Introductory rides
If you are new to mountain biking, or are riding to support family members and would like to gain some confidence on the track before the event, then join us for our weekly introductory ride every Sunday afternoon from 3:00pm. This ride will follow the track that you will ride for the event, and will take approximately an hour. Meet at the end of Bottle Forest Road, Heathcote at 3pm and join one of the Short Circuit Cancer team for a ride.

Please make sure you bring a helmet and some water, especially if the weather is very hot. You may also like to bring some nutrition like a muesli bar to give you that extra bit of energy on the ride.

We will be riding as a group, no-one will get left behind.Like our Facebook page for updates regarding this ride.

Team training
If you are part of a team, we suggest getting the team together each week between now and the event and riding together.

This will increase your fitness, help you bond as a team and also work out how many laps each team member is able to do.

Solo training
You're going it alone for 6 hours (well, not really there's a whole community of riders to give you a helping hand) but you will need to make sure you're ready to ride for this long.

Each loop is 10km, so depending on your pace you'll be riding between 60km and 110km on the day.

Here's a few training tips provided by other riders who've done this type of riding either at previous Short Circuit Cancer, or other endurance events:

- Build a solid base of fitness by scheduling in several rides per week, building on the overall distance to work up toward the type of kilometres you're planning to ride on the day.
- We like the 10% rule - don't increase your hours on the bike or distance by more than 10% each week. This is important to ensure no niggles or burnout.
- Make sure you include rides that are on the terrain you'll be riding at the event. There can be a big difference between riding 60km on the road, to 60km on rocky, sandy and undulating trails.
- Lacking motivation - encourage some mates to get out with you too!
- Build in recovery sessions to make sure your body stays fresh for the next ride. Go for a walk, a swim, or do some yoga on these days.
- Work out your hydration and nutrition before the event, and then pack what you know works for you on the day.
- Many of the endurance athletes we spoke to use energy gels (like GU) but mix these with real food like bananas and muesli bars.
- For endurance sports its important to hydrate both with water, and with an electrolyte drink to replace lost salts and minerals.
- Always carry a spares pack with the essentials you might need - tube (even if you run tubeless), tyre levers, C02 canister or hand pump, patches, a chain break.

These are just some of the basics, but will definitely help get you on track for a longer ride.

If you are looking for more tips there are some fantastic online resources and training programs available too.