Hi, I am a 26 year old male from Germany who is a typical couch potato. My weight is around 83 kg at a height of 190 cm. As I haven’t done much sports in the last 7 years, and my diet isn’t as good as it should be, those 83 kg are at a higher body fat percentage than it should be.
I am riding a Hardtail MTB, which I bought in 2018, for maybe 20 times/30km a year with some exception of some very low intensity 90 - 130 km rides, at the Rhine river, additional this summer.
My goal, complete a MTB Marathon end of April 2020. At the bottom of this post, you will find a altitude profile of this particular race, but here are some general information.
Distance: 100 km
Altitude range: 380m
Total climb: 3100 m
Total descent: 3000 m
I am totally not aware of the challenge I have signed myself up for, but nevertheless I will tackle this challenge and try my best. For archiving this goal, I decided to get into indoor training as well as functional training at the gym.
I want this topic to become my personal diary/journal and update it at least once a week once I get my indoor training setup.
Good luck and you have plenty of time to prepare and train for that event. Schedule a Base - Build - Specialty (28 weeks) leading into your event. If you follow that consistently the marathon will be no problem.
I started with FTP of 175 W and currently I am sitting at 241 W. I lowered my body fat percentage and worked on my core strength which turned out to be too weak even for the lower intensity workouts I encountered in SSB.
I didn’t had many chances to do a true test to my new abilities as it is winter and I was in my final phase of my Master degree which I just recently finished. Nevertheless, the rides I have done felt amazing. I can’t remember that I ever made it from the parking lot to the start of the trail without stopping and actually laying down and trying not to die. In December I completed the whole round without a taking a stop even though (or because?) I raced a friend of mine which is much stronger and a competitive Enduro rider.
What I noticed is that the time my body needs to recover from a climb or riding on rough terrain dropped dramatically and he isn’t screaming for brakes anymore.
Besides the physical changes I want to honor my me psychology adaptions a lot more. Quitting doesn’t feel to be a thing anymore unless I hit my max heart rate at which I immediately fail (all my ramp tests stopped at the same value, even though I hide them during test).
I very happy with my current situation and I am looking forward to continue with my training
Edit: I am currently sitting on my bike why texting so don’t blame me for errors
