Mountain Biker's Trainer Workout: Oceania Edition

We’ve got a new challenge for folks working to maintain cardio fitness at home. It’s time to see what EWS trails look like in the southern hemisphere this week, with a series of videos from Derby, Tasmania, and Rotorua, New Zealand. We’ll spend the first 18:48 minutes in the helmets of Cain Branston on stage one, followed by Jesse Melamed descending the same trail. During the following 24:23 minutes we’ll be chasing the ever entertaining Gowaan Gals, Martha Gill, and Bex Baraona in Rotorua before diving into practice runs from 2017 with enduro veteran Cedric Gracia.

Life’s not all about racing and training, fortunately, but it will feel good to hit the trails this summer with a base of fitness to build on. There is a set of simple workout instructions below each of the following videos. If those don’t sound fun, you can always just pedal along while you watch the forest fly by. Either way, practice looking up toward the vanishing point of the trail all the way down each track.

The trainer/roller challenge

Warm up however you like for 10-15 minutes.
Once the video begins, shift into a less comfortable gear that makes it hard to talk, maintaining a reasonably high cadence.
Any time that Caine’s tires are touching dirt for longer than 3 seconds, shift up and push hard until the next rock slab. After the slab, rest until he’s ridden another 3 consecutive seconds of soil. In addition to the physical efforts, this should help you remain hyper focused on the trail ahead.
Cool down for 2-3 minutes before moving on the next run.

Keep the cadence high and the aerobic effort uncomfortable.
For Jesse’s run, instead of focusing on soil we’re looking out for each individual rock slab. Every time his front tire hits a rock slab, stand up and sprint as hard as you can for 5 seconds. Continue these efforts all the way to the end.
Cool down and hydrate for 2-3 minutes before the next run.

Gowaan Gals videos are hilarious, so you’ll likely finish with an abdominal workout in addition to the pedal efforts.
Shift back into that not-so-comfortable gear and get spinning.
Every time Martha yells something, either to the riders around her or to the trees along the track, shift up two gears higher and pedal for fifteen seconds at the highest cadence possible before shifting back down. Remain seated throughout the efforts.
Once you can see the Crankworx banner at the end, stand up and give it all you’ve got until the end of the video.

If you made it this far, you’ve endured roughly 26 minutes of intensity. Nice work! Here are two different options for the remaining 17:15 minutes.
1. Just pedal and try to get more time on the trainer with some entertainment. Remember to look up as far as you can whenever Cedric is on singletrack.
2. Keeping the uncomfortable cadence and gearing throughout, shift up a gear or two every time Cedric is on an official stage. Even if he’s talking you shouldn’t be able to.
Finally, cool down with an easy spin for 5-15 minutes, hydrate, stretch, and eat or drink some protein.

We’ll keep putting these workouts together for as long as folks are quarantined in their homes, or until you all grow tired of them, whichever comes first. If you’re enjoying these, or you have an idea for a workout style or video that we haven’t shared, please let us know in the comments on the site.