There’s an app called Strava that many mountain bikers used. It tracks your rides and shows you stats like distance, time, and elevation. It can also tell where and what trails you’ve been riding and has a leaderboard that tells you how fast you completed the trail compared to other people who use the app. If you are the fastest person to ride a certain trail, you are considered to have a KOM (king of the mountain) on that trail.
Racing Enduro this year, I’ve learned that there is a lot more than just downhill speed on the bike involved to be able to win. After racing my first one this year, and getting beat by a 15 and a 50 year old, I was baffled on what I was doing wrong. I realized you didn’t have to be good at just going downhill, there were also uphill or flat sections that you had to power your way through. My downhill speed wasn’t enough to make up for all the time on the technical climbs or tight awkward sections which I wasn’t used to.
Obviously fitness is a big part of it, and that’s something I need to work on. DH racing involves a lot of sprinting and recovering, which Is what I train for. Enduro requires a lot more endurance and being able to pedal for a much longer time, as well as sprint and recover. With all the snow this year, I wasn’t able to get out on long road rides. Sure, there’s the stationary bike at the gym, but I found it hard to find motivation to sit inside on a spin bike for 90 minutes watching other people lift weights. I didn’t think I needed to. But boy was I wrong…
With Strava, I am able to compare my times with the fastest local riders and it motivates me to put in effort on flatter or uphill sections of trail where I would usually relax or use as a transition to the next technical decent. If I want to put in good times on strava, I have to be fast everywhere, not just the downhill, just like enduro racing. Enduro racing is pretty much over for this year, but I hope to race a few more next year and after a winter of more endurance training, I’m hoping to see a huge improvement on my times.
