely. Now I want to get into how this information should influence your paradigm on training.

The cardio training paradigm says that the only way to get better is to add to your cardio capacity. Increasing VO2Max, lactate threshold and other markers used by science to measure cardio capacity is the central focus of this paradigm. Base miles, heart rate zones, weekly mileage and other cardio training tactics are pretty much the only tools used for getting faster on your bike. However, as my examples using Lance Armstrong and Mark Wier illustrate, there is far more to being the fastest rider possible than just cardio capacity.

The endurance training paradigm tells us that not only do we need to add to our cardio capacity but we also need to subtract from the negatives that keep us from effectively using our cardio capacity. Without recognizing this “addition by subtraction” effect you end up having to work twice as hard for half the results.

Since this is such a new concept for most I’ll go over the other elements of training and how “addition by subtraction” can influence your overall endurance –

1)Mobility – without good mobility in the hips and upper back you will end up in inefficient positions on your bike. You must have a straight lower back in order to create the best platform possible to create leg drive. If your lower back is rounded then your platform is compromised and you waste a lot of energy as you try to lay down strength and power with each stroke. Add in the fact that poor mobility is usually caused by excessive muscle tension and that tight muscles fatigue faster than usual and you have a recipe for a lot of wasted energy that no amount of cardio training can address.

2)Strength – poor strength levels mean that you have to tap into more energy reserves to create strong movements. Think of it his way – you hit a hill that requires you to use 70% of your leg strength with each stroke to power up. Let’s say that you increase your strength levels and now that hill only requires 60% of your leg strength with each stroke. You now use less energy to get up that hill and will have more for later stages of your ride/ race. Again, increased endurance without an increase in cardio capacity.

3)Power – power levels will help you better create quick, powerful movements on your bike. Quick bursts that take less than 10 seconds to complete, like passing someone on narrow single track when a small window opens up, can expend large amounts of energy if your power levels are poor. Improved power will keep those quick bursts from fatiguing you prematurely.

4)Technical Skills – this is a huge one that few riders appreciate. The key to going faster is to not only increase your speed but to scrub less speed in corners and in technical trail sections. Learning how to corner, how to get into proper position on your bike to set up for trail obstacles and myriad of other things will again result in less wasted energy.

5)Nutrition – this one should be a no brainer but bears mentioning. If you do not give your body the proper fuel to recover from training, power through rides and basically live your life then you will always feel that you lack the energy you want.

6)Mindset – if you are timid on your bike, deal with negative self-talk or otherwise do not how to mentally approach the challenges you face on your bike you will always be disappointed in your performance levels.

7)Recovery – drill this equation into your brain and you’ll be smarter than most “coaches” – Training + Recovery = Results. How well you recover from your training will dictate what kind of results you get. Simply adding to the training side of the equation with no regard to things like massage, stretching, sleep, ice, heat and a whole slew of other tactics to speed your recovery will result in less than optimal gains from your program. Learning how to monitor your recovery to make decisions on if you are doing enough or if you need to do more is also an important part of endurance training.

So there you have it, seven ways that you can increase endurance without increasing your cardio capacity. Just to drive this point home, I’ll give you one more analogy –

The cardio training paradigm is like always trying to add to the size of your gas tank. The endurance training paradigm not only looks at the size of your gas tank but also makes sure your alignment is good, you are firing on all cylinders and that you don’t have your parking brake on. Simply adding to the size of your gas tank while ignoring all of the things that are causing your gas mileage to suffer is pretty silly and no one would take their car to a mechanic that would suggest that, yet mountain bikers are taking that same approach with their training everyday.

From this perspective, your off season training should be spent looking at and addressing the loosest spokes on your MTB Performance Wheel, not just arbitrarily working on building your cardio capacity. You also need to make sure that your training is not making any of your negatives worse, which is where true cardio cross training comes in.

In my next article in this series I’ll explain why I do not think that using a road bike for any off season cardio training qualifies as real cross training and how it may in fact make it harder to address mobility issues while creating a competing neural blueprint in the process.

