Aerobic Base Endurance. Importance of Zone 2

My main focus outdoors are long distance MTB rides. Talking 200km being at the short end of things here.

A month ago I rode one of the few “events” (won’t call them races - explain in a mo) that have run this year. I didn’t finish it, skipped the last loop due to weather and tiredness. It was a 300km ride, I ended up doing 287km in 32hrs which included four hours bivvying (you carried your sleep kit with you) and a couple of hours food stops.

HR data:
Z1 - 17hr9mins
Z2 - 5hr3mins
Z3 - 1hr54mins
Z4 - 1hr24mins
Z5 - 4mins

That’s pretty typical of the events. The Z4/5 bits will be scrambling up river banks or something like that.

They aren’t called races since it’s illegal in the UK to race bicycles on bridleways, so they are called ITTs - Individual Time Trials.

Looking at my overall stats in intervals.icu for this year which includes all rides indoors and out, for power I have: 57% in Z1, 20% in Z2

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