The author, shortly before being dropped by fitter and faster human beings.Do you ever find yourself hacking up a seemingly endless climbs and despairing as your friends effortlessly glide into the distance?
We’ve come up with a list of fitness hacks that’ll make you feel twice the rider you should be without even setting foot in the gym.
Yep, off they go into distance…1. A longer dropper post.
Many of us don’t choose the dropper post that we ride with – we buy the bike and whatever comes with it is what we’re stuck with. Often it’s too short, leaving you peddling with your knees around your ears.
You either struggle with it too low or you stop and adjust the post and get left behind anyway in a cloud of your own faff.
Do yourself a favour and get a lofty dropper – 150mm or more – that’ll let you really straighten those legs out and get some proper power through the pistons.
2. Ditch the downhill wheels
I get it – you’re all about the downhill and you’d rather drag DH casing tyres up and have a blast down.
Why not try some lighter, narrow and faster rolling tyres on your next ride?
They’ll climb a bit easier, they’ll accelerate faster on the flat trails and you’d be surprised at how little difference they really make on most British trails.
Sure, you’ll sacrifice a bit of puncture resistance but over a full day’s riding the benefits probably even out.
We’re big fans of the Stans Arch wheels, they’re a fast rolling and not-too-wide pair of hoops.
3. Water is for camels
Do you really need 3 litres of water strapped to your back for a lap of Swinley? Or all those tools, spare tubes and bits and bobs in your back pack?
Could you ditch 2 litres of that water and loose a heap of weight without even entertaining the idea of working out?
Maybe you can plan your rides around a mid-route refill or hydrate in the car on the way to the trails, then just top-up as you go?
Would you ditch 2kg off your gut if you could? Yep, course you would and it would take a tonne of missed pub sessions and early mornings in the gym.
We’ve had great results with the Bontrager Rapid Pack.
4. Sleep, booze, stress
The holy trinity of shitty legs. Sleep, booze and stress.
The classic combo of a hard Friday at work washed down with a long night in the pub followed by drunk sleep and an early, late, flustered start on the trails. It’s a sure fire recipe for a faffy start and slow, grumpy riding. Am I right?
Do your best to minimise bullshit the day before a ride – try to spot the things that create stress and that killer lack of sleep or extra boozing. Try to work around them.
In the pub, maybe just have one or two then get home for a couple of pints of water, a good feed and a good night’s sleep.
Don’t say no to the pub, you’re not a saint, just manage the things that cause late nights and shitty starts eh? There’s a good article about this here on Wideopenmag with MTB Strength Factory.
5. Lighter, comfier kit
We all spend years trying to loose a few KG off our bellies. Then we drag round heavy, over-weight riding gear.
Go for a smaller, lighter hydration pack. Pick lighter weight knee pads. Run a thinner, lighter, packable jacket. Pick shoes that are lighter-weight and don’t soak up water like a sponge.
Equally, pick kit that’s nice and breathable, fits well and is light and airy. Good kit will delay that hot, sweaty, knackered feeling on those long climbs and remove the need to stop and peel of layers whilst your mates soar off over the next crest.
We like the Endura MT500 MK2 jacket (535g), Specialized 2FO 2.0 shoe (377g each), Troy Lee Skyline Air shorts and the very light SixSixOne Recon knee pads (158g per pair).
6. Lead from the front
Hanging off the back of the pack leads to hanging off the back of the pack.
Start last and you’ll drop in last. If you feel like you’re getting pushed to the back try to be a bit pushy and get out to the front of the group and set the pace.
Push on up the next climb whilst the rest of the group chats, drop in first on the downhills, get out front and lead the way.
Lead, rather than being dragged!
7. Eat good, drink good, graze
A good breakfast and steady eating and drinking through the day will give you an easy game-changing boost.
Get up a bit earlier and have a solid, high energy breakfast rather than a Service Station sausage roll. Pre-pack some healthy high energy food and keep it in a pocket you can access on the climbs and graze steadily all day. Make it so that you don’t have to stop and dig into your bag to get food in your face.
Eat and drink before you’re hungry or thirsty and keep topping up.
8. Ride with less fit riders
Seriously. Not all rides need to be about flogging yourself. Pick some mates you know aren’t going to murder you on every trail and go shred with them.
You’ll feel great, you’ll hit the descents less tired and you’ll get a chance to see how you ride as the fastest guy in the group. You might be surprised how different the ride feels when you’re the fit guy!
9. Invest an hour and fix your shit heap
I get it, you’re busy. You work late, you get up early and your weekends are packed. You always remember that your bike is a shit heap as you attempt your first descent of the day.
An hour spent washing and fixing your bike will mean less rubbing disc-rotors, less stuck dropper posts and less grinding gears. You’ll spend less time saying “sorry guys, two seconds!”.
Give the old girl some love and she’ll pay you back with less car-park based buggering around.
10. Just go for it and get an eBike
Yep, the dreaded / wonderful eBike.
If you really want to go further and faster without getting fitter, the eBike is the way to do it.
Be warned though, you might just find yourself riding more, with fitter groups and packing in more miles and more laps.
Before you know it you’ll more than likely end up actually getting fitter whether you like it or not!
