A lot of us started mountain biking for exercise, fresh air, the wind in our helmet, and a rush of adrenaline. Somewhere along the way, we decided to push ourselves harder. Now, you’re staring down an entry to Park City Point 2 Point. To race your best, let alone complete the 75 miles and 10,000 feet of climbing, you can’t just exercise. You need to train.
What does “training” actually mean and how is that different from “exercise”?
In short, exercise is an activity done to improve or maintain fitness. It is generalized, unstructured, and focused on well-being in the moment. In contrast, training is exercise with the addition of a goal and a plan. It is purposeful, structured, and designed to improve specific performance outcomes over time. It follows a plan, includes progressive overload, and includes strategic rest and periodization to drive adaptation.
To meet a goal like P2P, your exercise should evolve into training. For most people, this means hard days get harder and easier days get easier.
Think of it like this: In order to build fitness, you need to go bigger and harder. In order to train bigger and harder, however, you need to be fresh and rested enough to push yourself. Quality over quantity. It is these cycles of progressive overload that differentiate training from exercise and open the door to better performance and enough fitness to check a box like P2P.
Stay tuned for more about how to set up the structure and plan for training, both in the gym and on your bike. We’re available if you have questions or want to create a training plan now.
Contact Ben Van Treese at info@100yearathlete.com for guidance on gym work (or sign up for 100YA’s online mountain bike program with in-season, off-season, and pre-season modules).
Contact Sarah Kaufmann at sarah@kcyclingcoaching.com for personalized on-bike coaching or shop for a prewritten training plan.
And if you want to dig in on training versus exercise, and kicking starting things…check out this conversation between Ben, Sarah and Jay Burke – Watch Here
See you out on the trails!