Reasons to Track Fitness
Do you want to get into competitive mountain-bike racing? Is there an epic ride you want to try, but are not sure if you have the stamina yet? Do you want to gradually increase your endurance and mileage? Do you have vague memories of a ride you did six years ago, but have no idea what it’s called? There are a lot of great reasons to track your rides and progress. Some riders find that it’s more fun to have specific goals, and some are highly motivated when they’re competing with other athletes. Many riders simply want to get out and decompress without worrying about whether they’re improving or how they compare to others, and that is totally, 100% legitimate! However, even casual riders can benefit from some basic ride tracking to help prevent overuse injuries associated with increasing mileage or intensity too quickly.
While you can simply record your goals, rides, times, and notes in a notebook or spreadsheet, there are many digital tools that can help you track the details of your soil-rubber forays in greater detail. Below we’ll list some of our favorite mountain-biking planning, navigating, and tracking tools. Chances are good that you already use some for other activities!
Best Mountain Biking Apps and Tools
Strava is currently an industry leader for tracking and sharing adventures. Whether you’re mountain biking, hiking, kayaking, skiing, swimming, or participating in another adventure, Strava can help you track it. One popular feature is the ability to compare your times for matched activities to your past times and other athletes’ times in the Leaderboard, which can be filtered for age and weight. In addition to keeping a training log, Strava also offers race, pace, and workout analyses, as well as feedback on relative effort, activity levels, fitness, freshness, and fatigue. Further, Strava allows you to follow your friends or favorite athletes (if they allow it) and has several community challenges you can try. Followers can give kudos and leave comments for your activities. While Strava has some features that can be accessed at no cost, most features require a subscription (currently $4.99 / month).
Garmin Connect is another popular app for tracking mountain-bike fitness. The app itself is free; however, it requires that you use a Garmin watch (we love the Fenix, Instinct, and Forerunner models) while you workout. Garmin watches track steps, and use heart-rate data to calculate calories burned, VO2 max, intensity, heart-rate zone analysis, and other useful fitness parameters. Users can set goals, participate in challenges, set up courses, track personal records, and see how you compare to other Garmin users (though this doesn’t feature doesn’t have as much traction as Strava so far). Users can link their Garmin workouts to the Strava app if desired.
Trailforks is a very popular mountain biking trail database where you can find trails, up-to-date trail condition info, real-time navigation, and trail beta. The app now includes ride-tracking and Leaderboard data, and we are excited to see how this develops in coming months and years. Users can sign up for a free version in which you can download trail info for one region, or pay $29.99/year for full functionality. Trailforks is currently expanding their adventure finding/tracking tools to other activities such as hiking, and may become an amazing all-around adventure app!
Alltrails is another well-loved app among outdoor adventurers. Subscribers ($29.99/year) can download trail maps for use offline, and use them to navigate while riding. Alltrails doesn’t currently have functionality that allows you to compare your rides to past or other riders’ efforts, but it keeps a history of your adventures and is a great app for more casual mountain bikers. Trail reviews can let you know about current trail conditions, and hike/bike logs can give you an idea of how long trails take other users. workout.
Wahoo offers bike computers for navigating routes, and sport watches that record ride rides and track fitness parameters. These can be used in the Wahoo Fitness app for workout, segment, and fitness analyses.
Komoot is optimized for planning rides and hikes. Users have the option to download maps for offline navigation; however, this option is pricey compared to alternatives.
Training Peaks is an app that can be used to log and track workouts, as well as set fitness goals. Subscribers ($19.95/month or $120/year) can access workout-analysis and fitness-tracking tools. It can be used in conjunction with a training coach, which is great for persons who do well with some added structure and accountability.
MTB Project is REI’s mountain biking app that gives you digital access to online trails. Similar to Trailforks, it relies on user recordings; however, in our experience, it isn’t used as often and doesn’t provide as much trail beta.
Apple Watches can track your mountain-bike rides and provide extensive workout analyses; however, many riders don’t take them in the mountains because they can become scratched/broken and are relatively expensive to replace. For those willing to risk it (or who have good insurance), you can track your ride in the workout section. Some apps like Strava interface nicely with Apple Watches. Like other fitness watches, Apple Watches track heart rate and can provide a wealth of helpful fitness information and analyses.
Not surprisingly, many riders use more than one app. Many apps offer free trials or subscriptions on a month-to-month basis. Try some out and see which apps are your favorites!
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