Enduro training room

JJJJNR

Have been on the bike less and less this year due to work and other commitments, so the fitness has started to deplete a bit, not entering any races currently but plan on doing some next season so want to set out now with a training plan for Autumn / winter.

What training off the bike do people who do the races find most helpful.

Tenzor07

I've seen that the likes of Greg Callaghan does a lot of gym work, strength conditioning and balance..
Also gets the road bike out and the miles in for the fitness, with plenty of intervals too..

And of course if you can then book a week or two over in Gran Canaria in January, those rocky trails will shake the fitness into your arms n legs!

rizzodun

From some lads I've seen its mostly as Tenzor said, miles on the road bike over the winter, with some gym work.

steamsey

Get the core activated! Squats, planks etc. Bit of upper body weight training. High Intensity Interval Training classes might be a good idea for the winter for cardio.

JJJJNR

Currently doing planks every day and find its helping a lot with my core strength, certainly notice on the trails that I seem to have more control.

Not a fan of the road tbh
How much turbo trainer work is enough, is it a case of short 30 minute workouts are enough or should I be spending a couple of hours on the turbo trainer. There are a few YouTube videos which you can cycle along to but they are only 30 mins long. These are interval based sessions.

emeraldmtb

I've been the same. The winter was rubbish and super long so little got done and the fitness come summer was appaling.

I use the turbo trainer just to keep the legs spinning, and any time is better than none. Same with road rides. I have tried to work in Intervals in both, but I hate those so that doesn't happen often.

I've recently started the MTB Fitness 12 week programme, which has plans for gym and body-weight workouts. Lots of planks, crunches and squats so far. It works up a sweat that's for sure.

xxyyzz

JJJJNR wrote: »

Currently doing planks every day and find its helping a lot with my core strength, certainly notice on the trails that I seem to have more control.

Not a fan of the road tbh
How much turbo trainer work is enough, is it a case of short 30 minute workouts are enough or should I be spending a couple of hours on the turbo trainer. There are a few YouTube videos which you can cycle along to but they are only 30 mins long. These are interval based sessions.

Do a group turbo session rather than on your own, you'll push yourself harder with someone roaring at you (I find anyway). Although I have found as I have gotten older harder turbo sessions are killing my immune system.

Wanderer78

emeraldmtb wrote:

I've recently started the MTB Fitness 12 week programme, which has plans for gym and body-weight workouts. Lots of planks, crunches and squats so far. It works up a sweat that's for sure.

Where you doing that?

emeraldmtb

mtb.fitness is the website (can’t post links yet). 30 something euro for the whole plan? was worth the money imo.

JJJJNR

emeraldmtb wrote: »

mtb.fitness is the website (can’t post links yet). 30 something euro for the whole plan? was worth the money imo.

emeraldmtb wrote: »

I've been the same. The winter was rubbish and super long so little got done and the fitness come summer was appaling.

I use the turbo trainer just to keep the legs spinning, and any time is better than none. Same with road rides. I have tried to work in Intervals in both, but I hate those so that doesn't happen often.

I've recently started the MTB Fitness 12 week programme, which has plans for gym and body-weight workouts. Lots of planks, crunches and squats so far. It works up a sweat that's for sure.

My schedule is all over the place at the moment, but most of the plans seem to involve body weight exercises which can be done anywhere so does it involve the following, and how many sessions a week should you do 1 and 1 day recovery and repeat. ?

Burpees
Jumping Jacks
Planking
Side planking
Squats
Pushups
High knees
Leg Raises

I got a tip off a colleague of mine who recommended doing front lunges with the heaviest weight I can take, I've got some dumbells which I'm going to max out. Don't want to sound like im a expert or a extreme athletic I'm not. So I'm probably going to take a cross fit class and do everything there supervised.

emeraldmtb

The 12 week one has both plans for gym and bodyweight, which is why i chose it, not time for gyms.

I’m only three weeks in but so far it’s been a mix of
squats, with and without weights
planks, front and side
pushups
lunges, with and without weights
and various crunches

also it recommend getting resistance bands, which i did, and it adds some good upper body exercises too.

for the £30 it costs i highly recommend the plan

iwillhtfu

emeraldmtb wrote: »

The 12 week one has both plans for gym and bodyweight, which is why i chose it, not time for gyms.

I’m only three weeks in but so far it’s been a mix of
squats, with and without weights
planks, front and side
pushups
lunges, with and without weights
and various crunches

also it recommend getting resistance bands, which i did, and it adds some good upper body exercises too.

for the £30 it costs i highly recommend the plan

I've got this plan and I'm yet to get my head a round it.

What am I doing the first week? I must get on to Mat and ask him which I choose seems to be 3 options last I looked albeit briefly. Plan to start it next Monday.

Lemming

emeraldmtb wrote: »

The 12 week one has both plans for gym and bodyweight, which is why i chose it, not time for gyms.

... snip ...

for the £30 it costs i highly recommend the plan

iwillhtfu wrote: »

I've got this plan and I'm yet to get my head a round it.

What am I doing the first week? I must get on to Mat and ask him which I choose seems to be 3 options last I looked albeit briefly. Plan to start it next Monday.

