6 Endurance

Endurance is the ability to perform work at a very light metabolic cost, which boils down to low effort that favours fat as its primary fuel source. Anything below 75% FTP keeps things in the endurance realm and will utilise very little sugar. This kind of exercise exacts a low muscular toll, and requires very little recovery time, duration dependent. By riding for increasingly longer periods of time, your endurance muscle fibres become more efficient at utilising oxygen for fuel and sparing sugar stores for more intense efforts.

Endurance workouts can improve oxygen delivery and utilisation, increase muscular resistance to fatigue, improve integrity of connective tissue, and even help improve your on-bike nutrition strategies.

The session “Pettit”

This is an hour of aerobic endurance work spent between 60-70% FTP. Into this hour you can build several drills to prevent the onset of boredom, so include periods of high and low cadence, and also spend time concentrating on your pedal stroke.