New rider

greyceleste

Hi, i am a new mountain biker, but very compatative. i am from long distance road runing, i have a sub 2hr 40 for the marathon. the problem is i dont know how fast i should be to win say, a 70 km mountain bike race.

j.r.hawkins

As you've found with running, it takes experience and practice to be able to pace yourself. Heart rate is a very useful indicator, and I assume you already own a monitor. Any book by Joe Friel will give you the necessary training and recovery information.

JM01

depends on the course...around 2 hours for a flat, dirt road type..around 3 forXC trails...more for technical singletrack

cruisin

Mountain biking is about fun.
Just go out and enjoy it and you will soon know your limits and weaknesses.
Being new your skill levels may need to develop and the best thing is to get out there and ride all types of terrain.
Have fun it's an addictive sport.

greyceleste

thanks for the reply, tell me how important are shoks for a mountain bike couse i see most bike have them, mine doesnt. i ride a second hand Alpine mountain bike, i never competed on it. i am not sure if its good enough for a race. what do you think?

j.r.hawkins

A must for the front. Whether you need on the back depends on the terrain.

I'm relatively new, having bought an MTB less than a year ago, and only recently having the confidence to ride the often technical singletrack around our local curse er, course (Manly Dam in Sydney) with clip-in pedals.

I was talking to a race guy today, and he said that most of the guys winning cross-country (XC) races use either hardtails (no rear suspension) or setups with quite limited rear travel (50-75m). The reason I believe is the weight, and the energy losses from the "bob" in the rear suspension travel, especially when pedalling out of the saddle on climbs. However, he said that while perhaps not as outright fast, a soft tail setup was a lot easier on the legs over rocky terrain, giving perhaps an extra hour (call it 30%) before fatigue sets in on longer rides.

I'm sure others will have different opinions, but I found those views rather interesting.

j.r.hawkins

+1 for skill development. IN Sydney we have a cycling program on the weekend one of the government FTA channels, and they did a head-to-head comparison between a male and female team pair of track cyclists, road cyclists, and XC mountain bikers. In absolute fitnes terms the road and track cyclists had a slight edge on the MTBers in each of the road and track legs (~3%). The MTBers just ran away with the overall result though, because of the much greater bike handling skill requirement in their discipline.