Why Most Mountain Bikers Train Too Much (and Still Plateau)

• A smarter way to think about weekly training priorities in pre-season *

Most mountain bikers don’t feel undertrained.

They feel busy, a bit tired, and unsure why their riding isn’t improving the way it should.

They’re riding regularly.

They’re training in the gym.

They’re doing more than they used to.

And yet… progress stalls.

The problem usually isn’t effort.

It’s that training volume has crept up without a clear set of weekly priorities.

The Trap: More Training Without a Plan

Mountain bikers are motivated by nature.

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 a governing logic, training becomes accumulation instead of adaptation.

Most riders aren’t undertraining.

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

A Quick Note from the Pacific Northwest

Here in BC and across the Pacific Northwest, the snow taps have mostly turned off.

While I'm bummed not to be skiing for it’s made for some excellent January riding.

Trails are rideable. Dirt is holding together. Riders are getting out more than usual for this time of year.

That’s great — but it also creates temptation.

This is exactly when I see riders shift priorities too early:

• strength sessions get shortened or skipped

• dryland work loses intent

• riding intensity creeps up because it feels good

For many riders right now — especially those just starting a committed pre-season — strength and dryland should still be the primary stressors.

Riding matters.

But it shouldn’t get in the way of the work that’s still supposed to be happening.

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 at the same time

Your limiter is rarely just fitness.

It’s how many systems you can support simultaneously, week after week.

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

The Real Issue: No Weekly Hierarchy

Most riders never clearly answer three basic questions:

1. What is the primary stressor this week?

2. What supports it?

3. What must not interfere with it?

Instead, everything gets treated as equally important.

That’s when:

• intensity sneaks in too early

• fatigue accumulates quietly

• strength progress stalls

• riding quality flattens out

This isn’t overtraining.

It’s misprioritization.

Early–Mid Pre-Season Reality (Right Now)

For most committed amateur riders right now:

• strength and dryland work should still lead

• max strength is being finished, not abandoned

• riding should support aerobic base and skill quality

• high-intensity riding should be deliberate, not accidental

This is especially true for riders who aren’t full-time athletes but still want to do things properly.

The mistake isn’t riding more.

It’s letting riding override the work that’s still meant to be driving adaptation.

Minimum Effective Dose (Without the Spreadsheet)

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

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

MED isn’t a number.

It isn’t a template.

It isn’t something you can screenshot and copy.

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 everything else worse?

That answer changes:

• week to week

• rider to rider

• and season to season

Which is exactly why fixed plans eventually fail.

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 skip

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 Train Too Much — They Train Without Constraints

True overtraining is rare.

What’s far more common is:

• too many competing stressors

• intensity creeping in before it’s needed

• 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

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 Is — and What It Isn’t

This isn’t a weekly schedule.

It isn’t a pre-season template.

And it isn’t generic endurance advice.

It’s a way of thinking that lets training adapt without falling apart as riding volume increases.

That’s why it works across:

• enduro riders

• XC riders

• gravity riders

• and weekend riders alike

The details change.

The logic doesn’t.

Want Help Finding Your Line?

Knowing that a framework exists is one thing.

Knowing how to apply it — week after week, as riding ramps up and life stays busy — is where coaching actually matters.

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

The MTB Fitness Questionnaire or a Strategy call with yours truly are two great places to start that conversation

What’s Coming Next

Next, we’ll look at how this balance shifts once intensity becomes unavoidable — and how to adjust without losing the work you’ve already done.

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Alex,