Mountain Biking Reviews

1. 

   shuttster2000
   May 9th, 2010 - 18:11

   If there’s one available in your area, join a cycling club especially if they have a MTB component.
   As for getting “really fit,” consider joining a gym, cross training on a road bike and/or running and pay attention to what you eat. Are you needing to lose weight or improve strength and stamina?
   Determine what kind of racing you want to do — cross country, downhill, all mountain, etc. — and focus on that event with appropriate intervals and climbing drills.
   When you enter your first race, enter as a novice or beginner, regardless of your fitness level or experience on the trail as a non-competing MTBer.
2. 

   Steve C
   May 9th, 2010 - 18:50

   You’re boned
3. 

   carlos
   May 9th, 2010 - 19:24

   go an follow good racers in any trail and observe their techniques. then bust your butt and get your hearth rate going and get fit by riding lots of miles
   carlos
   http://www.bikingthings.com
4. 

   Ride!Urban
   May 9th, 2010 - 19:53

   Start with a good cardio base and build your riding muscles…..by riding! Cross training won’t help a huge deal….not like actual riding….but working out your core muscles and upper body will still have benefits on the bike.

   When you race, your heart is at maximum from the word go, and if you’re competetive with yourself or nearby racers, it won’t ever drop too much. It’s important to pace yourself when you race so that you don’t blow up, but you should push yourself as much as you can for the whole race. Or, you can take it easy and just have a fun race, which lots of people do.

   So, to prepare for that, when you have your base fitness at a decent point, then start riding *hard* at the very beginning of your rides. Blast out of the trailhead….do it uphill if you can….and just go all-out for a couple miles. The stress-response that occurs in a racing start will murder you if you aren’t used to it. Your body will adapt soon….it’ll be funny though, because you may find yourself huffing and puffing after a flight of stairs even though you’re physically fit! The sudden effort turns your body on oxygen-mode once you do it for awhile.

   Other than that, just keep on practicing your handling and cornering skills. Riding when you’re stressed/tired can make you sloppy, so remember to keep your arms and upper body relaxed. Hydrate well a couple days before the ride, and use a camelbak during the race….you won’t usually have many opportunities to fool with a water bottle. Be sure your bike is in good shape and carry a chain tool with you on the ride (possibly a tube and tire levers, too).

   The Beginner class is usually pretty furious…..lots of people stick in that class when they should cat up to Sport but don’t want to, so you may have some seasoned competition to deal with. And most beginners only do one lap of the course, so it’s a frenzy instead of a managed fast pace. The most important thing you need to do is gauge where you want to be in the pack and then fight like crazy at the start to get to the singletrack in that position…..most trails have very few areas where you can pass, and people may be buttheads about letting you pass (most are cool, just hang on their wheel and ask to get by….).

   Anyway….have fun! Racing can be a blast. I’m not mentally as competitive as I was a few years ago, so now when I do show at a race I just enjoy the ride, ride my own race, and have fun with the guys. Don’t ever lose those qualities as a rider…..otherwise you get too full of p*ss and testosterone and start to act like a roadie racer. lol )

   (Disclaimer: The above snide comment was intended as rider-humor and should not be miscontrued or misinterpreted to mean that the author endorses cycling discipline discrimination. The author rides road bikes, too, and likes roadies the same as any other cyclist.) ;o)
5. 

   sfr1224
   May 9th, 2010 - 20:49

   Everyone has a first race. Don’t sweat it.

   You don’t mention what kind of racing you are interested in doing. There is a huge difference between down hill racing, cross country (XC) racing and endurance racing.

   Assuming you are going to do XC or endurance racing, first thing to do is educate yourself regarding conditioning. In my estimation, the best book out there is Joe Friel’s “The Cyclist Training Bible.” It is more oriented towards road racing, but the fundamentals of conditioning are the same for road and mountain biking.

   In my own humble opinion, XC racing is much like a criterium racing on a road bike. You are going flat out for a short period of time. On a tight trail, the winner will usually be the person who can sprint out of the start and then hold of the competitors. Endurance mountain bike racing is a world of prolonged pain and ecstacy unlike anything else in the world.

   Anyhow, as Joe Friel explains in his book, a cycling year should be broken into segments or periods. In the first segment, you build aerobic conditioning via long, steady miles on a bike. In the second segment, you build power via short, intense workouts. In the third segment you are performing at your tip top condition for your most important races.

   Most top mountain bike racers do a tremendous amount of conditioning on road bikes. This is because your body takes less of a beating on the road. Also, you have a bit more control of the terrain to manage your pace.

   That said, bike handling in a road race is a joke compared to bike handling in a mountain bike race. So, the other important component of preparing for mountain bike races is riding challenging trails at the bleeding edge of your ability. You’ve just got to learn how to whip your bke through the course at high speed. Brakes, of course, must be thought of as your enemy. Flying around a trail at the bleeding edge of disaster while leading a race is both scary and thrilling.

   Don’t expect to go out and win your first few races. Do expect to drop your jaw at how much speed some folks can carry through the course. Over time you will learn how to handle your bike and others will stand in awe of your crazy skills.

   Hope this helps. Good luck.
6. 

   Carl_the_Truth
   May 9th, 2010 - 21:21

   Ride, ride, ride…
7. 

   Tarmac Skin
   May 9th, 2010 - 21:26

   get a HR Monitor and read a couple of books and ride as much as yu can. The rest will come with experience. There is always a first race!!
8. 

   christian_cyclist
   May 9th, 2010 - 21:43

   A prayer wouldn’t hurt.

   Good luck!
9. 

   slickpins
   May 9th, 2010 - 21:44

   The importance of the technical aspects of mountain bike racing cannot be overestimated. You do need to be fit, but you can accomplish that in a variety of well-known ways, such as running, rowing, and particularly road biking. But “getting fit” is a no-brainer compared to “getting prepared” for your first mountain bike race.

   There’s no more efficient approach to the sport-specific fitness required in mountain biking than by riding trails. Furthermore, effective racing requires (a) riding fast from the start of the trail, (b) pushing the hills, (c) learning to recover while riding downhill – including technical downhill, without consciously slowing down, (d) riding fast through twisty, undulating singletrack – the latter being undoubtedly the most fun of all.

   It’s difficult to address these sport-specific needs off the trail because so much of it is either technical or mental. For example, you don’t just ride uphill, you ride uphill over rocks and roots that test your fitness in completely different ways. Also, you may be fit and fast, but you may be intimidated, especially by (seemingly) steep, not to mention, technical downhills. These situations can occur (even on Beginner race courses) to the point where you are walking – not just some, which is reasonable – but too much of the course, and, well, they have walking races in other venues that don’t require you to push a bike or be particularly fit.

   To this end, I would suggest the following:
   1) If you have a particular race in mind, do ALL of your trail riding on that race course. If you don’t have a particular race in mind, pick one, and focus ALL of your trail riding on that race course. Not only is a beginner that’s not intimately familiar with the race course at an enourmous psychological disadvantage, but the learning/training process will be much more efficient for purposes of your first race if you’re learning/training for the technical challenges that you will actually face.

   2) Schedule permitting, you can ride every day on the race course without overtraining.
   For example, as a once weekly endurance workout, ride the entire course non-stop. Obviously you’re not “racing” the course once a week, but you’re also not stopping to rest or walking the difficult sections casually.
   As many times a week as possible, ride portions of the course. There are always ways to shorten the ride by cuttting off loops or doing out-and-backs. Use these days to not only push yourself pace-wise, but to also work on technical sections. When you come to a difficult rocky uphill, repeat it a few times, but don’t overdo it because fatigue will affect your technique and subsequent attempts will become counterproductive.
   You can even observe the necessary rest/recovery days on the trail by focussing on the challenges of the DOWNHILL sections. Try running a shuttle to a high point on the trail (a la downhillers) and work on riding downhill faster (wheee!), or, in the case of technical sections, work on not walking. Breaking downhill technical sections up into very short segments (as short as 30 feet) which you can study and master through repetition is very effective. With just a few such sessions, you’ll not only ride them faster, but cut out much of the time off the bike, which means you’ll be a lot less tired at the end of the section.

   3) Learn to enjoy the technical aspects of trail riding. For example, experiment with your body position going into, and accelerating out of, your turns. Think jet fighter (minus the guns). Get accustomed to riding downhill crouched down low with your butt so far behind the seat that you feel yourself actually standing perfectly balanced on the pedals with no weight whatsover on the handlebar (even pulling on it slightly). This feels very cool even on smooth paved downhills and is a valuable technique on the trail. Practice standing while pedalling when going over a bridge or up the driveway.

   Oh yeah, and doing a little trail maintenance once in a while is also a worthwhile part of your fitness regimen.

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