3 Places I see clients loosing ‘free’ speed are found below.
Too often I get to see clients too late. At the race site in the days before the race is a tough time to make change in your trained movements (good or bad).
Our skills are very much connected to our end performance but it is ‘easy’ to over-look how much a daily focus on skills can change our performance, enjoyment and safety on bike.
These are 3 of the most common areas I see clients loosing speed and efficiency on trail.
1) Hills are Hard
-> Does Client understand (and use) shifting to optimize cadence and carry speed?
-> Standing up balanced and powerfully ? (need to do this in training to do it in races)
-> shift forward on the saddle. Often riders will have seat slammed back and sit on back of saddle. As hill gets steeper shift your butt forward to stay upright – train to avoid ‘boobs to the bar’
2) Frequent Flats, Wheels busted, trouble in bumpy-tech sections
-> Work on front wheel/ rear wheel lift (related videos) – Start today w. a stick on ground and on curbs
-> Work on pump track / not pedaling in sections that have whoops and berms to practice generating speed without pedaling *in practice … keep pedaling in races!
-> Ensure maintain centered position on bike (attack position) when ‘pumping’ terrain and on downhills (rarely need to be BEHIND saddle)
-> How to fix flats and setup Tubeless
3) Stopping pedaling when terrain flattens
-> Most people loose time at the top of climbs where we can still pedal but the terrain does not ‘force’ us to. Power drops, speed stays SLOW. We need ‘spin out the gear’ to get back up to speed.
-> use those ‘spinups’ and high-cadence drills from the trainer and road to motivate your MTB performance. Get back up to speed at top of climbs before taking rest
-> use downhills to recover and pedal hard when you can pedal. Practice this on road and mtb by keeping steady power on ups, downs and flats
Feel free to reply with Questions or ideas ! Or comment on facebook!
Peter
