Mountain Biking Training Program by Race Director Andrew O’Loughlin: Ready To Ride 50KM.

ANDY HAS TAILORED ADAM’S 100KM PROGRAM TO GET RACE READY FOR THE 50KM MTB. WITH A YOUNG FAMILY, ANDY HAS TONED DOWN HIS TRAINING THESE DAYS. BUT CAN OFTEN BE SEEN ON THE LYSTERFIELD AND ANGLESEA TRAILS. RATHER THAN RACING FOR THE WIN, ANDY IS LOOKING FOR EXCITING NEW TRAILS THAT ARE SUITABLE FOR A RANGE OF SKILL LEVELS. THE COLQUHOUN TRAILS INCLUDE INTERESTING AND FUN FEATURES THAT MAKE FOR GREAT RIDING.
SEE TRAINING PROGRAM HERE

Ready To Ride 50KM

Easy Ride – Feels easy. When you are riding easily you should be able to hold a conversation no problems.

Strength Endurance – A hard gear up a hill with minimal to no upper body movement. When doing SE beginner riders should have a cadence of about 70RPM. More advanced riders can do 60RPM.

Hard Ride – Feels hard. High heart rate. Profuse sweating and maybe swearing. Probably snot. Requires intense concentration and mental determination to maintain. Impossible to talk in sentences.

5X1MIN – These are high rev efforts. Pick an easyish gear that you can spin at 100 plus rotations a minute and rev the heck out of those pedals, heart and lungs. In between efforts pedal easily for 1minute.

Practice Race – A “results are not important race” where you practice warm up, pacing, nutrition, hydration and all your racing processes and get an idea of where your fitness is at and identify any weaknesses you need to work on between this race and your big race.

Race Activation – The day before a race a few short (between 15sec – 1min) hard efforts to prepare your body for the race day hurt.

Post Race Chill – Tell your racing buddies about how good you raced, how you nearly had the most epic crash, have a choccy milkshake or lager and some bad food, reward yourself! Put your feet up and reflect on how awesome the whole training and racing journey has been and start to ponder your next race.

When you have those moments of being time poor or mending flesh after a crash take the time to recover or use the opportunity to do another form of some cross training: swimming, road riding, run, what ever you enjoy.

AAF

Race Director Andrew O’Loughlin

Race History Highlights:

– Southern Traverse NZ
– Keen Adventure Race
– Speights Coast To Coast
– Kathmandu 24 Hour Adventure Race
– Member of Founding Team for TRI X Series, XTERRA Australia, Australia Adventure Festival