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So i want to get faster and dont own a road bike...

7K views 50 replies 30 participants last post by  Trail_Blazer 
#1 ·
I can get in one good mtb ride a week,will jogging help? I want to get fitter and start doing a few races. I did a search and didnt find what i was looking for. My buddies now have road bikes and are starting to put it on me on rides. I actually got a road bike but had to sell it because of some un expected bills .
 
#31 ·
I have been doing the running/jogging thing. I can see a pretty big drop in my ride times. I have also noticed a huge increase my strength on some of the climbs on one of my routes. There is 2 hills that used to absolutely kill me.

The running that I have been doing has alot of hills aswell. The first few times I ran it I wanted to just say to heck with it. The gains I've made have made it worth it. I have also recently started incorporating lunges and weighted runs.
 
#33 ·
Run up hills also dont just run. Find a steepish hill and do waterfall runs on it. its really sucks but it is great building and uses other muscles in your legs that running on flat wont do. The pumping of your legs to get up the hill transfers into when you are pumping the pedals. the harder you perform this the easier it is when it comes to crunch.
 
#36 ·
Re runups: I started doing them about year ago during cyclocross season as I realized I'd need to be able to do a steep runup carrying my bike and recover. I can still spike my heart rate on runups, but I'm much better than a year ago. I use a short hill on my regular training loop and run-up every time I ride there, which is a couple of times a week. You will encounter runups every once in a while in mtb racing and regularly in cx, and it's good to be prepared.
 
#38 ·
If you're getting more out of running than you are by riding, you aren't riding hard enough.

I ran Division 1 track (800m and 1500m) and found that I can do much, much more work on the bike, at the same heart rate and RPE, than I ever could wearing a pair of running shoes. Why? Significantly less stress on the joints and muscles.
 
#40 ·
Here's the deal, you don't need a road bike for training.

The whole premise behind people's arguments for having a road bike is that you can sustain threshold efforts for long periods of time. Something that you really can't do on a mountain bike trail.

But, you can do it using your mountain bike on the road. As was mentioned a few other times in this thread, The Time Crunched Cyclist is a powerful resource for you to check out. Great training plan that will pack in loads of improvement through a small amount of time on the bike.

Just get the bike on the road and push yourself to that threshold consistently. It will feel like it sucks pushing those big tires, but the outcome will be the same as if it were a road bike.
 
#51 ·
Yea one of the biggest reasons I don't road ride is because of traffic and potholes initially...
But of course I never got seriously hurt on a road bike in 10 years of riding.
But I have definitely had big injuries mountain biking. LOL
I keep preferring the mountain despite the fact I take bigger risks on the trails.
I'd rather play chicken with a gap to clear than a Mac Truck.

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