How often to ride to build riding fitness.

[Mr Crudley]

Ive got buggered knees from motocross injuries. Running is terrible with my knees, while MTB riding, so far, has been great.

Good to hear. I played soccer for a long time and had creaky knees from the sunbaked clay based fields here. Riding has helped a lot.

Repetitive motion when something is getting stretched or moved the wrong way. You have to be comfortable no matter what sort of bike you have.

 

[Chriso_29er]

And have you (or other old buggers) found the spare tire around the belly disappears as your fitness goes up?

I'm not the best person for that advice haha

 

[Cardy George]

I'm not the best person for that advice haha

Neither am I. Took 15 years to put it there, looks like it'll take 15 years to get rid of it too

 

[Rorschach]

I find not eating so much fucking food helps more than any exercise.

I only ride so I can continue to eat as much crap as I can fit in my piehole

 

[Calvin27]

How about with building bike fitness and peddling strength, do you still need a few days to recover between 1-2hr rides (remembering I'm 50)?

Depends on what you mean. 1-2 hours rides could mean anything from fun chill rides with mates or smashing tech climbs non stop.

The one thing I would advocate for is recovery rides and sticking to them, not seeing red all the time which is easy to do.

 

[Squidfayce]

Fit it in as your active recovery from gym.

 

[Scott2227]

I find not eating so much fucking food helps more than any exercise.

Sadly this is very true. Not terribly convenient when the kids have been home for 12 weeks and all I’ve got to look forward to each day is delicious fucking food and beer!

 

[moorey]

I find not eating so much fucking food helps more than any exercise.

Yes….but you’ve ridden around 250km in the last 9 months.

 

[Scott2227]

On this topic, I have been following this guy on Insta and he seems to make a decent bit of sense.

https://instagram.com/mtb.fitness?utm_medium=copy_link

Has anyone done his training program?

 

[Minlak]

And have you (or other old buggers) found the spare tire around the belly disappears as your fitness goes up?

Ok - weight loss is 80% diet 20% exercise - fitness is 100% training - however
If your diet isn’t too bad the increase in activity will certainly help you trim down. - it’s pretty basic calories out vs calories in - until you want to train harder and need to think about how you are getting you energy (hint donuts is not the right answer).

 

[Minlak]

Yes….but you’ve ridden around 250km in the last 9 months.

Pretty sure 250 was the goal by end of the year

 

[moorey]

Pretty sure 250 was the goal by end of the year

Achieved. Recovery time.

 

[gregb]

(hint donuts is not the right answer).

Clearly then we need a better question!

 

[Squidfayce]

Ok - weight loss is 80% diet 20% exercise - fitness is 100% training - however
If your diet isn’t too bad the increase in activity will certainly help you trim down. - it’s pretty basic calories out vs calories in - until you want to train harder and need to think about how you are getting you energy (hint donuts is not the right answer).

yup. nutrition is as important as the in/out model. not all calories are created equal. shitty thing is i know this space exceptionally well and i still make the wrong choices often. Hard to tell if its just habit at this point or some other deep seeded mental thing.

 

[Minlak]

yup. nutrition is as important as the in/out model. not all calories are created equal. shitty thing is i know this space exceptionally well and i still make the wrong choices often. Hard to tell if its just habit at this point or some other deep seeded mental thing.

Once you accept you hate yourself - you can make all the shit decisions you want guilt free

 

[Calvin27]

Ok - weight loss is 80% diet 20% exercise - fitness is 100% training - however
If your diet isn’t too bad the increase in activity will certainly help you trim down.

Not strictly true. A lot of people lose weight easier with a almost no change in exercise levels. Most of this has to to with rebound eating.

I'm trying to shift some covid weight and one of the things I've had to change (aside from eating less and cutting beer out) is to do the training session at night. After about 2 hours the hunger hits hard and by then I'm in bed and too lazy to get out and eat again and brush the teeth again. I don't understand people who wake up and eat in the middle of the night.

 

[Minlak]

Not strictly true. A lot of people lose weight easier with a almost no change in exercise levels. Most of this has to to with rebound eating.

I'm trying to shift some covid weight and one of the things I've had to change (aside from eating less and cutting beer out) is to do the training session at night. After about 2 hours the hunger hits hard and by then I'm in bed and too lazy to get out and eat again and brush the teeth again. I don't understand people who wake up and eat in the middle of the night.

I perhaps was being too simplistic in my wording - how about you can’t outrun a bad diet ?

 

[ashes_mtb]

I perhaps was being too simplistic in my wording - how about you can’t outrun a bad diet ?

I’ve always been a pretty competitive runner; I just see that as a challenge.

 

[HamboCairns]

On this topic, I have been following this guy on Insta and he seems to make a decent bit of sense.

https://instagram.com/mtb.fitness?utm_medium=copy_link

Has anyone done his training program?

I don't think you need to.

This is what I've gleaned so far -

• Jump on YouTube and search for "HIIT MTB", include this with your trail riding.
• Mix that in with some distance riding including hills.
• Resistance training couple of days a week. Don't go hard, around 80% of your capacity. I recommend kettlebells
• Listen to people like @Cardy George, @Chriso_29er and @beeb. Listen to @moorey at your own risk.
• Don't fall off your bike in a comical fashion.
• Actually do all of the above (apart from falling off) instead of asking inane questions on this forum (looking at me).

 

[Squidfayce]

Not strictly true. A lot of people lose weight easier with a almost no change in exercise levels. Most of this has to to with rebound eating.

I'm trying to shift some covid weight and one of the things I've had to change (aside from eating less and cutting beer out) is to do the training session at night. After about 2 hours the hunger hits hard and by then I'm in bed and too lazy to get out and eat again and brush the teeth again. I don't understand people who wake up and eat in the middle of the night.

not refeuling after exercise can have a detrimental effect on your muscle tissue. There will be a larger proportion of muscle loss along with fat and water by not refueling post exercise. Sure you will lose weight, but losing weight is also not equal. You want to lose fat while building muscle (or at least maintaining muscle). Not eating post exercise reduce syour bodys ability to repair and build muscle.

What you're doing may show the numbers change on the scale, but it wont be long before you notice your strength decrease incrementally. Youll probably put this down to ageing, seasonality, not enough effort being put in etc.