Shared with road
The engine
- A broad aerobic base, built mostly at low intensity.
- Zones anchored to your thresholds and retested, not copied from a formula.
- Load controlled week by week, with recovery counted.
MTB TRAINING · XCO · XC · XCM MARATHON
Mountain bike training, built on your watts
On the trail the winner is not who pushes hardest, but who repeats best.
An XCO race is nothing like a long climb at a steady pace: it is a string of surges lasting a few seconds above your maximal power, with descents where you do not pedal and barely recover. A marathon asks for the opposite, hours of sustained work with the terrain on top. The plan is written against the demand of your discipline and your calendar, with your real watts and hours, and adjusted every week. Online coaching from Bogotá.
XCO, XC and XCM · power-based planning · skills and strength inside the week
- 19.2%
- of an XCO race is spent not pedalling
- 28.2%
- of the time above the maximal power of an incremental test
- 68 rpm
- average cadence in international XCO, about twenty below road
Same coaching, a different demand.
It is the same ONE training plan at the same monthly fee. What changes is what it is written against: the repeated surges of XCO, the hours of a marathon or your weekend trail, instead of a road gran fondo.
If you do not yet know what is holding you back, the starting point can be the assessment alone.View the general training plan.
Investment
from USD 110 / monthapprox. COP 350,000
- Individual power-based plan for XCO, XC or XCM, fitted to your hours and your calendar.
- Weekly review of load, recovery and response, with the adjustments that follow.
- Surges, skills and strength placed inside the week, not added on top.
- The performance assessment included: the limiter named and the priority for the coming weeks.
- The Race Plan included for every dated goal, on the actual course.
- Direct contact with the coaching lead for day-to-day questions.
No minimum term. Performance assessment and Race Plan included.
The real demand
A road plan with mud on it is not a mountain bike plan.
On the road, power rises and falls slowly. On the trail it changes every few seconds: you surge, clear a step, stop pedalling on the descent and surge again. A plan copied from road prepares the engine well and leaves untrained exactly what decides the race.
Added by the mountain
The ability to repeat
- Short efforts above your maximal power, chained with little recovery.
- Low-cadence strength for the ramps where there is no easier gear.
- Skills and handling as sessions with a goal, not filler.
In the XCO race measured by Hays and colleagues, 28% of the time was above the maximal power those riders sustained in an incremental test, and almost half of those efforts lasted less than five seconds. Granier and colleagues measured an average of 283 W at 68 rpm in international competition: the pedalling is heavy and in bursts. That is the shape of the demand, and the plan is written against it.
This is what you train for
Mud, fog and the descent you know by heart.
Watts, zones and load are the means. This is the end: reaching the top with legs to enjoy the descent, and still having something on the last lap.
Three profiles, three plans
XCO, XCM and XC are not trained the same way.
“Mountain biking” covers very different races. What separates them is how the effort is spread: how long it lasts, how many times you have to surge and how much terrain is ridden seated. The plan is written against the profile that describes your season, not the bike you own.
- XCO
Olympic: ninety minutes of surges
Short, repeated laps, an explosive start and a race decided by efforts of a few seconds above your maximal aerobic power, chained together with technical descents where you do not pedal.
The ability to repeat is trained: short intervals above threshold with incomplete recovery, block starts and low-cadence strength, on an aerobic base that lets you recover between one surge and the next.
The trade-off: an XCO plan does not prepare you for five hours. If your season has both, they are ordered in blocks and not mixed in the same week.
- XCM
Marathon: endurance with the terrain on top
Four, five or more hours in the mountains, with long climbs ridden seated, dirt roads ridden like tarmac and a fatigue that arrives through the hands, the back and the fuelling before it reaches the legs.
Useful volume is trained: long rides at controlled intensity, sustained work near threshold on climbs, and a fuelling and pacing strategy rehearsed before race day rather than improvised at the feed zone.
The trade-off: some sharpness is given up. A well-prepared marathon rider exits a tight uphill switchback slower than an XCO racer, and the plan does not pretend otherwise.
- XC
Weekend cross country
The usual trail, the Sunday group ride and one challenge a year. The goal is not a result: it is climbing without gasping, reaching the top with legs for the descent and finishing the long ride with something left.
What you already do gets organised: how much intensity fits in your hours, which day suits the hard ride and which the easy one, and a number at the start to check in eight weeks whether it moved.
The trade-off: accepting that not every ride can be flat out. It is the hardest thing to give up and the one that pays most.
The week in detail
Four different kinds of work in the same week.
A mountain bike plan splits time between the engine, the surges, the skills and what happens off the bike. The order and the proportions change with the discipline and the time of year.
The base
The engine is built riding, not on the technical trail.
Most of a mountain biker’s volume is ridden at low, steady intensity, often on dirt roads or tarmac. It is not epic and there are no jump photos, but it is what lets you recover between surges when race day comes.
The surges
On the trail you restart at every corner.
Every tight corner, every step and every change of gradient forces you to relaunch the bike. That is why intensity work is not only long threshold blocks: it is short, repeated efforts with little recovery, like the ones the course demands.
The skills
Watts you do not lose in the corner do not need producing.
Leaving a bermed corner with speed saves the next acceleration. Skills work goes into the week as one more session, with its day and its goal, because on a mountain bike pedalling better and riding better are the same result.
Off the bike
Strength and coordination are planned too.
A mountain bike is ridden with the whole body. Strength, stability and coordination work goes where it does not steal legs from the key session, and it changes with the point in the season.
Included in your plan
From your starting point to race day.
The performance assessment and the Race Plan are included. Bought separately, they are USD 90 each.
