Example of an endurance workout, any more?

bahzob · October 2013

There have been a number of posts recently about winter training, fuelling, riding to lose weight and the like.

I thought it may be useful to post an actual example of a long ride workout to go along with the theory.

I'd be interested to see examples of what other folks are doing, especially those aiming for relatively high levels of performance next year.

Below is a workout I did yesterday. (on a turbo, I cant be doing with riding out in the weather we have atm)

Key points
- Pretty much the whole workout was in my endurance zone shown by the yellow lines (my lactate threshold is around 225W, FTP around 300W). Pacing was a slight negative split (first half 195W, second 202W) which is what I'd like to aim for in events.
- HR was low and consistent tracking power closely. There was little cardiac drift, only 3.4%.
- I did the ride about an hour after a breakfast bowl of porridge and only ate a couple of tangerines during it. Felt pretty good throughout, only the last 15minutes or so were a bit rough.
- Using data from a recent test I'd guess I burned around 90g of fat and 400g of carbohydrate (total 2400kcal or so). The latter figure probably explains why the end was a bit tough, I was probably running low on glycogen and my body was letting me know.
- I drank 4.5l of water during the ride and finished it around 500g lighter than when I started. So I guess I got fluid intake just about spot on.
- No significant after effects due to fatigue. Feel a bit rough today but that's due to excess of beer last night..
- Plan is to repeat workout extending to just over 4 hours and aiming to up watts to around 240-250 mark which is what I need to be in with a chance of improving 100 mile PB.

Tom Dean · October 2013

3h46 on the turbo :shock:

LegendLust · October 2013

Nearly 4 hours on a Turbo!

I'd sooner go out in a gale force blizzard with barbed wire in my foreskin.

really does make me laugh that people can't face going out in a bit of wind and rain but yet are happy to sit on a turbo for hours on end.

supermurph09 · October 2013

I'm enjoying my turbo work but I don't think my testicles would recover from the numbness of 4 hours!

deanflyer · October 2013

My longest turbo session is 3 hours, could probably do 4 at a push. Two hours is pretty comfortable as long as i stand up every now and then. 25 hours on the turbo this month so far.

FatTed · October 2013

madasahattersley wrote:

Totals

Duration: 4:45:17
Time Riding: 4:43:17
Distance (km): 138.73
Work (kJ): 3779
Elevation Gain (meters): 69
Averages

Only 69 meters of elevation Gain

bahzob · October 2013

LegendLust wrote:

Nearly 4 hours on a Turbo!

I'd sooner go out in a gale force blizzard with barbed wire in my foreskin.

really does make me laugh that people can't face going out in a bit of wind and rain but yet are happy to sit on a turbo for hours on end.

Each to his own. I've been there done that in terms of riding in extreme conditions, just don't feel the urge to keep doing it if I have a choice.

Far prefer being inside, endurance session is low intensity so I take the chance to actually really listen to some music rather than just have it on in the background as wallpaper. 4 hours = 4-5 albums and there are 1000s out there.

bahzob · October 2013

madasahattersley wrote:

Totals

Duration: 4:45:17
Speed (kph): 29.4
Power (watts): 222
Heart Rate (bpm): 0
Cadence (rpm): 90

Nice session, interested to see the high average cadence. Mind me asking what you needed in terms of food/drink?

bahzob · October 2013

madasahattersley wrote:

Errrr... can't remember exactly, probably 2 bananas and a small muesli breakfast

Interesting, makes the ride even more impressive, lot of energy output for not much in.

markwb79 · October 2013

madasahattersley wrote:

bahzob wrote:

madasahattersley wrote:

Totals

Duration: 4:45:17
Speed (kph): 29.4
Power (watts): 222
Heart Rate (bpm): 0
Cadence (rpm): 90

Nice session, interested to see the high average cadence. Mind me asking what you needed in terms of food/drink?

Errrr... can't remember exactly, probably 2 bananas and a small muesli breakfast

More interest....

What power meter are you using?
222watts seems high for lowish speed? (considering the massive elevation too!) - Unless it was a monster headwind of course.
Obviously towns/villages etc will bring the average speed down quickly, but I thought that would have the same effect on the average power too?
Or am I reading it wrong?

cyco2 · October 2013

Bahzob...Your highest HR of 145bpm during this ride probably ocurred when you were pushing 397 watts. So, what is your MHR ?

bahzob · October 2013

madasahattersley wrote:

Here's a list of reasons why the speed seems slow: 30lb steel bike with big fat tyres, horrendously heavy wheels and mudguards, in what is probably one of the windiest places in Britain, on a winter ride wearing a rain jacket, and being of a certain size (75kg).

This is training of course, speed is completely irrelevant here.

There's a useful hint here. If you are doing an endurance ride you really want the session to be as smooth as possible in terms of power without lots of peaks and troughs. Unless you live in an area with serious hills a good way to do this is have a bike/setup like the above. This means even going "slow" requires a lot of the right sort of endurance effort. It also makes you feel a bit like a god when you get onto your racer, at least for a while.

bahzob · October 2013

cyco2 wrote:

Bahzob...Your highest HR of 145bpm during this ride probably ocurred when you were pushing 397 watts. So, what is your MHR ?

Actually it it didnt. It occurred during a 5 minute "effort" right at the end of the session when just wanted to see how I felt if I upped watts to the top of my endurance zone. Average for this was 240W peak of 300W.

The peak power probably happened when during one of the times I stood up and did a short effort out of the seat to give my bum a bit of a rest. HR wouldn't have reacted quick enough to capture this.

My max HR happens to be 180 but really that isn't all that relevant here. The main use I have for HR on a session like this is to see how it drifts with time. I was pleased with this session as it was only 3.2% (HR to do the same power is 3.2% up towards the end compared to the beginning). A target for a steady state endurance workout is to be under 5% so this was a good result and indicates I can up the power more.

supermurph09 · November 2013

Started my proper winter training last couple of weeks.

Did my first long session on the turbo yesterday with the aim of improving my LT. 3 Hours at <142BPM. Mentally there were some dark moments, had to get out the saddle quite a few times to relieve the numbness. Need to stock up on films / box sets for these sessions!!

http://www.strava.com/activities/92916108

bahzob · November 2013

Good luck

Spotify is my friend for these sessions, I have used them to spend time really listening to music rather than just have it on in the background and re-discovered some old favourites and discovered some new in the process.

Example of an endurance workout, any more?

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