Enduro is pretty much a number of downhill runs, normally five,
that are linked together with transitions. So, untimed climbs back to the top,
ready for your next stage. So you need a mix of power and stamina.
You need the power of those big, hard intervals when you're riding the stages,
but you also need enough stamina to get round the whole loop and not be totally
blown out by the time you're at the last stage. At the Enduro World Series last
year in Scotland, with practice and racing I rode 180 kilometers and did over 3,000
meters of climbing. Nevermind the eight stages where you're hitting or getting
very close to max heart rate. So, nevermind all the physical stuff,
you've actually got to ride your bike really fast when you're absolutely revved
out. So, how do you prepare for such a race? I've split my training into three
parts, intervals, base miles, mountain bike rides.
With intervals on a turbo trainer, it's quite a painful thing to do,
to be honest. There's not really a massive advantage to having a heart rate monitor
for this, because some of the intervals are so short that, when you're putting the
power in, your heart rate won't have time to catch up. So, you'll get a feel for
what sort of effort you should be putting in, and by the end of the
interval session you should be pretty much done. My favorite
session on the turbo is what I call "Around the clock." Take 10 or 15
minutes to warm yourself up so you're ready to roll, and get set for that first
interval. What I'll do for that first interval, I'll whack it into my biggest
gear, and then turn the resistance on maximum and just do a 10-second sprint.
And that's a max sprint, as hard as you can. You shouldn't even get out of breath
with that one. It's just maximum power through the legs, and then I have
50 seconds off to recover. So, turn the resistance off, maybe click it up a few
gears, make it easier. The next interval is 20 seconds on, 40 seconds off.
For that interval, I'll go in one easier gear than I was for the first interval.
So I go right about down the block, come up one and whack the resistance on for 20
seconds, full speed. Forty seconds off, and then 30 on, 30 off,
40 on, 20 off, 50 on, 10 off. So, the time's going up on each interval but
actually the intensity will drop a little bit. So, I probably go up the block one
gear at time for those intervals, so I'm pushing a slightly easier gear but I'm
going for a longer time. Those last couple of intervals are really hard, because
you're only having a little bit of time to recover in between them.
Once I've done the 50 on, 10 off, I then have two minutes. Take it way off on the
resistance, put it in an easy gear, recover. That one set is one stage in an
Enduro. So what I try and do is, at the start of my pre-season training,
do four of those sets and work my way up until I can do six sets of those
intervals. That to me represents six stages on an Enduro. In the UK, mainly, we
do five stages in a day, but I like to know that I've got six, just in case I
need them. You need a good diesel engine to pedal you around all day long,
and that means training at a low intensity but for a long amount of time.
If you've got a heart rate monitor, we're talking about zone two or zone three.
If you don't have one, basically, you should be able to chat easily to your
mates. Plenty of people don't realize how easy that is. They go too hard and burn
their legs up, so they don't spend enough quality time in those low zones.
These sessions can be done on a cross-country bike or on a road bike.
I did them a lot on my road bike until I got bored with it, and then I'd go back to
my cross-country bike. On my road bike, I've got a power meter,
and I keep an eye on it occasionally so I don't start creeping up the zones and
start burning up my legs too early. I'm looking for that quality time in those
lower zones. These rides can be incredibly dull, so you can liven them up by bringing
your mates with you. Just don't be tempted to race each other. Or you
could use your commute to do it as well. A few hours in those lower zones, and
you should have that achy leg feeling but not feel totally blown out like you
would on an interval session. I would aim for six or eight hours of mellow riding a
week to improve my diesel engine. Mountain bike rides, so, these are the normal rides
that I do by myself or with friends. Just normal chatting, maybe going up the
climbs, quite a mellow speed unless someone starts half-wheeling you. And if
you're anything like me, it turns into a race. Race your mates to the top. If you
lose, just don't forget to tell them how many base miles you've been
doing this week.
♪ [music] ♪
So I'll set off hard and fast, and try and get used to riding technical stuff when
your heart rate's really high. Even if you make mistakes, keep cracking on.
Get to the bottom, have a bit of a breather and then roll back around to the
top of the next stage, almost like a race.
♪ [music] ♪
All right, so, there's training for Enduro. Some of the distances and the
meters climbed aren't exactly that huge, but the hard part is measuring yourself so
that you've got the fitness for however many stages you're racing,
where you'll be using almost maximum effort, and you don't want to be blown out
before the end of the day. All right, if you found that video useful,
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