Advice for 47 yo mtb newbie

Training
1

Hi, I’de love to get your thoughts on improving my 2-5 minute power for single track mtb riding.

I started riding single track mtb at age 45 and was very out of shape (in fact, I’ve never been “in shape” my entire life). Fell in love riding and ride with a couple friends (who are very much in shape). I’ve not seen much improvements in power/FTP but over the two years I have seen dramatic improvements in recovery (heart rate, etc.) both during rides as well as post-ride and VO2Max estimates (garmin) from 34 → 40.

I haven’t been following structured training, but given my Friday mtb rides are very intense (for me) and effectively interval type training, I tend to try and do zone 2 on the trainer Mon-Wed and shoot for that 80/20 polarized training. When riding mtb on Friday’s I tend to get to Max HR within a few minutes on a trail, take a rest, and then continue on. My friends are very understanding but I also know they are effectively doing Zone 1-3 while I’m Zone 4-5.

Here is my indoor trainer power curve (don’t laugh!), while the longer durations are not all-out race power, I do think the eFTP (150-155) and power curves are accurate (and I have done some all out 5 minute efforts, ramp tests, etc).

image
image1514×844 134 KB

As you can see, there is a dramatic drop at the two minute mark. Given my goals (keep up with my buddies), what would give me the most bang for the buck on my trainer? Add an intensity day (Tuesday)? Should I focus on my “strengths” and start training the 2 minute intervals and work my way “down” the power curve? Or start somewhere like 5 minute intervals (or longer) and work my way “up”? Should I add a strength (barbell lifts) day?

I have trainderday and mywhoosh for my trainer to impliment structured trainings.

I know these are probably silly questions …

2

Two questions: How often and how long do you ride a week and how regularly did you ride in those two years? Before you change your training routine, how does your diet look like? This could also have a huge impact of your training progress.

1 Like
3

These are from intervals.icu for cycling (note, I don’t have a power meter on my outdoor/Friday rides):

2023: 136 hours, 165 workouts, 1845km, 498 kJ, Load 7879
2024: 152 hours, 122 workouts, 1895km, 135 kJ, Load 8124
2025 YTD: 45 hours, 39 workouts, 779km, 227 kJ, Load 2485

In general I try to leave Thursday as a rest day (to be recovered for MTB rides on Friday), and usually also try to leave open the weekend for Family (although I have also tended to do my longest outdoor easy rides on the weekend, but hard to be consistent there).

So, M-W & Friday is the intention, but as I am not following a plan, that’s not consistent (and the past two summers I spent in Japan, leading to more inconsistency). But I’m usually always motived to jump on the bike in the mornings if life is not in the way. (i.e. I can’t think of I time I felt like not getting on the bike unless I was busy, sick, etc).

My diet is not optimized. I tend to have two cups of coffee a day, chia seed drink, some dark cherry juice for the rides, low fat/no sugar yogurt after rides (20g protein) or whey protein mix. As I’m mostly responsible for my own Breakfast and Lunch, no excuses here, I tend to eat dinner leftovers from the family for Lunch (all home made, my wife’s hobby is cooking, we hardly eat out, but we aren’t eating just chicken breast either). It’s a mix of things like insta-pot soups/chilis during the work/school week and every type of cuisine on the weekends from steamed salmon, broccoli, pizza/pasta, etc. I’m super lucky because I feel like I get five star meals for every dinner (and I used travel a lot internationally in europe and asia). I used to calorie/macro count, but my wife hated me doing it (and it is way easier to do during meals than after and gave up). I am not low carb, low fat, or really following any particular diet. I probably overeat on average (am overweight BMI ~ 30 and % BF also ~ 30%). I drink occasionally (maybe a couple days every other month, usually tied to an event/outing or vacation).

4

you can read this thread as well. Seems like lots of good into. Applicble or otherwise I am not sure, but it MAY help your outdoor rides

MTB rides are more punchy so your doing more 80/20 is a good idea tho I would also argue that in order to be able to push (weekend), you need to be able to actually train to push too.

from your yearly data, youre doing 136/165 ~40m and 152/122 ~1.5h rides on avarage. That’s good you’re increasing your time spent on the bike. Z1/2 adaptations occurs > 90m (or so I read) so you also need to spend more time there.

I also have to say that nothing beats improvement vs time on the bike.

1 Like