[wipe-out]

After a few years away from mountain biking, but not from road biking, I moved to Utah and recently built a mountain bike (a singlespeed Kona Big Unit). My plan is to do some endurance racing (24 hour races, Park City Point 2 Point...) on my singlespeed this coming season.

I've been biking for a number of years, so I know the theory behind training for endurance racing on my geared road bike. My question is, should I be doing some long rides and climbs (on the road) on my singlespeed mountain bike to get my body prepared for riding a singlespeed for 6-24 hours? Or will I be fine doing all my long road rides on a road bike?

Also, do any of you singlespeed endurance people have any tips for me?

Thanks!

 

[direneed]

I'm also a SS racer and planning to do some 100mi races on a SS this year as well. But previously I have have only competed in XC distance mtb races, mostly ~20-30 miles. I spend 90% of my training time on the road bike, and usually have at least 1 80+mi ride per week. However, I often notice that I have different muscles fatigued or sore after a day of hard SS mtb-ing, namely lower back/upper body. It is definitely a different kind of workout from my road riding. I do a lot of core work, and that has made a big difference in the last year or two. But I'm working on the assumption that I need to start adding some longer SS mtb rides to the training regimen to better prepare for SS endurance events.

Just my thoughts and plan so far. I'm interested in hearing from some of the experienced SS endurance riders, too.

 

[trevrev97]

Yup, from what I have noticed nothing can really "Train" you for SS mountain bike better than SS mountain biking

 

[Roger___]

If you're going to race the SS train on the SS too...

to keep it simple in terms of advice, on race day...it's not good for the riding style of an SS to be foreign to your body, need to make the core strong like bull! . Otherwise, it'll catch up with you quick. When I trained, i was on my SS an average of two times a week, one was a short hard ride, the other was my long day. All other training was on my roadbike, like you.

Have fun this year. :thumbsup:

 

[rydbyk]

If you ride road (using road bike) just keep it in the same gear ratio as your SS mtb. Go hit the hills!

Even better is a second training wheelset with mtb slicks for local road climbs using your SS mtb...works great.

Ultimately, you would be able to hit the trails on your SS mtb, but getting miles in by leaving from your garage is sometimes more practical for the time crunched racer in you:thumbsup:

Good luck.

 

[shiggy]

After a few years away from mountain biking, but not from road biking, I moved to Utah and recently built a mountain bike (a singlespeed Kona Big Unit). My plan is to do some endurance racing (24 hour races, Park City Point 2 Point...) on my singlespeed this coming season.

I've been biking for a number of years, so I know the theory behind training for endurance racing on my geared road bike. My question is, should I be doing some long rides and climbs (on the road) on my singlespeed mountain bike to get my body prepared for riding a singlespeed for 6-24 hours? Or will I be fine doing all my long road rides on a road bike?

Also, do any of you singlespeed endurance people have any tips for me?

Thanks!

Continue to do much of your training on the road bike on the road. Use the SS for all of your off road rides and include long rides with lots of climbing.

You need the road miles but nothing can prepare you for hours of trail on the singlespeed except long days on the SS on dirt.

 

[Timo]

FWIW, I've been racing SS endurance for a few years now and also use a SS cross bike and SS road bike. I find the training in low-cadence mashing and high cadence spinning to be somewhat similiar on all three bikes.

 

[44gnats]

i believe that a mix of singlespeed mnt riding and road riding is a good mix for training to race a ss in endurance events, as others have said. ss alone fails to allow one to meet their aerobic potential, whereas road riding alone fails to allow one to establish the core and upper body fitness required for ss. to me, mashing big gears on your road bike is less efficient than riding as you typically would - save the mashing for the ss. finally, i have found that training with 32x19 or 18 (29er), yet for shorter periods of time, is a nice way to get prepared for long races that i would do at 32x21 or 20, depending on course. hope that helps!

 

[Canyonman]

I got my first ss 29er last year after a challenging myself to do LT 100 on it.
I did 4 other endurance races. Mesa Verde 12 hour, Durango Dirty Century, Laramie Enduro and P2P. I as others used to do most (80%) of my training on my road bike with a lot of canyon work. I too live in Utah. I tried to simulate the ss riding by riding at lower cadence to build my legs to the slower cadence when climbing. Not sure how well that worked. The best training for ss is as another poster stated is riding your singlespeed. I often ride up over the wasatch down into PC around the trails and back.
Ss riding is perhaps harder than geared at first but after some time a proper gear it's not as hard as it first seemed. Good luck!

 

[Crosstown Stew]

If you can pick up a rigid fork and throw it on your bike for a couple weeks. That will certainly work your core and build the right muscles. I picked up a steel bianchi muss rigid this last fall for the price of what a new carbon rigid fork cost and at 30lbs ss rigid, it really is a great trainer.

 

[wipe-out]

Routes

Canyonman, would you mind sharing some of your routes that you mentioned that head over the Wasatch, ride around PC, and come back? Those sound like good training for the Park City Point 2 Point.

Thanks.

 

[Canyonman]

Salt Lake training rides: I live 4 miles south of Little Cottonwood Canyon.
1) From home up Temple Quary trail, continue on road up past Alta, onto dirt to the Catherine Pass trailhead, down to Brighton, up Guardsmans...there is a trail to the left just past the fire station. From here various options A) Continue to Scotts Pass. And climb Puke Hill, Wasatch Crest, Mid-mountain conector across Mid-mountain trail, up Powerline, but I prefer crest around south of Shadow Lake back over and down BigCotton
wood. B) down around Shadow Lake to either Dear Vley via Mid-mnt trail and upSpiro and back up or across mid-mnt up connector and down to Big Water I Millcreek.
As to limit time on the road I'll park base of Milcreek up Pipeline, connector to Mid-mnt often across and up past Shadow Lake, Puke Hill, WAsatch Crest and back down to Milcreek. I prefer heading up from the base of Milcreek as once at Mid-mnt I can take any number of PC trails knowing I only need legs to get back past Shadow lake and Puke hill.
I'll admit that sometimes from my house I'll come up over Little Ctnwood, Brighton, Scotts pass and PC trails, either Via WasAtch crest or mid mnt and drop down pipeline ending at base of Milcreek and call my wife so I skip a summertime/hot 12 mile road ride backhome.
PM me if this sounds like fun!! You can just mix it up once over on the PC trails, but I eithe go up L. Cottonwood or Milcreek. Ive done B. Cottonwood over, but this is a long road climb for a ss.