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  • Amateur MTB Marathon: Basic Training!

  • As part of our Amateur MTB Marathon series, coach Jon Riley talks about how he's going to get Gary ready and how to go about training for a big marathon...

Words by Jon Riley, Photos by Jon Riley and Brendan Thorpe - posted 27/12/2009

Other articles in this series...

Amateur MTB Marathon: Basic Training!

I met Gary through a mutual friend and nutritional therapist Jamie Richards. Jamie informed me he was working with Gary on a project to put an amateur through a 24 hour solo MTB race and that a coach was needed onboard. Gary rides a fair amount but it was obvious that thrashing aimlessly around the woods and hills was not going to be enough to prepare himself for the challenge, a little more focus in the training area was needed and this is where I come in.

I run TrueZoneTraining where we specialise in VO2 metabolic assessments. To put it in simple terms, it's a system where we measure oxygen uptake (VO2) and carbon dioxide output (VCO2) while a person is exercising. From this we can get various data which indicates how well trained a person is and what area of training they would most benefit from. It enables them to make sure that when they are training they are maximising their time and are getting the most out of each session.

Metabolic Testing

TrueZoneTraining partner Andy Wadsworth taking the test...

The test is very simple and takes about 20 minutes to complete. The rider sits on the Cyclops stationary bike whilst wearing a mask which is connected to the gas analyser, as well as a heart rate strap. the rider starts to pedal at 100 watts and after a 5 minute warm-up period the resistance is increased 20 watts every minute until we get the data we need and the rider decides they've had enough, in Gary's case 320 watts.

The results give a good picture of how the rider has been training. In Gary's case it was pretty similar to what we normally see from people who generally ride recreationally and without direction, rather than what an athlete following a particular training programme would show.

Training for endurance

As Gary's aim is an extreme endurance event, it's important that his focus is on maximising his aerobic system. A good aerobic system allows the body to better utilise the fat stored in the body for energy rather than relying on carbohydrates which are in limited supply! Even the leanest athletes (say 70kg with 5% body fat) have more then 25,000 calories stored as fat but only about 2000 stored as glycogen (carbohydrate).

Training the aerobic system incorrectly is where a lot of people go wrong. They often train at too high an intensity to fully benefit the aerobic system and end up just going out to burn carbs. In Gary's case, although his fat burning was reasonably good, it dropped off quite quickly as the intensity went up and he started to burn more sugar. These higher intensities would not be sustainable without him having to ingest huge amounts of carbohydrates and it's unlikely he would be able to do this sufficiently throughout a 24 hour event.

With the metabolic testing, what we're able to do is accurately measure the different zones the body performs at in relation to anaerobic threshold and aerobic base. Working in these zones can then allow you to accurately train the body in the way you need to.

On seeing Gary's results, my first suggestion to Gary was to simply get some long endurance rides in and to do these in his zone 2 - in his case keeping his heart rate between 149 and 168 beats per minute. Zone 2 is essentially the highest intensity you can perform at before your fat burning drops off significantly. What we're aiming to do is train this zone to perform better and hopefully move it up to work at higher intensities.

You could estimate your zone 2 by subtracting your age from 220 to get an estimated max heart rate, and then your estimated zone 2 is around 65-75% of this figure. Another method that is often suggested is doing 80% of your training at below 80% of your max heart rate. But as heart rates can vary so much from individual to individual, this approach is 'finger in the wind' at best. However, doing this calculation and going for long steady rides would probably be better than going out and flogging yourself on the trails every weekend!

Trying too hard

The main challenge facing Gary is that all of his training to date has been on the MTB and it's difficult to control your effort as the terrain gets tricky - particularly as most of his training is done while doing product testing on more severe terrain such as Afan or the Quantocks. The solution to this is to ride some easier routes or to get a road bike.

A lot of riders find this type of training psychologically difficult as the rides are generally quite easy, and they feel that they are not doing enough to improve their fitness. There's this desire to always attack the climbs; the problem is that if you go over your anaerobic threshold your aerobic system switches off and takes a while to return. All the time this is happening you are burning pure carbohydrate as energy and not exercising your aerobic system. It's these long and low tempo rides that are essential to build a solid aerobic base.

How's it going?

The feedback from Gary's first long ride was good. After his normal 60km loop he felt like he could easily go for another 20km, whereas the week before he felt tired by halfway stage. And by staying in his zone 2 he was only 30 minutes slower over the whole loop. Doing this will also means he will recover better for his next ride.

Gary has since got a road bike and is logging up some steady endurance miles along with his normal off-road stuff. It's actually been two months now since we tested Gary so we should see some results from all his efforts soon. We'll be testing him again in the next few weeks and then we'll adapt his training to move on to the next phase.

Gary's keys figures and aims

VO2 max 56 ml/kg/min - this will increase as we include some interval training and if Gary looses some weight, but it's a good start and shows he has done plenty of riding.

Max Fat Burning - 153 bpm @ 200 Watts,  8 kcals/min (70% of calories as fat) - We aim to move this up closer to anaerobic threshold and increase the number of calories he is getting from fat.

Anaerobic threshold - 186 bpm @ 300 watts - Gary already has a high threshold so it's not so important to work on this for the long endurance event he is doing.

Aerobic base point - 171 bpm @ 240 watts, this is a point where Gary is still getting 50% of his energy from fat, after this point the anaerobic system starts to kick in and fat burning drops off quickly, we aim to move this to closer to his anaerobic threshold.

Metabolic Testing, Gary's Results

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