Would this increase my endurance?
Bhima
Posts: 2,145
Every now and again on the road, when I want to step up the training if I feel I'm getting lazy and my muscles could be working harder, I try and keep a constant cadence but then shift up to the next hardest gear so that it's jjjjjjuuust possible to keep the cadence solid by pushing that little bit harder. Sometimes, it will be two gears up. I'll increase my breathing a hell of a lot and focus on trying to keep the pedaling rhythm consistent. Sometimes I'll go up a few more gears and actually run out of gears to shift to!
When doing this, I am going at about 85-100% of my max and I do not stand up off the saddle - I always remain seated.
I can feel my legs burning straight away so I don't do this for long - it's usually a short 10-30 second burst followed by a 2 minute recovery period and I'll probably only do this after a warm-up period just once, to get the legs fired up.
I used to do this for fun, to try and see how far I could take it but I've noticed that I can take it a lot further than I could a few months ago and that, it's harder to get a good "burn" going anymore because I have to go to the real high gears/speeds to achieve the same effect!
...so does this mean my lactic threshold has increased over the past few months?
When doing this, I am going at about 85-100% of my max and I do not stand up off the saddle - I always remain seated.
I can feel my legs burning straight away so I don't do this for long - it's usually a short 10-30 second burst followed by a 2 minute recovery period and I'll probably only do this after a warm-up period just once, to get the legs fired up.
I used to do this for fun, to try and see how far I could take it but I've noticed that I can take it a lot further than I could a few months ago and that, it's harder to get a good "burn" going anymore because I have to go to the real high gears/speeds to achieve the same effect!
...so does this mean my lactic threshold has increased over the past few months?
0
Comments
-
You'd need to have taken a couple of 'lactate threshold' test (where blood is removed every few mins while you ride at different intensities and the amount of lactate present is measured relative to baseline levels) to know accurately. And it should be done before you started training a few months ago and then retested after the few months is up.Bhima wrote:...so does this mean my lactic threshold has increased over the past few months?
Alternatively you can assume not accurately that your lactate threshold has increased if you're riding faster on a timed loop where test conditions remain the same or indeed your climbing quicker up a longish hill (20mins+). And yes if your lactacte threshold has increased you'll be able to ride for longer at a quicker speed than before or arrive at the destination with less fatigue if you choose to ride at your former average speed/power.0
