Practicing long technical ascents without long technical ascents?
 

I got home from work the other day and my wife informed me that she’d signed me up for a mountain bike race.

Turns out it’s over 3000’ climbing in a 13 mile loop.

Sure sounds like a hill climb you’ve got to ride back down.

I don’t need to win but I’d like to get a good ride in. I do long ascents on the road and gravel as often as time permits. The local MTB trails don’t have climbs of more than a quarter mile.

Will road riding and bouncing around the local choss get it done? Aside from finding and doing big climbs, which I probably can’t manage time wise, is there anything to do?

I’ll show up either way.


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Do you know if the race route is a technical ascent? It's not a fire-road climb and trail decent?
As far as training goes you could do stair climbs for strength and endurance.

It’s touted as being old school technical.

By stairs, I assume you mean go downtown and try to ride up a big flight of steps. It’s been at least 20 years since I have done that. I think Hans Rey inspired me, also how I realized I was a roadie.

If your goal is to simply not embarrass yourself, I would think that the lung and leg training you get on the road and gravel, combined with the skills training you get on your less climb local trails (are there at least SOME steep or technical climbs?) will come together to get you through fine.

I just went through something kind of similar (though less extreme). The trails where I live now do not have much in the way of big climbs/descents, but there are some good road/gravel climbs. I had a trip to Pisgah planned for last week. where we would do lot of 1K' to 2K' climbs. There is nothing remotely close to that around me. Biggest steep sidetrack climbs are really just a couple/few hundred feet elevation. I was worried I was not going to be able to keep up well. However, putting in time on the road/gravel bike to get the climbing in, combined with riding the technical singletrack left me in respectable shape for the trip.

Is it XC or enduro?

it will probably mostly just be up a lot, interrupted by a few difficult sections. If it’s a common or yearly race location you can look up reports from previous years riders

There are two passes near me that climb a ton. The paved one is over 3000’ and the gravel one is more, though I’m not sure how much more. Decent if windy road riding abounds.

The Sunlight Showdown in Glenwood Springs sports a half marathon and the aforementioned race. My wife signed us both up. It’s a good halfway point for a larger summer time trip. Funny enough, the running times are pretty similar to the cycling times, so I do expect it’s going to be rather difficult.

I’m not in great shape but I blame the two mini me’s running around the house. I found the time to do a century this upcoming weekend, I’m not ready for that either but I’ll survive. I’m going to try to get a few rides a week in through the summer.

There is a ton of MTB riding an hour or two from here, time wise, the super short punchy climbs of the local groomers is probably all I can get though (again blaming the tiny humans).

You have plenty to get fit on.

If you can push yourself on the road you'll do fine (assuming you have the technical skills). You don't need uninterrupted 5000' climbs. In fact, interval workouts are probably more beneficial. If time is short, don't waste it spending hours in the car. Just ride what you have and push yourself.

Yeah the engine will benefit from long, sustained road climbs -- but that alone cannot simulate Fast-twitch climbing muscles and the bike handling that you need to power up technical ascents.

I found that out quickly in the Pisgah mountains one year. If it's just fire road climbing you'll be fine.

Listen to FastJake. I've never been in better shape than when interval training. Read about it, then develop and implement your own system. It worked well for me, then 15 years elapsed and I got old.

Road biking makes you a better mountain biker. Mountain biking makes you a better road biker. You will be fine.

Last post I did, I said the guy should get out of the gym and ride more.

But in this case some upper body work will be helpful for gravel or single trail downhill. Especially working on triceps will help technical descents. Triceps, more than any other muscle in your arm and upper body, control your center of gravity and core and keep you steady on bumpy trails and controlling the bike downhill. You’ll fatigue less as well. You don’t need weights, you can use a your own body weight and do tricep dips with a few sets of a dozen or so.