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I went to Thetford again yesterday, did the Lime Burner with my son at a reasonable leisurely pace, I then did the Beater Trail (short course, 10.1Km) on my own, as a fitness test. Pushed it as hard as I could, only managed 32 minutes. I had nothing left at the end of it. 2/3rds of the way through, I had no power left at all.

My excuse is that it was muddy in places........

Mud sucks energy
And with no hills in thetford you have to pedal all the time which makes you a lot more tired

Yep I blame the mud too!

I went out of the first time this year and couldn't believe how quickly you can lose fitness (I was never that fit to start with and there was a lot of mud )

Just glad I don't ache too much today...

I ache a lot today !

LOL, time to break out the epsom salts then!!

Well done on sticking at it!

Hard graft in the depths of winter pays dividends in summer when the trails are mint!

Winter plugging away in the mud makes you summer fit

I'm going to do the South Downs run later this year. I think 100 miles will be way out of my league, so going to do the 35 mile route.

MyNameisDave, going flat out for 30 mins will kill anyone.

What's your longest ride so far?

Mix it up with longer easier days and then smash it on other days. MTB needs both endurance and intensity.

My longest flat out ride was yesterday. I did 20.5km on the road in 55 minutes, averaged about 22kph.

If 22kph is your average - Id look at getting in longer rides at about 70 to 80% of that and slowly build up the miles every other week.

Focus on consistency and frequency and you'll get there.

I use running as my intensity training especially on cold winter week nights