Mountain Bike Training Plans

Following a structured training plan will increase your chances of success by 100%

Training Plans for Mountain Biking

What are the Mountain Biking race distances?

Mountain biking is a popular endurance sport raced over a measured course on a non-tarred surface.

The 3 most common race distances are: (from shortest to longest)

40km – 50km or Half Marathon distance
70km – 90km or Marathon Distance
100km+ or Ultra Marathon Distance

Mountain Bike races can centre around a central venue, with athletes return to the transition area between completing each discipline, or be point-to-point, where athletes start at one point and end at a different venue.

Choosing the appropriate Mountain Biking training plan

In order to make it easier for you to choose the correct training plan for you, we categorise our training plans along 3 variables:

Training hours,
Race Distance, and
Preferred training measure

Training Hours

We split our training plans based on training hours available to the athlete.
The categories are Novice, Intermediate and Advanced.

Novice – 4 to 8 hours of training per week

Intermediate – 9 to 13 hours of training per week

Advanced – 14 or more hours of training per week

Race Distance

The second variable is race distance:

Road Race Distances

Half Marathon (40-50km), Marathon (70-90km) and Ultra Marathon (100km+)

Preferred Training Measure

Running training zones are expressed in percentage of max heart rate (%MHR), percentage of threshold heart rate (%THR) and percentage of functional threshold power (%FTP).

Training plan version v3.1 = %MHR for bike sessions.
Training plan version v3.2 = %THR for bike sessions.
Training plan version v3.3 = %FTP for bike sessions.

3 Most Popular Mountain Biking Base Training Plans

Our 10km Road Running base training plans include sport-specific Core Strength and Flexibility training.

You also get access to our FREE training tools that will help you accurately calculate your training zones.

The training plan can, therefore, be adapted to your current fitness levels.

Athlete	Description	Training Peaks Link
Novice	10 Week Base	Training Peaks Link
Intermediate	10 Week Base	Training Peaks Link
Advanced	10 Week Base	Training Peaks Link

3 Most Popular Mountain Biking Build & Peak Training Plans

TrainingPeaks based plans for athletes who have completed a base training period and want to increase their volume and intensity in anticipation of peaking for a race.

Athlete	Description	Training Peaks Link
Novice	10 Week Base	Training Peaks Link
Intermediate	10 Week Base	Training Peaks Link
Advanced	10 Week Base	Training Peaks Link

3 Most Popular Mountain Biking Combination Training Plans

“All-In-One” TrainingPeaks training plans.
These training plans are a combination of the Base, Build and Peak training phases that will take you from the off season to your race day.

Athlete	Description	Training Peaks Link
Novice	10 Week Base	Training Peaks Link
Intermediate	10 Week Base	Training Peaks Link
Advanced	10 Week Base	Training Peaks Link