Training Tips

Build your endurance on the bike

Endurance, at its core, is the ability to resist fatigue. It seems like such a simple concept. When we contract our muscles, the more forcefully we contract them, the fewer number of repetitions we can complete. This scenario is pretty evident when you’re riding. You can soft pedal along all day, but when you sprint, 30 seconds later, you’re spent.

In cycling, if you train with a power meter, you are probably familiar with the power curve: a graph with a concave line starting from the top left to the bottom right of your screen. Each point on the graph represents your maximal power for any given duration. Your graph might show that you can pedal at 300 W for five minutes. If you want to pedal for one second longer, that power (in theory) will have to drop from 300 W, to something lower. Increasing your endurance is shifting this line upward in any way. After training, maybe you can ride at 300 W for six minutes, or 310 W for five minutes. More power for a greater duration means better endurance.

Everyone has a slightly different power profile. Some people excel in sprints and others in long time trials or climbs. When you look at increasing your endurance, first look at what your power profile tells you. If you only have six to 12 hours a week, make a plan to maximize the gains that you want to see.

Whatever your profile looks like, decide how you want to improve and go after it. The ideal breakdown of low-intensity to high-intensity training is around 75 per cent low intensity, 15 per cent moderate and 10 per cent high intensity. I recommend two high-intensity workouts per week. Make sure you rest or ride really easy the day after a hard workout in order to soak up that training. Everytime you train, you are damaging your muscle fibres. Without adequate rest, they won’t get stronger and more resilient.

Within your 10 per cent of high intensity work, break down your training intervals based on the systems you want to improve. If you want to increase your high-end power for sprinting, then short, really hard intervals are the way to go. Longer threshold intervals are great if you want to work on your functional threshold power or if you have some longer steady events planned, such as a gravel race.

Many riders want to improve across the board. This is fine, too. If you fall under this category, then mix it up a little. One day with longer 10- to 20-minute threshold intervals and one day with shorter one- to three-minute high-power intervals would be a good plan.

There is an important caveat. As you improve, getting results will become harder and harder. If your endurance seems flat, working with a coach or using apps such as Trainingpeaks or Xert can be useful to monitor your training load. You want to always make sure your training is effective, but that you don’t overdo it. Increasing volume or intensity is a good way to progress, but also, as your power goes up, it will increase the workload on your body as well. After a long while of training, you can push the 10 per cent high intensity window a little higher. Remember though: don’t forget to rest and recover, even if it means showing up to an event slightly undertrained. You’ll perform better with proper rest than overtrained and burned out. Make sure all the work you put into your endurance will pay off when you need it.