Training for a sport as demanding as motocross can be seen as a task that requires a lot of planning to get it right - but it also needs to be something that you will enjoy and is accessible to you. With Lance Armstrong wrapping up an amazing 7th title in Le Tour, and with cycling making its annual return to the headlines and back pages, this month I'm going to look at a something most of us have knocking about the garage, or have access to in the gym - the trusty bike.

Which is the best form of cycling from a training point of view? Is it affective in helping improve your racing? What do you need to do on the bike in the week to be affective? Is it worth investing in a push bike?

To start with, let me have a quick review of the physical demands of racing motocross and Enduro bikes: Hauling these things around a track requires a good deal of strength due to their size and weight. Add to this the duration of the events (which becomes the determining factor in many results) and you have to sustain high heart rates and intensity for prolonged periods. I have looked into the cardiovascular demands in a recent article (July 2005) With this information I need to make up a plan relevant for my riders, and one piece of kit many riders have easy access to is a push bike - so how best use it?

For endurance training we need to raise heart rates and maintain them for prolonged periods to help adapt the body to take in, transport and use oxygen more efficiently. It will adapt the muscles to use this supply thus reducing overall effort for a given exercise level and allow you to go harder and faster and maintain this. This level of effort in training equates to approximately 65-85% of your maximum heart rate, with different percentage levels giving different physiological responses and different values in this range used for different sessions.

Using a bicycle will allow you to perform a sustained effort and maintain this without having to stop prematurely due to muscle pain or impact stress to joints that is sometimes associated with exercises - such as running or rowing. For people just getting into an exercise routine, being able to maintain the exercise is often the problem and some exercises leave you very stiff, sore or out of breath very quickly, but with cycling, it can be sustained by un-trained people (all be it at a relatively low intensity) for long durations. Cycling is often used as the test exercise for clinical studies when looking into performance, carbohydrate feeding, affects of heat etc as the exercise can be sustained, manipulated and monitored very easily. Subjects are often required to exercise for 2 hours or more, and I've seen some studies where a cyclist is required to sit on a stationary bicycle for 5 hours. With some other exercises that can be done in lab conditions - such as running or rowing, it would be very difficult to go for such durations and fatigue would halt progress along with muscle pain or joint pain. If you want a very accurate account of your current physical state, a test on a stationary bike, in laboratory conditions is very useful. Blood can easily be taken without you having to stop and you can get accurate power, heart rate and speed feedback. This all leads to a comprehensive analysis and is something many athletes, regardless of sport, will go through at the beginning and end of season to see their physical state.

As we have seen, wiring you up to all sorts of monitors is very useful for finding your physical conditioning and the various levels to train at. These will include heart rate zones, power outputs and also ideal cadence. The major disadvantage as I see it, is that it can be pretty boring! 10minutes seems like an hour and unless you are very driven, determined, or have the latest Elle Macpherson aerobics video to watch as motivation, it isn't all that fun.

Getting outside in the sun, finding a good route or circuit to ride and having an enjoyable time with your mates are just a few reasons to get out and ride. Depending on the time of year, or the period of training you are in, the duration or intensity of the exercise will differ. This is where you need to be aware that cycling can sometimes give false feedback in terms of effort levels. Often people will link speed to effort, and with cycling computers being cheap and readily available, they are used as monitors and gauges to the effectiveness of a ride. The problem arises if this is your only measurement of the ride. There is often a negative relationship between speed and effort with speed often being the result of down hills or wind assistance. If you were to look at what your heart was doing during these periods, you would see heart rate relatively low and not ideal for improvements in performance for motocross racing. This relationship is seen in road racing where riders hide in the bunch to reduce effort levels and get towed along in the slipstream of others. All well and good if you are saving energy in a race, no good for getting the desired response for an upcoming motocross race!

Road cycling is a popular form of training and one can see why this is. The bikes are light, efficient and versatile training tools. Training can be easily planned, carried out and analysed regardless of weather. Seeing the likes of Swordy, Reed or young Brad Anderson swap day glow motocross gear for day glow lycra, although amusing, shows that it is an effective way to train used by the pro riders. A sharp eye will also see the stickers of bicycle manufacturers on the helmet peak of many stars (especially in the USA) showing that bicycle manufacturers see the value in the motocross market for their products.

In the off season, long, steady sessions can be carried out to give the essential endurance base - and this duration can be maintained for Enduro riders as there are few other exercises that can be maintained for such prolonged periods. In the week between races, road cycling can be used for recovery (at low intensities), build cardio endurance (medium intensities) or develop lactate threshold and hard effort race workouts (high intensities).

At a race, there is great need to warm up and warm down before and after racing and bicycles are the obvious choice for this. At Matchams Park GP it was very interesting to see Stefan Everts, hardly even out of breath after another impressive moto, come back to his motorhome and jump almost immediately onto his bike to warm down. No questioning or debate, just a well rehearsed practice. The versatility of the equipment and the fact that there is not normally a knock on of muscle soreness makes a road bike well worth its investment for the most worthwhile of training aids.

Where road biking is traditionally seen as the form of cycling taken seriously and used for training, mountain biking is sometimes seen as its slightly less athletic sibling. This comparison isn't entirely fair and although road cycling is often easier to monitor and keep steady, mountain biking can be used as a great off season pursuit, active recovery or effective means of training for racing. Road cycling, where it is a physical challenge, isn't exactly very skilful. On a long steady climb, the effort is there, but minds wander to what's for dinner, when you deserve a break for a Coke or why you didn't go to the toilet before you left. Concentration is vital for motocross and is one reason for the effort put into training for it - the fitter you are the lower your heart rate for a given task, and the less distraction there is to the focus on the task in hand.

On tight, technical trails having your wits about you is important to keep you bouncing off the trees. The physical aspect is no easier - and often harder - due to the sharper, steeper climbs associated with off road riding. For higher intensity work outs, mountain biking can be the answer as it keeps your mind occupied whilst pushing you hard. I also think that many find it more enjoyable and for longer workouts, mountain biking is more interesting (in my humble opinion) and in the winter, although you will get muddy and the bike will need a good clean, being in the trees will keep you warmer and out of the wind chill from sitting on a long straight road. With the cross over between motocross and mountain bikes in terms of branding, suspension and technique, it gives a good cross over for motorbike riders and may be a more desirable way to spend a few hours than other forms of exercise.

The fundamental thing to remember when training on the bike is that you must look at what you want to get out of the session, and the desired heart rates or power outputs required to give best results. The only major downside with cycling for training is that often people will not raise their heart rates to the required levels and in a comparison between running and cycling, it is a lot easier to raise your heart rate when running to 75-80% of your maximum - the levels associated with improvements in cardio performance. This is why keeping an eye on the effort levels you are putting in is crucial. Using a good quality heart rate monitor, you can link it up with a bike computer, store the data and then analyse it when you get home on the computer to see what you have been doing and if it was the most effective way to train. (See the review of the Suunto T6 heart rate monitor elsewhere in this issue).

So if you are looking to invest in your training, but can't stand the thought of the gym as the weather is so good at the moment, a bike will be a good tool to help you train effectively and enjoy yourself while you're at it.