What do you do for endurbro training?

[WaistDeepGroomers]

Looking to do one or two low key enduros at the end of the summer/beginning of the fall. Never really 'train' for anything these days, the thought scares me, but I've been pretty psyched on the boost in my fitnazz level with the years out West and want to keep it up and make an effort to tackle the aspect that always plagued in past enduros, which was just stamina. Second to that would be pacing, but I think some of that would be solved by actually pre-riding any of the courses I intend to race... mostly I just get enough time/wife permission to get out for the day of the race, so I'm always riding everything blind and gassing myself early in stages.

Anyways, been doing a healthy amount of 2+ hour rides since coming back east, feeling pretty strong throughout and standing while pedaling for the most part, which was a big weaknazz in the past. But was passed along a family road bike after moving back and have been on that a bit, already feeling the difference in pedaling strength, and just tried the 'endurance-threshold intervals' workout this AM on it that I found here: https://www.julianabicycles.com/en/m...elli-intervals

I had loathed intervals before but the road bike makes it easier to deal with and more fun. Curious what people try that's really helped. Not gonna bother with a gym (most I can manage to do is TRX in the garage) and not going to go so fancy as to track workouts and wear a heartrate monitor, etc. But want to find 1-2 things I can try and do every week like the intervals mentioned above to get those pedals moving quicklyer.

[jackstraw]

I think you should come over to our trails and build berms where we need them. Great workout and guaranteed to make you faster and me happier. Win win!

[alewi11]

It sounds like you're on the right track already. You really just want to replicate a race as much as possible. So do some bigger, longer rides but make sure you're really pushing it on the downhill sections. That along with some interval training and pre-riding courses is really all you need. Pre-riding is extremely important but you've got to be smart about it. Most races don't release the course till a day or 2 before the race. You want to make sure you pre-ride stages as much as you possibly can without getting yourself too wrecked for the race.

[buttahflake]

How bout, shut up and ride your fucking bike, brah.
Take laps

[Anospa]

Practice is big, you need to know where you can put power down or where it may be good to take a breather and get your heart rate/breathing under control to push it in an upcoming section of trail. I'd say if you can't get to the mtn for practice day before the race, plan to visit a few times prior to the race to get comfortable for the terrain and trails, that will make showing up blind a lot better experience. If you have a terrible memory for trails, you'll definitely be hurting a lot.

Big rides and road miles do a lot for me. Depending on the races you end up doing, you'll spend 3-5 hours out on the bike here. The majority of our races involve a fair bit of lift access, so crazy fitness isn't make or break to effectively race each stage.

Winter training probably was the biggest with doing intervals on bike trainer. I struggle in season to keep fitness up, work ends up taking too much of my focus and I don't get time to put enough time in on the bike.

I think it really comes down to what you have the desire to do. I put some gym time in this off-season and that did a lot to help me recover from crashes quicker. But anything on the bike will help, standing pedaling will help you a LOT in terms of having the endurance to keep pushing throughout a stage.

I should be at the rest of the ESC races and most of the Triple Crown if those happen again this year, hit me up if you plan to go to any.

TL;DR would be what buttah said, time/miles are key.

[jamal]

How many hours a week do you ride now?

[WaistDeepGroomers]

I should be at the rest of the ESC races and most of the Triple Crown if those happen again this year, hit me up if you plan to go to any.

TL;DR would be what buttah said, time/miles are key.

Thanks and thanks to alewi11 for the good info. Planning on hitting the Attitash enduro 8/20 and Killington 9/17. They're both ESC races I think, so I'll be psyched to meet up. Planning on going the day before for both to ride the courses and otherwise enjoy another day of lift-accessed. Nice that those were $100 cheaper for entries than most other options this summer.

How many hours a week do you ride now?

The past week I've been pretty lucky... probably 9? The road riding I think is going to help a ton... can leave right from the house and be riding an extra 30-40 mins instead of being in the car.

[Anospa]

Right on, Attitash is a sick course, nice mix of rock and loam and Killington is probably my favorite venue. The 2-day races are a sweet idea, but definitely ups the time and cost needed to do them.

There's a chill one end of season down in RI at Diamond Hill I would definitely keep on your radar, great way to close out the season on some sick trails.

Road riding is great to just get base level stamina and if you can get intervals in while out there that'll give you a lot.

To keep it fun, dirt jumping did a lot for me a few years ago. You really start to learn what traction is and when you can get away without braking and if you suck at cornering.

