4+ hour rides with short (30´-90´) workouts

[cosanostracz]

I only want to share my expercience. I couln´t find any appropriate thread to put it in. I´ve been watching TR podcast for a couple of years and joined TR last october. I wanted to prepare for next season and TR seemed to me the best way. I have followed TT plan SSB MV. I completed BBS MV I and II and I was pleased with the results. Then I couldn´t train all january because I was ill. I had some virus in my body that didn´t allow me to train properly. Not even in low intensity. I decided to restart my training from the beginning because of that long break.

Now I am in week 2 of SSB MVI and yesterday I did my first outdoor ride with my mates. It took about 4,5hrs and cca 110km. I was afraid to get dropped because I can´t even rememer my last ride over 2hrs and I just recently restarted my training plan. I was very surprised by the result, because I didn´t have any crisis during the ride and I pulled my friend all second half home even though I expected him to be in a better shape at least in endurance. I took several 20´ z3/ss pulls in headwind and I was feeling very comfortable. I registered improvement in my pedalstroke and my body kept me subconsciously pedalling downhills (it was fairly flat course though). No slacking, just solid arbeit. I gained 3 kilos during january break and now I am 75kg, and my race weight is 68kg. Unfortunately there is an inverse proportion between weight and watts. That was even bigger surprise for me, cause I am heavier too.
I tried to fuel my body properly during the ride. I had 80g of maltodextrin in my bidons and I ate 2x250kcal snacks. It makes about 200kcal/hour and I am glad I did it.
My main point is that I didn´t believe that you can ride 4+hour rides when you only have 1-2hour workouts.
It filled me with confidence and energy for the following workouts.

[Pasque]

Thanks for sharing! It’s my experience as well. There is really nothing in the way of really long rides straight out of the pain cave. Did the same yesterday. First outdoor ride of the year. juicy 110 km. Felt really good all the way through. Don’t think I ever started “outdoor season” with a 100+ km ride

[C10oky]

Hi
As an Audax rider, most of my training over the winter is on the Smart Trainer. No longer than 2 hours ( I have just changed that) and My usual first event is early March 210km with 2500m of climbing as long as i fuel and drink i Normally finish feeling okay… As the year goes on i do more outdoor rides, the main difference is i get Faster feel stronger and i go on to do 300/400km

The main point is i can do 200km ride with only doing TR workouts of no more than 2 hours.

[cosanostracz]

It is funny, because my friend (whom I pulled back home) keeps telling me that I should stop (“painting blocks” - my TR workout activity on Strava) and go out for a ride or I won´t be able to know how to steer and crash in the first downhill in spring.
It was my teammates´ first 200km ride of the year. I planned to ride only half of it, so I turned back in the middle with one of my mates. Now I know I´d probably have managed even that 200km, but I didn´t want to.
I noticed I am more mentally endured after those months spent indoors. My legs are not used to slacking which is good.

[PhilW]

What the long outdoor rides will do is change your fuelling needs. You can ride at higher power whilst still primarily burning fat. I can generally ride 110-160km type distances without needing to eat at all. If I’m really in shape that extends to 200km audaxes. Quite happily keeping up with others.

When I’ve slacked on the long solo training rides then I find I need to eat to keep energy and power up.

As the distances go up ( for instance audax) to say 300,400,600, 1200km then there’s only so much food your stomach can tolerate. So the more your body can adapt to burn a higher proportion of fat for long rides the better. This is where the long low intensity training ride come in. It brings about the adaptions to enable that. You can ride long, not need to eat much, and still feel great at the end.

[Pasque]

Ah right. Interesting. It did feel like I needed more food on the ride yesterday, compared to mid/end of last season

[sam.fuller1]

Nice work. I love riding outdoors and regularly opt for 4hr endurance outside over 2hr SS inside. But 2hr turbo with zero breaks does a great job of building strong legs. Even on flat rides there are so many micro recoveries outdoors. Look at anyone’s Strava and you’ll see the cadence drops dozens of times per ride.