Base Training in the Hills

Scalpel1 said:

Hi everyone, was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction. I live and ride in the mountains of North Georgia. I was planning on working in a good long base this winter for the coming MTB season in March. I am a 32 year old mid pack expert XC racer. I don't own a road bike, but I do lots of long gravel road rides on my mtb. Just about all riding here results in long climbs. Is it ok to climb this much in base training or is it counter productive? Is gravel road riding ok in place of road riding for training?

If you're a mountain biker, ride your mountain bike. It's fine. Also, it sounds like you are too hesitant about intensity during your base phase. Lots of climbing at L3/L4 (Coggan levels) is a great way to train. You also may want to include some focused L4 work (such as 2x20's with a 5ish minute rest) and maybe the odd v02max workout (5x5min in L5, 2.5-5 min rest). Here is how these levels are defined, by the way. cyclingpeakssoftware.comlevels.htmlOpen ↗