Fitness Training
Dan Atherton’s coach, Alan Milway, gives some pointers on how to become a better enduro rider.
The Christmas break is now well and truly over, and it's time to get your training regime into gear so you can attack this year's mountain-biking events full force.
To help you along your way if you're competing in Enduro-style events, we’ve put together a snapshot of Dan Atherton's Enduro training schedule and have also created a handy week-by-week guide to get you race-ready.
Enduro training plan
The programme that we’ve set out below ideally runs for 18 weeks. You can always reduce the sections if you’re short on time, but don’t skip any – especially the ones you like the least.
We’ve given Enduro skills a two-week focus but ideally this should run through your entire programme – you should be doing a minimum of one ride per week.
And a final note before we get into the nitty gritty – you can’t run without fuel and hydration. You need to take on one litre of water per hour’s activity and an energy drink if you’re riding for more than two hours. Be sure to fuel up with carbs before you start and don’t leave it too long to refuel when you get back from that mega ride.
Carbohydrate and protein combos don’t have to be fancy – we’re big fans of a jacket potato with tuna!
Weeks 14-18
Key activity: Long steady miles to build your base.
Focus: Building volume.
Tips: Be realistic about your start point, you should try and do two or three rides a week, each of which last a minimum of two hours.
Weeks 10-14
Key activity: Structured efforts lasting eight to 10 minutes.
Focus: Building intensity.
Tips: You want to work at 75-80 percent of your max effort. You need to make sure you are working really hard, but not too hard to stop you from completing the entire duration of the effort.
Weeks 6-10
Key activity: Interval training lasting from three to five minutes.
Focus: Building race-level efforts.
Tips: You want to work at 85-90 percent of your max during your efforts. Try to mix it up between the turbo-trainer and riding outside to keep things a little more interesting. Nobody likes this part of a training plan so don't expect to enjoy it.
Weeks 4-6
Key activity: Enduro.
Focus: Maximise your core riding skills by getting out on the bike as much as you can. Remember practice makes perfect.
Tips: Enjoy it – you’ve smashed out a month of intervals so you deserve this.
Weeks 2-4
Key activity: Get ready for some explosive efforts. Practising sprint starts is a great way of getting that explosive power into the legs. These sprints should last about six seconds.
Focus: Building power.
Tips: Remember to leave yourself sufficient recovery time between each effort. You should feel strong before each start.
Weeks 0-2
Key activity: Specific pre-race preparation.
Focus: To get race ready.
Tips: Taper off the miles, you need to be fresh for the race – but don't forget that this is your last chance you have to work on the parts YOU need to work on – don’t cheat yourself, put in that last little bit of effort, I promise you won't regret it.
Follow Dan Atherton's progress in this season’s World Series Enduro series at his Instagram page.