[Rico in Flag]

I find that when I'm doing enduro type riding, i.e long rough-as-fuck steep downhills and slow untimed climbs, the aspect of my fitness conditioning that I feel most and weakest is stamina in the glutes and low back from maintaining the "attack position".
So, a great exercise and quite simple one for the glutes is what I call the "ski tuck" position. Assume the ski tuck position, about a 3/4 squat with a flat back and hold until muscle burn out. Repeat over and over and over. Also great is the "wall sit" postion, sit against a wall in full squat with femurs parallel to floor, and hold until muscle burn out. Repeat over and over and over.
Low back strength is always a problem for me, so lots of core exercises. I find exercises with a stability ball are great, like "roll outs" with the forearms on the ball and push forward and back in a plank position, go until muscle burnout over and over and over. You can do the same with sliders, plastic slidey things with a neoprene pad on top.
Also hip bridge ups are great, especially combining with a weight on your navel, lie on your back and bridge up your hips over and over and over. You can make it more difficult by elevating your feet on a bench or something. Also great for hip strength.

[jackstraw]

Berms. Just build berms.

[Percy Rideout]

I dirrtbike for great cross training.

[grskier]

Just get a heart rate monitor... synch it up with your stravbro app and get after it. And what they all said above.

[robnow]

I don't know what amount of vertical Enduros in the East cover, but in the West (Western Canada anyway) I would say they range from 4-6000' in a day. The second year I raced Whistler EWS ('Crankzilla') we actually climbed over 8500' and descended 13000' in the day.

So that said I would definitely aim for 1 big ride/week, 4+ hours of riding not focusing on intensity, road or mountain (preferably mountain but I don't know your situation) and preferably more vertical than distance. If you're doing one 2.5 hour ride now, do a 3 h next week, a 3.5 the week after, a 4 the week after that...

Otherwise, and this is what I try to tell my friends is where the beauty of short rides (60-90 min) comes in, if you only have a hour, FUCKIN' HAMMER the climb. Hopefully you have a climb locally thats 15-30 min in length. First lap up that thing GIVE IT ALL YOU HAVE, ride as close to threshold/max effort as possible. You just tell yourself its 10-20min of hard work and its over. You'll be surprised how much less time climbs can be covered in when you actually put the effort in. On short rides don't worry about conserving energy for later because you will have it. If you can do two climbs like this (if they're 10-20mins each than you should be able to) than even better.
- 2 x 20 min efforts at threshold is some of the best training we can do and this is my layman's version of it for the trail.
A variation on this is to ride the first climb hard the whole way, the second you could do shorter intervals on, like 1 min standing hard/1 min easy.

The beauty of Enduro is you get to rest at the top

If you only have shorter climbs, say 5 min, then do repeats of it. 4x, 6x, 8x, whatever. The less time you have, the harder you go and rest on the downs.

Then to practice downhills, find the longer ones in your area or the ones where you know the races will be and ride them hard, no stopping, top to bottom.

Remember, those 'short' but 'hard' workouts/rides is where the magic (fitness) comes from. I think if you could get 1 totally focused ride/workout per week of 45-90min length you're golden and the rest of the week can be kept 'social'.

Main points:
1. 1 long ride/week
2. 1 short but very hard intensity ride/week "push your comfort zone"
3. long mtb downhills without stopping

[XXX-er]

I don't know what amount of vertical Enduros in the East cover, but in the West (Western Canada anyway) I would say they range from 4-6000' in a day. The second year I raced Whistler EWS ('Crankzilla') we actually climbed over 8500' and descended 13000' in the day.

junior did the Williams lake race last month he said the course was pretty tough lots of climbing and he fell off a number of times which suprised me cuz he never falls off his bike

[dubblezzay]

cut firewood and shovel snow.

[jamal]

The past week I've been pretty lucky... probably 9? The road riding I think is going to help a ton... can leave right from the house and be riding an extra 30-40 mins instead of being in the car.

If you can do that consistently week after week, you'll be in a pretty good spot. Intervals and hard workouts are cool and all but if you're only spending 3-4 hours a week on a bike a full day/weekend of enduro racing is going to be pretty rough.

I think about doing more off-bike stuff, but I feel like it's not going to be as effective as just going and riding. I frequently look at the weights in the winter and then usually just go drink beer. I did spend quite a bit of time building trail this year which is probably useful for upper body and core strength compared to just a bunch of miles on the road.

My preferred on bike workout though is to go do hill repeats on the road. There are plenty of good short, steep climbs around town that take anywhere from under 2min to 5 or so. I can warm up on the ride over, go bang out 5-6 trips, and then cool down and spin back.

[joetron]

If you have some local descents that have climbs in the middle of them, or just rolling trails, hammer the climbs and when it turns back to flat or downhill, stay on the gas as much you can while still recovering. Learning to go fast while you can barely see straight is a valuable endurbro skill. Also knowing how your body recovers from interval efforts can give you some confidence during race runs that you're not over cooking yourself.

