Mountain biking training routine

[_Andreas_]

Got a few newbie questions

I’m currently spending time living in Switzerland, right in the mountains at 1000m. I’ve started cycling heavily for the last two months and have seen massive improvements, but wasn’t sure what type of routine I should follow and what I should do on rest days.

My usual ride is two hours or a little over, most of it is uphill with maybe a total altitude difference of 500m. I’ve tried of the following routines:

1) One day on, the next day rest (I usually feel like I could train more)
2) I’m currently trying two days in a row of tough sessions and then having a day off.
What does your split look like?

What should I do on my days off? If I do nothing I go a little crazy.
1) Should I do some easy cycling on flat surface?
2) Or I could for walks? Has anyone else tried this? The problem is that going for walks is quite taxing on the legs and they feel tired the next day since all walks around here involve a lot of uphill.
3) Or should I train harder in my sessions till I really feel like doing nothing on my days off?

Lot of questions I know. Just wanted to get a feeling of what works for other people.

Thanks

[picaresque]

generally, a hard day, followed by a recovery day, x3, with the remaining day off.

recovery ride is easy, barely enough to break a sweat, but still a couple of hours.

[_Andreas_]

Cheers for the insight

sounds like a good routine

[picaresque]

with most cyclists, their hard rides are too easy and their easy rides are too hard. on your hard day - especially for mountain biking - you should be smashing yourself to pieces. on your recovery day you should ride at a pace that would allow you to hold an eloquent conversation with someone you're attracted to.