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Many that do 6-10 workouts per week, end up with the same amount of workouts (or hours) on year to year basis because of injury and sickness. And more important, maybe they where able to get many hours more in - but since they fall back some weeks every 3-4 months due to sickness or injury, they loose out on overall cardio since a healthy person have had a continues, slow and steady increase in fitness.
Easier for younger people that heals quicker and produce less or no lactic acid when they train.
Funny thing is, i cant run for more than 3-5min at 180+ before lactic acid puts a stop to it
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Just my opinion, as a long-retired MX racer (1978-1988) but I think that cycling is probably the best aerobic training for MX, along with maybe the rowing ergometer. Running is great, IF your body can handle the pounding. For most motocross guys over the age of 35 that is probably questionable. Cycling does not beat you up the same, plus you can do super easy recovery riding on a road bike. And don't discount walking as training either. A good brisk walk of an hour or more is very beneficial and does not hammer the body.
An important thing to remember is that aerobic conditioning is like a pyramid. You have to build the lower intensity base over a longer period of time, before doing the high intensity training. The fitness you gain from high intensity aerobic training is gained very quickly, and lost very quickly without maintenance. The base fitness you build over years, that is not lost very quickly at all.
For the winter months, I think a MX guy should first focus on longer sessions at lower intensities. If you race and do 2 20 min motos per day then I think you should start out by working up to one 2-3 hour bike ride per week at 60-70% intensity. With darkness and weather for most people it might involve doing 2 mid-week days indoors for say an hour and then getting in the longer ride on the weekend. Don't worry about intervals, or anything specific. Just build the base up. After 10 weeks or so, then cut back the longer ride but work in 2x20 minute intervals where you are going 80-85%. This is largely know to be "sweet spot" training which is extended effort at the high end of your aerobic capacity without going into lactic accumulation. These 2x20 type of workouts can be 2x per week max with at least 2 days between. Then after 4-6 weeks take a full rest week from cycling and then start doing the high intensity intervals where you are anaerobic 2x week. 1x1, 2x2 sets of 3-5 with at least 20 min of noodling between sets and 3 sets max. Finish with at least 20 min of riding stupidly easy. Don't overdo these, and if you do the first interval and feel awful that is normal but if the second one feels worse then stop and just ride easy for 30 min and go rest.
Of course any MXer will be riding the dirt bike and probably doing some strength training, so don't try to become a category 1 cyclist. You can ride a road bike 5 hours per week and get very fit for motocross. Don't get suckered into the more is better disease that endurance athletes find themselves suckered into (trust me, I have ended up deep in the box from overtraining, to the point where I will have some health issues dog me for the rest of my life as a result). Be prepared to work hard, but be smart and if in doubt and feeling fatigued err on the side of less. In the long run you will be much better off.
Couple questions......
1.) How does a guy like me find out what his maximum HR is? Wouldn't that vary from person to person? I guess the old 220 rule is more of a " ballpark" number , more then anything else.
2.) It sounds like I have been going a little overkill on my HIIT cardio workouts. Instead of damn near killing myself 3 - 4 times a week doing these , I should take a step back and only do it once a week , along with like 2 other easier 70%-80% longer duration workout? ( My cardio is Running and spin bike ).
Side note : I'm very confident in my strength training for the sport. It's the cardio stuff I needed help with here. I started training cardio again around the end of Sept...so I am almost 4 months in and I think my base is getting pretty good. My only worry was " Not hitting it hard enough " , and then being behind the 8 ball come race season.
I have no problem doing 1 - 1-1/2hr cardio sessions at 70%-80% , and if anything , those are going to be easier to get through compared to what I was doing I think. Doing the HIIT 3 - 4 times a week was starting to wear me down.
1) The easiest way is to get warmed up and then run up stairs if you have a flight of stairs that is a couple minutes in length. The combination of running plus gravity will get you to max quite easily. Even then, it's not an absolute as I hinted before, as it will vary from person to person. Another good method for HR training, if you are doing it on a bicycle, is to go out and do a "time trial effort" for 25 miles. Find a flat road, and basically ride as fast as you can sustain for 25 miles. Your average HR for that will be right around your anaerobic (lactate) threshold, the point where you start accumulate lactic acid. You can then base your training zones off that number and not worry about max HR.
2) Yes definitely you are doing a bit too much by the sounds of it, in terms of intervals. Again, building the base before hammering yourself with hard intervals is important. So focus on getting in 5-6 hours of less intense cardio for a couple of months, then build up the intervals while cutting down the hours.
Feel free to DM me if you want.
im 46, 172 lbs. resting heart rate is usually around 40, max is around 194(riding up ski hills)
If I get serious on moto again i will-
plan my meals two days before and after.
only workout using 100% one day per week
moto practice/train at 80% low heart rate. more laps than sprint laps.
do a nice warmup before practice the morning of a race. (the most important thing i would try)
refuel during the race day with planned meals
I wished i would have raced cycling when i was about 18-25 to learn. but i was riding the mx bike 3-5 times per week.
I raced mx from 9yrs to 26 yrs.
Done nothing for 10 years and got fat!
Now ride & race road bicycles. Ive learnt more in my short time in bicycles than I ever did in MX. I too wish I raced bicycles all that time ago, what I have learnt would definitely have helped my MX when I was serious about it.
I have seen 208 Max HR riding moto and the more ride moto the more the Max HR decreases, I thought I was getting more efficient but apparently I was just getting in better shape.
I have a M400 Polar
An HR monitor should be used to create a baseline. See if you can improve your resting HR, and to a lesser extent your max. Also, as your heart gets stronger, you should see quicker recovery after hard efforts. And of course, it should be used to train in specific zones once you know your own personal max etc.
I have a friend who at 55 can get into the 200's easily and another who can't get over 165. The one in the 200's does no training and is pretty out of shape, the other guy pedals all the time and is a beast. Comparing max between people is just silly. Hopefully, somebody will educate the talking heads on tv and the podcasts too, especially now that all this data is going to be seen.
They are up to episode 10 at about 1 hour long. Great info. The goal in the podcast is/was to start out simple, back to the basics. They do not jump in to lactic acid threshold training or focus in on any one training discipline.
As a guy that trains 5-6 days a week I still get a lot out of the shows. Check them out!
Pit Row
Everytime I ride MX, I always hit 200-203 my first moto. Don't know why, but as I go throughout the day, my max and average gets to around 180-182. Tried everything, but I always "blow up" every first ride; same with enduros and harescrambles.
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