Well, winter is gradually receding (though too slowly for my liking) and it’s time to take stock of what we’ve managed to achieve over the winter in terms of maintaining and even building “bike fitness”. Maybe you were helped by The Bible?

I refer of course not to the Good Book, wherein the Apostle Paul merely mentions in passing that “physical training is of some value” (1 Tim 4:8), but rather to The Mountain Biker’s Training Bible by Joe Friel.

Anyone who takes mountain-biking remotely seriously will probably have to at least give this book a hearing at some point - zillions of bikers can’t be wrong.

Who’s it for?

There’s way too much to say about this book if you haven’t looked into it yet, but I’ll try to summarise it in brief: the MTB Bible focuses not on MTB technique (which is the only complaint regarding this book that I have been able to find), but on what training you need to be doing to get better and fitter for the next season and the next and the next…

The Mountain Biker’s Bible is for anyone who has at least some sort of competitive goal in mountain-biking, even if it’s just to get faster and fitter as a goal in itself.

What’s in it?

As Friel says, the book is about “systematic, methodical training” and let me tell you right off, very systematic and methodical it is too, such that the casual reader hoping for a few quick training tips will probably give up in despair very quickly. Friel basically describes an approach whereby we set goals for the season - which for many will be MTB races on known dates - and then devise a training calendar which works up to these events and is based on a number of factors including existing fitness and number of hours we are able to devote to training. The calendar involves dividing the pre-season into cycles (pun intended) of increasingly demanding but varied training, punctuated by rest weeks, all of which is to ensure you train not so much harder but smarter. And I suppose that is it, in a nutshell - so try to remember this potted explanation when you open the book and are first confronted by all those tables and calendars! It’s all quite simple when you give it a chance to soak in.

The “Bible” also contains a great deal of material on the theory of fitness and training, nutrition, and much much more - and it’s fair to say that the book’s “scriptural” claims are not far off the mark in terms of it being pretty much a comprehensive guide to mountain bike training.

Personal perspective

Now to get things clear - I have sworn blind on this blog many a time that I am no MTB racer, I am more into rolling along the mountains of Serbia enjoying the view, and could probably do that with narry a shred of training beforehand.

However, everyone’s got to have a sport (perhaps that’s what St. Paul wanted to say) - something to stave off heart disease, boredom and the spare tyre - something more than just going out for a little ride every now and then.

So mine might as well be mountain-biking! And while I have no ambitions to become the next… er… whoever is a famous mountain-biking champ, I have been bitten by the bug just a little. Having ridden a couple of races and realised they are good fun and that, hey, I can beat at least 50% of the people out there, I have got the niggling urge to get better. And you don’t get better with random training, you need some sort of program.

To cut a long story short, though I haven’t been able to devise a full-featured training plan “according to Friel” - and probably I don’t need one at my level (and, ahem, age) as I am not planning to get TOO serious - the Mountain Biker’s Bible has been a great help in making all those trips to the gym this winter actually make sense. Even generally applying the principles has made sure I have improved all the different “types” of fitness that will place me in good stead once we emerge from winter. Specifically I am aiming for the evil Fruška Gora 80km Marathon in mid-May - and I really want to put a dent in it this time (see here for details)!

A road ride the other day with some of the top local guys (who’ve been living and breathing Friel a lot longer than me) confirmed that my fitness coming out of the winter slumber is, probably thanks to this book, better than it has ever been, meaning I could just about keep pace with them! If that’s not a recommendation I don’t know what is!

Not got a copy of the Mountain Biker’s Bible yet? Check it out on Amazon.com - cheap at twice the price!

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Posted on March 17th, 2009 by markowe
Filed under: MTB Serbia (All)