Benefit of LONG endurance rides



the holster

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Sep 20, 2005
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I wanted to know if there was any benefit to long 6-8hr days for elite athletes at a steady, easy speed or do they just kick you cause a lot of fatigue.
 
the holster said:
I wanted to know if there was any benefit to long 6-8hr days for elite athletes at a steady, easy speed or do they just kick you cause a lot of fatigue.
Check out the training benefits chart near the bottom of this page: http://www.cyclingpeakssoftware.com/levels.html

I would say there is no benefit to long easy miles. An elite athlete probably has the ability to ride that far at a moderate pace, which would offer a lot more benefit in my mind.
 
I would think that it depends upon what you call an elite athlete. I would definitely consider the ultra marathon crowd to be elite athletes, and they do 6-8 hours standing on their heads. Then again, they are not doing particularly "easy" miles. LSD doesn't stand for Long Slow Distance, it stands for Long Steady Distance.
 
I would say that 6+hrs at a recovery pace would not be much of a benefit. But if you ride at a brisk endurance pace, that would be much better for you. IMO there is a difference between recovery ride pace and endurance pace.
 
the holster said:
I wanted to know if there was any benefit to long 6-8hr days for elite athletes at a steady, easy speed or do they just kick you cause a lot of fatigue.
All depends on your objective. For a crit racer, whose events are typically one hour at high intensity, wouldn't think there is much value in 6-8 hour training rides. On the other hand, if you're training for fast centuries, doubles, brevets, or multi-day stage races, would say yes, there certainly is a benefit to riding 6-8 hours at a clip.

In Lance's Performance Plan book, he says he does (did) endurance rides of 4-6 hours at 60-62% of max HR (120-124 bpm). Sounds too easy, but in the TdF his heartrate is probably in this range much of the time, so in fact he's training like he races.
 
the holster said:
I wanted to know if there was any benefit to long 6-8hr days for elite athletes at a steady, easy speed or do they just kick you cause a lot of fatigue.

Not much.

200-300km at 40kph now that's going to make you a man!

Hamish Ferguson
Cycling Coach
 
the holster said:
I wanted to know if there was any benefit to long 6-8hr days for elite athletes at a steady, easy speed or do they just kick you cause a lot of fatigue.


There's an interview with Floyd Landis on the Cyclops website (somewhere in the Powertap section). When asked if he does any long slow rides within his training Floyd replies 'why would I do long slow rides? We don't have any long slow days in the Tour'.



(Typo corrected in edit.)
 
The main benefit is you don't have to go back home for a long time. Sometimes that's worth more than any training benefit.
 
mises said:
The main benefit is you don't have to go back home for a long time. Sometimes that's worth more than any training benefit.
What floyd would do is long moderate distance training not necessarily 8 hours in the saddle "recovering" in a low gear at 26km/h.
 
the holster said:
I wanted to know if there was any benefit to long 6-8hr days for elite athletes at a steady, easy speed or do they just kick you cause a lot of fatigue.


Not so sure about elite athetes (maybe if its strickly a recovery ride... but probably no longer then 3-4 hrs.).

For the novice/begginner .... longer rides can help work out the kinks on the bike, get over those saddle sores, and get your body back into cycling mode. When I say longer rides..... slowly working up to 2hr .... 3hr..... 4hr. for most begginners / novice riders that are new to the sport/ or returning after not riding 1+ months , there must be some kind of progression of slowly working up the hours on the bike... after several weeks.
 

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