Endurance Essentials

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Training Endurance and Strength on the Bike

feelthebyrn.substack.com

Training Endurance and Strength on the Bike

Focused Training That Works

Gordo Byrn
Dec 15, 2022
21
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Training Endurance and Strength on the Bike

feelthebyrn.substack.com

Most athletes don’t need variety, they need to do more work.

You’ll get more work done by knowing the goal of your session and executing with that goal in mind.

On the bike I have three goals:

  1. Endurance

  2. Duration

  3. Strength

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Endurance Rides

Flat with Pace Partner: Zwift has robot riders who pace groups at a fixed watts per kilo. Love these rides for Steady endurance training.

  • Pick a ride that implies an average output equal to aerobic threshold

  • Pay attention to your effective range (see pic below)

  • Learn to ride smooth within the group

  • Don’t force HR up early, especially in a cool room

You don’t need to be on Zwift for this session. Stay out of erg mode and average your aerobic threshold watts, by riding a relatively tight range (see pic below).

Longer, on my own: these rides will have a lower average (both power & heart rate)

  • Long is relative to the athlete: the goal is to extend the long ride to race duration.

  • Lower is relative to the athlete: start easy to reduce the early stress of the session.

  • When pushing duration, be humble on the climbs.

Endurance rides are foundational:

  • focusing on ability to move

  • training the ability to do work


Strength Rides

Seated Big Gear Climbs: long climbs with low cadence

  • When base training, Moderate Domain, mixed into an endurance ride

  • As fitness improves, insert blocks of 15-60 minutes of Heavy Domain, placed at the end of an endurance ride

Flat Big Gear Sets: my favorite way to improve TT performance

  • At the end of an endurance ride

  • 4-6 intervals of 4-8 minutes duration

  • Easy spin, 25% of interval duration, after each interval

  • Heavy Domain power with Threshold-Minus HR Cap


Understanding Intensity

Unsure about Domains & Zones? Article here with embedded video.

Key Points:

  • Moderate Domain: anchor on aerobic threshold, the border between Zone 1 & 2

  • Heavy Domain: anchor on threshold-minus, the border between Zone 3 & 4

  • If you make a mistake, then target too low

On a “time and work done” basis, the four workouts above cover 95%+ of my riding.


Specials

If I’m too tired for an endurance ride, then I’m too tired.

Recovery Rides: 20 to 60 minutes duration

  • Heart rate under 100 bpm

  • Low power

  • Small ring only

  • Cadence 88-92 rpm

  • 10 minutes mobility work to follow

High Intensity Sets: In base, I avoid spin classes and sustained high intensity. My running and swimming make up the higher intensity part of my program.

Three ideas for high-intensity sets follow.

  • Keep this work under 5% of total volume

  • Remember, kilojoules win races

  • Don’t create strain

    1
    from this part of your program

#1 // My Favorite Bike Sets can be found in this file

#2 // A thread on Adding Pep To A Program - advice from my favorite follows:

Twitter avatar for @feelthebyrn1
Gordo Byrn @feelthebyrn1
Adding Pep to a Program Started with a Q to AC Ideas split by Sprint & VO2 duration Sprint Duration • VO2-type intensities • 90% efforts - for 8s • Strides • 12.5s in the water • Use HRV to see how well tolerated These are where I'll focus as I over-did-it last time
Twitter avatar for @Alan_Couzens
Alan Couzens @Alan_Couzens
@feelthebyrn1 @StephenSeiler I would say.. a) not mixing it in to long or recovery days, but treating it as a separate loading day b) maxing out at VO2 intensities but only over sprint duration "easy speed"
12:58 PM ∙ Sep 29, 2022

#3 // A simple set you can do year round from my good friend, and Ironman Boulder Champion, Justin Daerr. It is a variation of the 30/30

2
set you will find in my Favorite Bike Sets:

  • 30 second repeats on 30-90 second spin recoveries

  • Start with total work, excluding rest, of 5-minutes duration

  • Set effective intensity, of the set, via rest interval duration

  • Aim for best 6- to 12- minute pace to start, 125-140% of FTP

  • Progress the set by shortening rest, or adding repeats.

Justin likes to use the set to hit muscle fibers that don’t get stressed with the Endurance Rides.


Final Tips

  1. Consistent work builds great seasons

  2. Intensity is a poor trade for Moderate Domain volume

Gordo Byrn’s Endurance Essentials is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

1

An excellent video is Load, Stress & Strain By Stephen Seiler. Get tired from work that directly benefits your goals.

2

More on 30/30 Protocols in this thread on Sustained Speed.

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