[fastfred]

heres my two cents

enduros are just down hill bike races with a cool name, no training needed, its all downhill, so drink beer eat fast food, the heavier you are the faster you'll go down hill

ditch the wife/serious girlfriend, chicks always have too many demands for you time and mostly get in the way, ride your bike have fun, family time is over rated, she gets bitchy about not spending time with her drop her ass and move onto the next one, it works out pretty well

smoke dope and ride a bike, the pain goes away, you'l forget what your doing, sometimes you'll just sit down and stare at the pretty flowers

intervals and training are for posers, don't waste your time, more you ride fast or slow the more boss you'll be

yeah, get a road bike, put on a skin suit or super tight fitting lycra and feel like a man, road bikes are gey but they work and have a purpose

remember enduros are just downhill races with a metrosexual/hipster name

[jm2e]

/\ /\ /\
..... funny thing is, that's kind of how I've always envisioned enduro. The kind of riding you'd do with your friends on a long day out; chill riding up 3-4 big climbs, then see who's fastest on the downs. Basically what we've all wanted to do all along. Maybe a couple shuttles/lifts thrown in there, but not enough to make it a park day ...... all the better.
Somewhere along the way enduro turned into endurance. Who the fuck does 8500ft on a day out with their bros? Who wants tight "transfers" where you'd essentially be telling your buddys to fuck off if they can't make the climb fast enough, even if they're the best downhiller in the group? They can't even figure out how to make enduro racing fun to watch, now instead of making it fun for more people, it's turning into another sport for just a few who can put out a good sufferfest like the roadies at the heart of cycling.

[SB]

cut firewood and shovel snow.

Berms. Just build berms.

this and this

and stay off road bikes cuz shit happens

https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=329_1499668307


Have a bike friend on FB and she uses a recovery thing she calls squeezy bags, basically its inflatable bags for the legs that I assume are like a static massage. It could be helpful in recovery after workout which is often overlooked.

kind of like this

https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=l&ai=...QpysIBA&adurl=

[Lindahl]

/\ /\ /\
..... funny thing is, that's kind of how I've always envisioned enduro. The kind of riding you'd do with your friends on a long day out; chill riding up 3-4 big climbs, then see who's fastest on the downs. Basically what we've all wanted to do all along. Maybe a couple shuttles/lifts thrown in there, but not enough to make it a park day ...... all the better.
Somewhere along the way enduro turned into endurance. Who the fuck does 8500ft on a day out with their bros? Who wants tight "transfers" where you'd essentially be telling your buddys to fuck off if they can't make the climb fast enough, even if they're the best downhiller in the group? They can't even figure out how to make enduro racing fun to watch, now instead of making it fun for more people, it's turning into another sport for just a few who can put out a good sufferfest like the roadies at the heart of cycling.

Pretty much this.

[jackstraw]

Pretty much this.

agreed.

But...if this is your thing, I'm still going with berms...build berms.

[One (+) Sentence]

/\ /\ /\
..... funny thing is, that's kind of how I've always envisioned enduro. The kind of riding you'd do with your friends on a long day out; chill riding up 3-4 big climbs, then see who's fastest on the downs. Basically what we've all wanted to do all along. Maybe a couple shuttles/lifts thrown in there, but not enough to make it a park day ...... all the better.
Somewhere along the way enduro turned into endurance. Who the fuck does 8500ft on a day out with their bros? Who wants tight "transfers" where you'd essentially be telling your buddys to fuck off if they can't make the climb fast enough, even if they're the best downhiller in the group? They can't even figure out how to make enduro racing fun to watch, now instead of making it fun for more people, it's turning into another sport for just a few who can put out a good sufferfest like the roadies at the heart of cycling.

Honestly sounds like you've never done one and are speculating on reasons to continue to not try one.

You have found local Enduros in the mid-Atlantic region with 8500' of climbing? Or anywhere outside of the EWS for that matter?

Suffering on your bike with friends can be fun, and tight transfer times are almost exclusively the result of mechanicals.

[Lindahl]

Honestly sounds like you've never done one and are speculating on reasons to continue to not try one.

You have found local Enduros in the mid-Atlantic region with 8500' of climbing? Or anywhere outside of the EWS for that matter?

Suffering on your bike with friends can be fun, and tight transfer times are almost exclusively the result of mechanicals.

Come to Colorado. Definitely endurance based. Everyone I know who races has to train for them and not the fun kind of training (lots of downhill).

[One (+) Sentence]

Come to Colorado. Definitely endurance based. Everyone I know who races has to train for them and not the fun kind of training (lots of downhill).

I just returned home from a week in Colorado. Turns out, it's very similar to Utah.