I've been humming and hawing about that plan since he first announced (and then released it). I'm on his email sub list so get his mailshots about various matters training-related. I'd be interested to hear how you find picking it up and getting started with it goes.

iwillhtfu

Lemming wrote: »

I've been humming and hawing about that plan since he first announced (and then released it). I'm on his email sub list so get his mailshots about various matters training-related. I'd be interested to hear how you find picking it up and getting started with it goes.

I predict I'll be sore for the first few weeks. Seems to contain a lot of basic but heavy lifts I'll take another read tomorrow.

steamsey

emeraldmtb wrote: »

The 12 week one has both plans for gym and bodyweight, which is why i chose it, not time for gyms.

I’m only three weeks in but so far it’s been a mix of
squats, with and without weights
planks, front and side
pushups
lunges, with and without weights
and various crunches

also it recommend getting resistance bands, which i did, and it adds some good upper body exercises too.

for the £30 it costs i highly recommend the plan

Sounds good - do you mind me asking what benefits you've noticed, particularly any on the bike?

emeraldmtb

iwillhtfu wrote: »

I've got this plan and I'm yet to get my head a round it.

What am I doing the first week? I must get on to Mat and ask him which I choose seems to be 3 options last I looked albeit briefly. Plan to start it next Monday.

So, basically, there are two training plans in the programme, one for if you have gym access and the other using only bodyweight exercises (although he does recommend a set of dumbbells and resistance bands) that you can do at home or wherever.

whatever plan you follow, there are stretches to do daily and Interval sessions to alternate with the gym/home exercises. Although he does say if you are tight for time you can do workout and interval sessions on the same day.

Also, the exercises change every two weeks to stop you getting in too much of a routine.

I do the bodyweight one, so for week 1, assuming I started on a Monday, I'd do Week 1/2 plan A, intervals on Tuesday, week 1/2 plan B on Wednesday, intervals on thursday, Plan A again on Friday, rest on the weekend, Plan B on Monday, intervals, Plan A, intervals, ending with Plan B on the second Friday. Then next week you go on to weeks3&4...

Every exercise is linked to a youtube video demonstrating the movements.

I'd be interested to hear how you find picking it up and getting started with it goes.

You need a bit of self-motivation obviously to keep it up. so far I'm in 5 weeks, but I'm really only on week 3+4 because I let it go for a week or so.
The first day on each plan does require a bit of stopping and watching the youtube demos to get an idea of what you're meant to be doing, but I find the second time I only need to see a single frame to remember what I'm doing.

I predict I'll be sore for the first few weeks. Seems to contain a lot of basic but heavy lifts

If you stick to the plan, do the reps he sets or go to fail on the pushups etc where he says, i.e. push yourself, Yes, you will be sore. On some of the lunges I upped the weight, at his recommendation (you get access to the Facebook group where he's really active answering questions), rather than simply doing more. And you notice that the day after

do you mind me asking what benefits you've noticed, particularly any on the bike?

As I said I'm only really in about 4 weeks, so I've limited experience so far.

He has a stretch routine that's recommended to do daily. takes about 10 minutes. This helps flexibility. I haven't been overly conscientious about sticking to this one, but I do notice a difference if I keep it up for more than a few days at a time, on and off the bike.

I've been terrible at doing the intervals because I hate those. I've tried to replace them with as many hard hill climbs as I can on my rides instead. After about two rides of doing this, I started beating all my climbing times on Strava.

The workouts have the most noticeable effect if you stick to the routine and don't take it easy. I don't generally weigh myself so I can't tell you how much, but I've definitely lost some weight, my belts are all at least a notch tighter :P And the core workouts noticeably help with my stability on the bike when descending.

All-in-all if I can keep kicking myself off the couch, I intend to complete the programme.

JJJJNR

Kicked off this week, couch to enduro, perfect weather for biking at the moment, but I'm miles away from where I want to be fitness wise, so gently getting back into this.

Monday 8km walk.
Tuesday Ballinastoe handy night lap.
Wednesday 30 min HIT turbo.
Thursday rest.
Friday 15 min hit turbo,lunge with weights 2 sets, planks x 2, 5 mins squats.
Saturday 15 min hit turbo, 8 min big gear 1 min recovery etc
Sunday Ballinastoe #Fu*kcancer lap.

Have been getting the diet sorted also, so back on mainly veg and eggs.

prunudo

JJJJNR wrote: »

Kicked off this week, couch to enduro, perfect weather for biking at the moment, but I'm miles away from where I want to be fitness wise, so gently getting back into this.

Monday 8km walk.
Tuesday Ballinastoe handy night lap.
Wednesday 30 min HIT turbo.
Thursday rest.
Friday 15 min hit turbo,lunge with weights 2 sets, planks x 2, 5 mins squats.
Saturday 15 min hit turbo, 8 min big gear 1 min recovery etc
Sunday Ballinastoe #Fu*kcancer lap.

Have been getting the diet sorted also, so back on mainly veg and eggs.

Just in relation to the night spin in Ballinastoe, whats is like for security, was always weary about parking up there outside busy times.

JJJJNR

PM'd