Mountain Bike Rider — March 2018

22 mbr MARCH 2018

FAST & FIT

What’sthebestwaytogetfasterandmakesureyoudon’tsuckallthe
fun out of your riding? Should you go flat-out up every hill? Thankfully,
no,it’spainfulandprobablywon’timproveyourspeed.Iseemany
riders who don’t make progress in their performance even though they
ridequiteregularly,sofollowthesepointstokeepmovingforward.
Oftensocialridesareriddenatalowspeed,withfrequentstops.
Thedownhillsaredoneinaflurry,butbetweenthemthechatismore
importantthanthepace—andthisisfine.Formanythisiswhyweride
anyway.However,itwon’tmakeyouanyfaster.Ifyoualwaysdothe
sameridesyouwon’timprove,asyourbodyhasnoreasontoadapt.
It’s time to challenge yourself.

FITTER BY

STEALTH

Not getting any faster on your regular Sunday loop?

Alan Milway shows you how to ride yourself fi tter

without piling on extra miles or killing the fun

PUSH THE PACE UPHILL
Have three or four hills that are deemed personal races. Set a goal to
cover the distance and hit it hard. Spread them out well over the ride and
don’t up the pace everywhere, just on a few key climbs. Get your mates
involved in friendly competition — a hard 10 minutes, a sprint uphill before
going straight into a downhill, not stopping once over the full two hours.
These three simple alterations won’t leave you feeling shattered, but the
increased intensity will make a big difference to your performance.

MONITOR YOUR RIDE

Strava is a double-edged sword — it can push you to improve, but it’s

easy to go beyond your limits too. However, if you can use some form of

timing to monitor parts of your ride (especially the long, draggy climbs)

you can go at them a little harder each time, and this will be a way to

monitor performance. Bear in mind you need to rest in order to recover

and perform again, so don’t be a Strava slave.

WARM UP PROPERLY
We all have that friend who sets off too fast, looks fi t and strong, but
after 45 minutes is toast. This is partly due to a poor warm-up and paying
for the hard, early effort, and it really hits home for those of us who are
no longer teenagers, with more desk time than bike time. So the fi rst
10-15 minutes of every ride should consist of chatting and catching up,
then you can open the taps (once the blood has started pumping and
your joints are warmed up) and tackle a harder ride.