[The Lone Wolf]

I want to do a few long races/tours in November. I also want to do the MBAA mountain bike races that start in January. So here is my calendar:

May 21, 2005 Last MBAA race of this year
November 5, 2005 MS-150 2 day tour
November 26, 2005 Tour De Tucson 100 miles
January 29, 2006 MBAA Race #1

I don't care too much about my speed in the tours, but I do care in the first MBAA race. I heard that you should start building base miles for about 3 months before you do intervals and such. So if I started building base miles in September and do long endurance type rides for 4 or 5 months before my first MTB race of the year would that be ok? Or can too many base miles too soon hurt you?

 

[fsrxc]

I want to do a few long races/tours in November. I also want to do the MBAA mountain bike races that start in January. So here is my calendar:

May 21, 2005 Last MBAA race of this year
November 5, 2005 MS-150 2 day tour
November 26, 2005 Tour De Tucson 100 miles
January 29, 2006 MBAA Race #1

I don't care too much about my speed in the tours, but I do care in the first MBAA race. I heard that you should start building base miles for about 3 months before you do intervals and such. So if I started building base miles in September and do long endurance type rides for 4 or 5 months before my first MTB race of the year would that be ok? Or can too many base miles too soon hurt you?

It's hard to have "too many" base miles. It's a more common mistake to do too much intensity during base training, so should be no problem as long as you don't expect to peak from January to November. Give yourself an earlier off-season (summer?), and if you start your base around August-September, the "tours" should fit right into your base training, and you should have lots of time to be ready to race late January. Decide when you want to peak, and work back from there...