- At the start
Performance assessment
Your files are read to name what is holding you back: the engine, the ability to repeat efforts, or what happens after the third hour.
- Every week
Plan and follow-up
Sessions are written on your watts and your real hours, and rewritten according to what you managed, not what was written.
- Before racing
Race Plan
Your marathon or circuit course, modelled to know what power to hold on each climb and where it is not worth spending.
When the limit is not the engine
Sometimes it is the bike that fails, not the plan.
If the front wheel lifts on every ramp, if your back gives out in the third hour or you do not dare descend with the dropper up, more hours of training amplify the problem. When the case suggests it, we say so, and the next step is a bike fit with the mountain bike protocol: measurements taken with sag set and the standing position checked as well as the pedalling one.
- Next step
- BIKEFIT 3D, in person in Usaquén, Bogotá
- When
- Before adding load, if your position forces you to compensate
Why from Bogotá
Mountain biking at 2,600 metres, almost all year round.
The eastern hills start where the city ends, La Calera is half an hour away and Neusa, Chicaque or Sumapaz fit into a weekend ride. The plan counts on that terrain and on the altitude: zones are taken here, not carried over from sea level. And because follow-up is online, it works just as well if you live in another city or country.
- Format
- Online, from any country
- Disciplines
- XCO, XC and XCM marathon
- Every week
- What you did is reviewed and what comes next is adjusted
Free tools
Arrive with your numbers.
Free calculators, no sign-up, to come to the plan with your case clear.
- Calculator
Training zones
Power and heart-rate zones from your FTP, with the Bogotá altitude correction.
- Calculator
Training load
How much load your week carries and whether it is rising too fast.
- Calculator
Tyre pressure
Front and rear separately, by your weight, the real rim width and the surface.
- Calculator
Gearing and cadence
Whether your gearing leaves a usable cadence on the steepest ramp.
Result
Jonathan Cantor, Pan American XCO champion.
He won the Pan American cross-country Olympic title in the cadet category in Paipa, Boyacá, in 2017, in his first year in the category and with his training directed by Edwin Castiblanco. It is shown for what it is, a case and not a promise: the plan is written for each rider, and the result also depends on them.
- Result
- Pan American XCO champion, cadet category · Paipa, Boyacá, 2017
- Coaching
- Edwin Castiblanco
Public reviews on Google
Riders coached through their training.
Selected excerpts from public reviews. Individual experiences; read the full context on Google.
Frequently asked questions
Questions about MTB training.
Is MTB training a different service from road training?
No. It is the same ONE training plan at the same fee, from USD 110 a month, with no minimum term. What changes is what it is written against: the repeated surges of XCO, the hours of a marathon or the trail you ride at the weekend.
What is the difference between training for XCO and for marathon?
How the effort is spread. XCO is an hour and a half of short surges above your maximal aerobic power, with descents where you do not pedal; it trains the ability to repeat. XCM is four or more hours of sustained work with the terrain on top; it trains useful volume, long seated climbs and a fuelling strategy. If your season has both, they are ordered in blocks, not mixed in the same week.
Do I need a power meter on my mountain bike?
It helps a lot, because on the trail heart rate lags behind short efforts and does not reflect them well. Without one you can start with heart rate and perceived effort, and use a trainer or a bike with a power meter for key sessions and tests. What can and cannot be measured is stated from the start.
Does the plan include skills and strength?
Yes, placed inside the week rather than added on top. Skills work is a session with a goal, and strength and coordination off the bike go where they do not steal legs from the key session. In-person skills coaching is not included: the plan decides when and how much to train it.
Does it work if I do not race and only ride at weekends?
Yes, and that is the most common case. The goal does not have to be a result: it can be climbing without gasping, reaching the descent with legs left or finishing the long ride with something in the tank. The plan organises what you already do and sets a number at the start to check eight weeks later whether it moved.
What if the problem is my position on the bike?
It happens more than you would think: a front wheel that lifts on every ramp or a back that gives out in the third hour can be position rather than legs. When the case suggests it, we say so, and the next step is a mountain bike fit with measurements taken with sag set and the standing position checked.
Is it in person or online?
Planning and follow-up are online, from any city or country. When the case calls for it, they are complemented with in-person assessments at the ONE lab in Bogotá.
Make the last lap not the worst one.
Tell us which race you are preparing and what data you have. That defines what is realistic in the time you have and how the week is split between engine, surges and skills.
- 01
Tell us your goal
The race or challenge, the discipline, how many hours you really have each week and what you have done in recent months.
- 02
We look at your data
Which files exist, whether you have a power meter and whether something needs measuring before planning on assumptions.
- 03
We agree the scope
What you receive, how often we talk and what it costs. All before starting.
Choose how to start
The method behind the mountain bike plan
The method behind the mountain bike plan · 4 primary sourcesView the full citationsHays et al. 2018 · Granier et al. 2018 · Seiler 2010 · Impellizzeri et al. 2020
The sources behind the reading of XCO demand, the intensity distribution and load control.
- Hays, A., Devys, S., Bertin, D., Marquet, L. A. and Brisswalter, J. (2018). Understanding the physiological requirements of the mountain bike cross-country Olympic race format. Frontiers in Physiology.
- Granier, C., Abbiss, C. R., Aubry, A., Vauchez, Y., Dorel, S., Hausswirth, C. and Le Meur, Y. (2018). Power output and pacing during international cross-country mountain bike cycling. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance.
- Seiler, S. (2010). What is best practice for training intensity and duration distribution in endurance athletes?. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance.
- Impellizzeri, F. M., Tenan, M. S., Kempton, T., Novak, A. and Coutts, A. J. (2020). Acute:chronic workload ratio: conceptual issues and fundamental pitfalls. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance.