Training question

[asatrur]

I am looking at doing some epic rides by my definition this Summer and have some questions on training. Here is the skinny.
Mid 40's male getting back into MTB riding with a base since Oct of road bike commuting of ~700 miles. The commute is ~ 20mpd 3x/week.
I am thinking of either switching my commute mode to the MTB versus the road bike wholly or mixing it up. If I do the MTB, my commute would be all trail for a FT total of ~10-15 miles per day and I would keep my road days to ~20RT.
Do folks see this has good, bad, or otherwise? I am more concerned with endurance right now versus speed and I will be doing 1 more longer off-road ride per weekend at least.
Thanks and ask questions if needed.

[wahday]

I would be happy to be getting that many miles in each week. I have essentially the same routine but my commute is only about 8 miles RT and one long ride per weekend.

I also try to run about twice a week (~3 miles) but that doesn't always happen.

Depending on what you consider epic I think you may be just fine. I have done a number of overnighters between ~50 and 100 miles with some arduous climbing and felt like I was in fine shape. Each trip could have been longer except for time constraints. Also I'm 45.

I have never done this myself but interval training is a way to build endurance that doesn't require super long rides.

[sherpaxc]

Volume is good.  Probably 75% of my weekly ride (~10 hours a week give or take an hour each side) is my commute to work on a cross bike.  It's the only way for me to balance my work/family/ride life.  If I could ride more dirt then I would.  That being said, if commuting is where you get a majority of your time in just use that and be fine.  If you are able to spend more time on the dirt then do that.  It's way more fun.

I'm by no means a top level racer, I just like to ride and have never felt that my "training by commute" has ever held me back.  Good luck.

[bartspedden]

I've commuted for many years (off and on depending on jobs). Sometimes I've used a mountain bike because there were mostly trails and for me trails = fun. Other times the distance was longer and I used a SS Felt because faster = fun. My point is that I pick the bike that will be the most fun. If you get on a bike almost every day your fitness and endurance will improve. And since your distances are shorter the variance between bikes/routes might be very small.

Instead of which bike/route, I would start to think more about things like, "How long will I be doing this commute?" If the answer is a long time then I would start thinking about how to deal with the tough stuff to keep you riding. Like bad weather, maybe fenders and a some good rain gear? How about dealing with the dark during the winter? There's lots of lighting options out there nowadays. The cold. Getting your commuting clothing dialed in for winter.

The idea here is to keep you on the bike and having fun on the commute. Maybe one day the road bike is calling to you, and the next it's the call of the trails. To quote a rather fun beer maker... "follow your folly".

[roadpacker]

What I do is to keep my bike pretty packed up all the time when I'm prepping for a big run where I want to go fast (I am exclusively a road bikepacker at this time.) I keep a 5l dromedary bag in my main frame bag, full, keep the tail bag on with some food, keep my gas tank full of clif bars. I'm going to be making a dummy bag that mimics the size and weight of my bivvy/pad/bag for the front handlebars. So I commute like that, although it's only 20 minutes round trip. It helps.

For training-training I do the same thing-- I am blessed to have a 1.5 mile paved track near where I live, so I go quite quickly around that for 1.5 hrs, and then I run for 45 minutes alternating days. Cross training I have found _Really_ helps speed and endurance and injury reduction. I've read that triathletes have some of the lowest rates of injuries among athletes because their sport IS cross-training. So doing that training usually sets me up for a successful trip anywhere.

[JRA]

Eddy Merckx's training advice: "Ride lots"

For me it's about hours in the saddle, be it MTB, road bike, etc.  From my experiences there's no substitute for plain old time on the bike.  Some riders seem to be able to tackle incredible distances with very little training - but I'm not one them.

When you say "epic rides", you're preparation should occasionally replicate efforts that are close to what you plan to do on your epic rides.  Similar speed, similar intensity, similar terrain, similar duration.  At least this is what works for me.