-James Wilson-

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Here’s the February Combo Demo of the Month. If you are using this as a conditioning workout in conjunction with another workout then just do 3 rounds.

-James Wilson-

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“I have been doing your dumbbell combos along with my own endurance programs and it has helped me tremendously, state championship in my first year of cycling and xc racing. Now I want focus on endurance events and my coach tells me I am going to have to give up weights and single speed bike for hours of spinning and base work.

I come from a power sport background so it would seem that would play against my strengths. I am guessing that I need your XC program in the Ultimate MTB Workout Program ? I can train around 30 hours a week.

Happy trails.”

Jeremy

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Jeremy,

Yes, the Ultimate MTB Workout Program and the XC cardio proram in it would be a good fit for you. You would still need to add in some longer rides depending on what kind of events you plan on competing in.

Two things for you to consider – if you come from a power sports background you may indeed be trying to compete in events that go against your natural strengths. Trying to apply traditional approaches to endurance training may have some mixed results. I’m not trying to disourage you from doing what you want, just pointing out that you may need a different approach than someone who comes from a more endurance based background to succeed.

Second, statements like “you need to give up weights” tells me that your coach may have a very limited understanding of true performance training. Using strength training to help restore and maintain balance in the body is a must for long term improvements. You can never forget that you are a human being that mountain bikes – you’re a human first and foremost.

The human body needs to have balance in strength and mobility levels in order to function optimally. A sport like cycling is very repetative in nature and creates massive imbalances in the body. For example, tight hip flexors and pecs coupled with weak hip and upper back muscles is very common in mountain bikers.

These imbalances will not only create inefficient movement but also result in overuse injuries down the road. Strength training is pretty much the only way to correct these imbalances and keep you functioning at the highest level possible. The view that cardio training is the only way to get better endurance is an extemely narrow view on training for our unique sport.

I don’t want to discount the advice you got from your coach but I would be doing you a disservice if I did not point out that their advice may not be the best way to approach your training. There is an old saying – “Beware the man of one way”.  A multi-faceted approach is always the best way to go about your training.

Ride Strong,

James Wilson

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It never fails…every time a new person starts with us at my facility they inevitably hit a frustration point. Even “fit” people are shocked at how little they really know about their body and how it is supposed to move and work. Even though I warn people that there is a 2 week learning curve where you learn to show body awareness and control that they simply are not used to displaying it is still frustrating as they realize how many things they have to work on.

Last week I was working with a client who has been with us for a bit and he started to voice some frustration about an exercise and how something new we had made him aware of “made it harder”. This got me thinking about how most people approach their fitness program.

Most people want to feel good about and protect their ego. Getting out of their comfort zone scares the crap out of them and so they avoid exercises and programs that challenge them. This is another one of the reasons that things like machines and aerobics equipment are so popular – they do some of the work for you and make for an easier training experience.

What I realized was that mindset will always lead to lackluster results. Here are a couple of things I tell clients to help them keep things in perspective -

An ancient Chinese proverb says that “to be different from what you are, you must first know what you are”. The first step in changing something is finding out what it is and how you want it to change. This process can never start if you always avoid things that expose your weaknesses and give you a proper perspective on what and where you really are.

As frustrating as it may be at first, every weakness that you expose is an opportunity for change that you did not have the day before. From that point of view finding weaknesses should be embraced because that is the first real step in exacting change in your body.

You also want to remember that if you have the proper mindset you will want to seek out your weaknesses, not hide from them. Because the discovery of weaknesses is the first step in exacting change you never want to reach the point where you think that you have no weaknesses or else you have no more opportunities for change and growth.

What makes the masters in any craft better than anyone else is their constant desire to find their weaknesses and improve on them. Even the simplest of exercises hold lessons for everyone out there to learn, we just need to seek them instead of avoiding them. This mindset will not only help you achieve better results in the gym but also in your life, which is what training is really all about.

-James Wilson-

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