What is Enduro racing?

What is Enduro racing?

On this edition of the Ask Coach Parry Cycling podcast we chat about what Enduro racing is all about and the hype currently surrounding it. Our cycling coach Devlin Eyden tells us how this new racing craze can be used.  He touches on training needs and what you should not be doing with enduro racing.

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Transcript

David Katz:          This is the Ask Coach Parry Cycling podcast, I’m Mr Active, David Katz and we’ve got Devlin Eyden here to give you some fantastic advice when it comes to possibly mountain biking, possibly road biking, or road cycling and there’s so much out there involved when it comes to doing all the work yourself on two wheels and no mechanical doping, please. There’s more than enough ways you can get there and be strong on your own and talking about being strong and something that’s a little bit different. Our question today does come around mountain biking because there’s this new craze Devlin and I can see why it’s becoming so popular and that’s enduro racing.

Enduro racing should not be used as a training tool

It’s a great way to ride from a physiological perspective because you have these nice, long, easy recoveries and buildup sections and then you only need to be at intensity on a certain section of that route. I get the appeal of it and it’s more like riding your own trail as opposed to being this high intensity race the whole time.

Devlin Eyden:      Enduro racing, I think the first thing we need to just clarify is, are we doing this, do you want to take part in enduro for more the fun of trying something new or are you trying to use it as a training tool? What’s important for me firstly is to make sure, what is your focus as a rider in terms of the kind of discipline? I’m all for getting a feel for the different disciplines, getting some stage racing in, getting cross country in, getting the marathons in as well and the enduro racing, but it is important to note that if you are going to be doing a lot of the enduro type of riding and not as much of the cross country type of riding, for instance, one is going to outweigh the other.

I’m not always sure that it’s a great training tool, it’s always going to help you from a technical point of view, so just to sort of touch on what enduro is as well, is largely enduro riding happens, it most often happens over a weekend as well, so over a couple of days, but it’s more using untimed uphill sections, so it allows the riders to take as long as they want to get to the top of the climb and the technical downhill is what is timed. The guys normally belt it down as hard as you possibly can, try and get the quickest possible time and then ride back up to the top of the climb and they’re taking a cumulative time over that.

That comes down to almost an interval type training and it could help to a large extent or it does help to a large extent, we definitely punt interval training and it is important, but then the focus needs to be as well, that you need to be getting in a lot of the more, the lower intensity and the endurance kind of training and so enduro can’t be the only kind of riding you’re doing.

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I do feel though, like I have mentioned that it is, it’s always key to get a feel for different disciplines, see what is out there and again, it might actually change your perspective on things. You might be a cross country rider or a marathon rider and feel, well, you had enough of that and it’s time to move onto something else. Please, by all means, I’m not saying it’s definitely not the way to go, but it is important to keep in mind why you want to do this. If you’re aiming to get more distance in your legs without the intensity, then enduro is not necessarily the kind of riding for you.

From a training point of view, you need to be spending a lot more time on the bike doing the lower intensity stuff and that typically, not only just in your base training, but that needs to take up a large portion of your training throughout the year, when we start talking more the marathon type riding, the stage racing as well. If put more of a focus on doing some of the interval work, as I have mentioned, the enduro will work for that high intensity interval training as well and a lot for your technical skills, keeping that in mind.

DK:         Well Devlin, thank you for that, some fantastic advice, interesting way to go about it, as you said, think of that goal, know the plan and then you can decide from then.

If you want to have some one-on-one time with Devlin, all you need to do is join our really engaged group, sign up for the online community and to do so, all you need to do is go to coachparry.com/join, you get exclusive members-only video content, video coaching and access to the private Facebook group, plenty on offer there, so go check it out.

From myself, Mr active, David Katz and Devlin Eyden, we’ll catch up with you on the Ask Coach Parry Cycling podcast next time.

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