Today’s question focuses mainly on the concept of training on a heavy bike and then racing on a lighter one…

I have both a mountain bike and road bike. While I ride my road bike for triathlons, I know it takes more work when riding the mountain bike. My questions is would training on the mountain bike make the more efficient road bike easier when it comes to triathlon time?

Thanks,
Efficient Erin

Hi Erin,

That’s a good question. Quite a few people try this method of training for road races and triathlons – they get a heavy road bike or mountain bike to train on, then feel faster when they ride their nice bike.

Heck, I’ve even done hill repeats with cement-filled water bottles in my cages to make my bike heavier and harder to ride!

Unfortunately, it doesn’t make any difference!

Let me address this specifically: “I know it takes more work when riding the mountain bike.”

Yes, it takes more work to ride the mountain bike at 17mph than it does to ride the road bike at 17mph. But if you put that same amount of effort into riding your road bike, you’d be riding at ~ 20mph.

You have to think of it in terms of power output. Your body is going to use the same amount of power when riding either bike. The difference is, you’ll go slower on the mountain bike for a given power output. You’ll just feel faster on the road bike if you’ve been on the mountain bike lately.

Also, aside from not improving your fitness, you miss out on a very important training concept: specificity.

If you switch between bikes, your body won’t be as efficient at pedaling the road bike as it could be if you spent the majority of your time riding the road bike. So while mountain biking is great training for road racing, it doesn’t do much for triathlon training, and time on the mountain bike would simply take away from time better spent on the road bike.

Hope that clears things up!

With the primaries under way for this year’s presidential election, I’m hoping to hear some “pro-bike” sentiment from the candidates. We need all the help we can get…

Just read the following statement from Congressman Patrick McHenry from North Carolina.

From StreetsBlog, here is a quote from the aforementioned McHenry:

“A major component of the Democrats’ energy legislation and the Democrats’ answer to our energy crisis is, hold on, wait one minute, wait one minute, it is promoting the use of the bicycle.

Oh, I cannot make this stuff up. Yes, the American people have heard this. Their answer to our fuel crisis, the crisis at the pumps, is: Ride a bike.

Democrats believe that using taxpayer funds in this bill to the tune of $1 million a year should be devoted to the principle of: “Save energy, ride a bike.” Some might argue that depending on bicycles to solve our energy crisis is naive, perhaps ridiculous. Some might even say Congress should use this energy legislation to create new energy, bring new nuclear power plants on line, use clean coal technology, energy exploration, but no, no. They want to tell the American people, stop driving, ride a bike. This is absolutely amazing.

Apparently, the Democrats believe that the miracle on two wheels that we know as a bicycle will end our dependence on foreign oil. I cannot make this stuff up. It is absolutely amazing.

Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the Democrats, promoting 19th century solutions to 21st century problems. If you don’t like it, ride a bike. If you don’t like the price at the pumps, ride a bike.

Stay tuned for the next big idea for the Democrats: Improving energy efficiency by the horse and buggy.”

That’s right off the Congressional Record. Is he serious?!

In response I say: Bicycles are a 19th century solution to a 19th century problem. And that problem is the automobile.

[Thanks to BikeCommuters and Prolly for bringing this to my attention.]

Photo credit: Patrick McHenry Website