- Enjoy racing is probably the biggest category
of racing right now.
With everything from small local races
like what they do here at the Forest of Dean,
selling out to big nationals.
Enduro World Series, well that takes us
to some incredible places and we get to see
some amazing riders and racing taken on the world's best.
(swoosh)
The bike industry seems to be sort of molding itself,
this new form of racing as well.
Bikes becoming more aggressive, more capable,
and a lot of the time more affordable as well.
This has been reflected in the trails that we race on.
So whether you've got your sights set
on something small and local or personal goal
or you've got your sights set on something much bigger,
maybe an Enduro or you want something like that.
Training is going to be pretty important.
So let's see what we can do and what we can focus on
to get the most out of your time
and really improve your skills.
(Upbeat music)
So let's be realistic, a lot of us these days
are pretty restricted with our time
and only have so much of it, we can dedicate to training.
So it's pretty important to maximize the time you have.
Focusing your effort on particular areas of weakness
you may have is the best way to get the quickest results.
But what is the best way to train for a discipline
that has the sprinting of downhill
and endurance of exi all rolled into one.
For the purposes of this video,
let's say that most people are going to be aiming
for a specific event out there.
So it gives us a bit of time to get a training plan together
and really target what we're going to be after.
Firstly, I'd take a look at what time you can spare
and how much of it a week you can spare.
This will help you really nail down
what you can try and stick to and plan out properly.
Once you decide how much time you've got,
we can then really dig a bit more in depth into our plan
and decide what needs to go in there,
whether it's specific to yourself
or specific to the event that you're going to do.
(upbeat music)
So no matter what Enduro event you're going to choose to do,
there's more than likely going to be some distance
and time in the saddle involved.
I know there is from my experience, that's for sure.
So building up some solid base miles through the winter
is going to be really helpful at laying down some foundations
for any other future fitness work
you're going to be doing like sprints, for example.
The weekend is more of likely when you're going to have time
to do those longer rides if you can get out
for a good couple hours at a time, and that is great.
If you can do a little longer, when a winner.
Also on these longer rides, if you can throw
some sprints into the mix as well,
that's going to help you simulate
what a race situation is going to be like.
Now I do a lot of my base miles on the road
but also like to do them off road
'cause that's obviously what we're going to be racing on.
Using a heart rate monitor or even better a power meter
can really help you regulate and monitor what you're doing
and push up other factors that affect fitness
such as VO2 Max and lactate threshold.
(upbeat music)
Now let's take a look at what I think is probably
most likely to benefit you in a race situation
and now I think it's sprints.
Now if you live in the UK and enjoy race stage
it's probably going to be about two to four minutes long.
If you're one of our viewers lucky enough
to be in a big mountains, you're looking
at four minutes minimum I'd say.
Having a solid sprint is really going to help
you save this precious seconds,
as an injury stage is essentially one big interval session.
"What is an interval session?"
I hear you say.
So here we are back on my turbo trainer setup,
and it's pretty sweet setup I got to admit.
I've got a direct drive turbo train at the back here
but you can use a normal turbo as well.
So an interval session is essentially an exercise
at high intensity bursts with small bits of rest in between,
working a more anaerobically to really push
that threshold up and get that heart rate going.
Now an example of a training session I love to hate
is 12, 30 seconds Sprint's in between,
you have a two and a 1/2 minute rest,
and between each sprint, you reduce the rest period
by five seconds, and it's blowing tuff
and it's going to get your legs going,
but in the long run it's really going to pay dividends.
(upbeat music)
(exhaling heavily) Okay, has a tough session.
I think for my next job I'm going to have
to be more on out of here and get some routier trails.
I reckon get back in the dirt.
Take me away.
(swoosh)
(swoosh) Wow, how is it so fast?
Holy moly that's blooming amazing.
We need them for uplift.
Well, since now that we're here, we might as well talk about
the last section of training we're going to do
and that is course specific.
(upbeat music)
So when I say course specific, what do I mean?
Well, course specific can be anything
from tailoring your riding to tackle a certain area
of a trail that you might struggle on
or like I said, with your fitness.
So me personally, I always find it tough at races
when it got wet and Rootier.
It was always an area that gave me grief.
So what I would do is incorporate into my Local rides,
my train and ride, I'd find the wettest,
rootiest, gnarliest sort of route garden I could,
and I just hit it a couple of times.
That way it would just build up my confidence and my skills,
so that when I got to enter a situation again,
I had no problem tackling it.
That way my confidence would grow as what's on my skills
and muscle memory when hitting a section.
So when it came to race time, I was less stressed
and bothered by it and could focus more on racing.
You can do this for almost any type of obstacle
or area of your ride and you feel you need to improve.
And by sticking at it,
you should hopefully see some positive results.
(upbeat music)
Right I hope I've managed to impart
some of my training wisdom on you
for enjoy races and hopefully,
see you and enjoy race sometime soon.
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