Práticas de treino de atletas brasileiros de mountain bike olímpico

Abstract

Purpose: To describe the characteristics and training practices of Brazilian Olympic Mountain Bike (XCO MTB) athletes. Methods: We contacted every athlete who finished the 2019 Brazil’s National Championship in Elite, Under-23, and Junior categories. Of these, 24 (48%) attended a virtual interview answering a retrospective questionnaire about their characteristics and specific training practices for this competition. We adopted One-Way ANOVA to compare training within the same category, and data are presented as mean and standard deviation. Results: When considering just cycling training, Elite nd U-23 athletes spend 15.0±3.2 hours in a week distributed in 6.0±0.3 sessions, while Juniors dedicated 12.5±2.5 hours in 6.0±1.0 sessions. Both categories presented a similar volume of low and moderate-intensity training, with a lower volume of high-intensity continuous training (p<0.001) and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) (p<0.001), with no differences between them. Elite and U-23 athletes used to do in a similar frequency Short (effort and recovery periods shorter than one minute) and Long (longer than one-minute effort and recovery periods) HIIT, but with a lower volume of the short protocols (p=0.002). At the same time, Juniors performed similar volume and frequency of Long and Short HIIT. All athletes used to do non-specific strength training. Conclusions: Brazilian XCO MTB athletes distribute their training intensity between what is commonly described as pyramidal and threshold. Low- and moderate-intensity continuous training represents most of the training volume. At the same time, high-intensity interval training is also a relevant practice among athletes of this modality, with the Long and Short HIIT protocols being the most adopted.