How Much Training Do You Actually Need?

Most mountain bikers don’t feel undertrained.

They feel tired, a bit flat, and unsure whether they’re doing too much — or somehow not enough.

They’re riding regularly.

They’re training in the gym.

They’re trying to be consistent.

And yet something feels off.

The problem usually isn’t effort.

It’s that there’s no governing logic tying the week together.

The Trap: More Training Without Clear Priorities

Mountain biking attracts motivated people.

When riding conditions improve, it’s natural to:

• ride more often

• add “just one more” session

• stack gym work and rides together

• assume more work equals better preparation

But without clear priorities, training turns into accumulation instead of adaptation.

Most riders aren’t undertraining.

They’re overdosing the wrong things at the wrong time.

Why Mountain Biking Is Different

Generic endurance advice doesn’t translate well to mountain biking.

MTB combines:

• high neural demand

• eccentric loading

• constant decision-making

• strength, skill, and fitness happening simultaneously

Your limiter is rarely just fitness.

It’s how many systems you can support at the same time, week after week.

That’s why copying someone else’s schedule — even a good one — often falls apart.

The Idea of Minimum Effective Dose (MED)

Minimum Effective Dose doesn’t mean doing the bare minimum.

It means applying just enough stress to move forward, without stealing recovery from the rest of the week.

In practice, MED is not a number.

It’s a decision-making lens.

It helps answer one question:

What is the least amount of training that reliably improves my riding — without making the rest of my week worse?

That answer changes:

• week to week

• rider to rider

• and season to season

Which is exactly why fixed templates break down.

The Only Three Questions That Matter Each Week

Every productive training week answers three questions — whether the rider realizes it or not:

1. What is the primary stressor right now?

2. What supports that stressor?

3. What must not interfere with it?

Most riders never answer these clearly.

They just train — and hope it works.

Early–Mid Pre-Season Reality (Right Now)

For most committed amateur riders right now:

• strength and dryland training should still be the primary stressors

• riding should support aerobic base and skill quality

• intensity should be deliberate, not accidental

This is especially true for riders just starting their pre-season — not full-time athletes, but riders who care about doing it right.

The mistake isn’t riding more.

It’s letting riding override the work that still needs to happen.

Different Riders Need Different Weekly Doses

An enduro rider, an XC rider, a gravity rider, and a weekend rider can all train “hard” — and still need very different weekly structures.

Even in the same season.

This is where generic plans fall apart.

Not because they’re bad — but because they ignore context.

What’s “enough” for one rider quietly breaks another.

What “Enough” Actually Feels Like

When weekly training dose is appropriate:

• strength sessions still feel purposeful

• riding feels smoother, not frantic

• recovery doesn’t feel like a constant negotiation

• you’re not guessing which session to drop

When it isn’t:

• fatigue lingers

• lifts stall early

• riding feels busy instead of productive

• rest days appear reactively, not by design

Your body gives feedback long before your training plan does.

Most Riders Don’t Overtrain — They Misprioritize

True overtraining is rare.

What’s far more common is misprioritization:

• too much intensity too early

• too many competing stressors

• no clear hierarchy in the week

Without constraint, training becomes noisy.

MED isn’t about doing less.

It’s about doing the right amount of the right things at the right time.

The Coach’s Lens (What Changes Everything)

When I work with riders, we don’t start by adding sessions.

We start by deciding:

• what gets protected this week

• what supports it

• and what’s allowed to wait

That single decision removes more confusion than any new workout ever could.

And it’s almost impossible to do objectively on your own.

What This Framework Is — and Isn’t

This isn’t a weekly schedule.

It isn’t a template you can screenshot.

And it isn’t a set of rules to follow blindly.

It’s a way of thinking that lets training adapt without falling apart.

That’s why it works across:

• different riders

• different seasons

• and different life constraints

If You Want Help Finding

Your M.E.D

Knowing that a framework exists is one thing.

Knowing how to apply it — week after week — is where coaching actually matters.

If you want help finding your minimum effective dose and adjusting it as your riding, recovery, and season evolve, that’s exactly what I help riders do.

Most of your have already completed the MTB Fitness Questionnaire and it's a great place to start.

The next stop, is to book a Strategy call with me and let's figure out where your priorities should lie.

Otherwise, I'll see you on the trails.

Alex