Subject: Mtn Biking vs Road biking in Phoenix, Hi guys and gals!
To Date, I've only been riding on the road with an old school road bike. I figured that this would be probably the best training, as I will be riding on the road for triathlons. Ex Apples to Apples.
If it's acceptable I'd like to diversify where and how I ride. I'm curious if Riding a mountain bike off road on the numerous trails in the phoenix area would be a suitable alternative to road biking. Not all of my rides would be off road, but maybe half? I figured that since alot of you guys live in or around Phoenix, you might be knowledgable about some of the trails and the benefit (or lack of benefit ) of riding them vs staying only on the road.
Is there some sort of wierd calcualtion out there that says 20 miles on the road is equal to "X" miles on a trail, etc? Or is it just a straight time on the bike thing?
Right now I am just a terribly new cyclist. My goal for this year is to be able to finish the Half Ironman in October. So I guess my basic question is this... Would Mountain biking throw me off on my training, or is it an acceptable substitute to road cycling?
Thank you all so very much.
Aaron |