Five Training Components To Improve Your Mountain Bike Fitness

[I:http://www.mountainbikesplease.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/KeithRejino2.jpg]Before you think about entering your next mountain bike race, it may be a good idea to ask yourself what your race goal is. Is it to finish in the top 10 of your age group, or improve your time for a specific course? If it's your first race, maybe your goal is to finish.

Whatever race goals you choose, it's a good idea to start planning how your mountain bike training will get you there in the weeks prior to the event. Having a better understanding of the five components of training, and how you can adjust them will give you a better foundation for planning your next mountain bike race.

1. Frequency / Repetition - How many times you mountain bike in a week is an example of frequency while repetition is the number of intervals or hills you do in a given mountain bike ride. Frequency and repetition are the components you can manipulate to ensure the quality of your training sessions.

The main purpose of interval training is to train through repeated, high intensive exercise followed by a recovery period. Done properly with rest, intervals can increase your muscular and mental strength to perform at a higher level. Hill climbing is a good example of interval training for the mountain biker.

2. Terrain - Riding on different terrains allows the mountain biker to strengthen all the muscles necessary to perform well on race day. By shifting your body weight during your ride or standing on your pedals, you can shift more of the workload to your hamstring and gluteus maxima muscles and less from your quadriceps.

For competitors, the rule - nothing new on race day - applies here. To keep your physical and mental stress level to a sustainable amount, train on similar terrain as your next mountain bike race.

3. Volume - Training volume is the measure of miles or hours you train in a given workout, week, month or year. Most coaches focus on time spent in the saddle. 15 miles on a relatively flat mountain bike ride could take you 60 minutes as compared to two hours for a ride on hilly terrain.

Adjust your training volume down or up to decrease or increase your training load. Your aerobic system efficiency is improved by mountain biking at low intensity below your lactate threshold.

Volume and intensity are inversely related. Most times, when you increase your volume, you will need to reduce your training session intensity. Intervals at high intensity usually require you to reduce your volume to allow for more rest and prevent overtraining.

4. Intensity - is the level of effort you put into your training workouts. Mountain biking for an easy 90 minute ride with your friends talking along the way is quite different then hammering up a steep mountain for 90 minutes.

The heart rate monitor is the tool of choice for most athletes seeking to measure intensity. With improvements and advanced features like GPS, heart rate monitors have become a valuable tool to the athlete over the last 20 plus years.

If you have extra cash lying around, a power meter is becoming the new standard for measuring power output. Although more prevalent with triathletes and road cyclists, a power meter is very accurate in measuring your power output.

5. Pedal Cadence - training at difference pedal cadences develops your mind and muscles to handle various terrains, and provides your muscles with different stimulus, which is necessary to maximize muscular strength.

Practicing pedal cadence training will develop your anaerobic and aerobic energy systems, pedal stroke efficiency, cadence, and MTB skills. Achieving an effective training program for pedal cadence will add additional human gears which will help maximize your MTB performance.

A solid mountain bike training plan is based on exercise science, but the best training plan for you requires testing and constant changing to find what works best for your unique physical and psychological make-up. Applying exercise science as a starting point then testing and adjusting these five training components to find your winning formula may be the best path for you.

Keith Rejino is a mountain biker, personal trainer, and sports photographer for Dreamscape Images. His MTB Racing website provides race coverage, XC Mountain Biking and nutrition tips. For more XC Mountain Biking tips, check it out.

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