Endurance rides at 75% != Endurance HR

[Rizzi]

@roflsocks

I’m of the opinion that total aerobic volume is really what matters, assuming adequate recovery.

@grwoolf

In the remaining hours, you have to figure out how to maximize training stress while protecting those interval days. If you are doing a bunch of hours, that usually means lower intensity (ie z2). When most of those easy days are short, many athletes can push those into tempo without jeopardizing the hard days.

This both seems to propose “maximum recoverable dose”.

Over the years I’ve become more cautious. I like what @Helvellyn said even though I don’t think HR zones are rubbish…but the point for endurance training with HR (as well as with power) is to keep in mind that it’s not fix zones but the body is working in a continuum.

@CodyS

max observed HR recently was 190 but these rides are getting me up to 165ish.

Recent example was Cumberland -3 where my average was 156, but that was dragged down by the start and end durations at lower intensity. Median is probably closer to 163-165.

I guess my question is does it matter? There’s lots of chatter around keeping HR lower on endurance rides, but is that realistic with the shorter durations?

To me that HR would indicate somewhat high stress…nothing wrong with that but I’d probably count those days more like intensity (and therefore would go easier to save for real intensity or go longer to have specific endurance intensity days…like LSD with S for steady).

If I already have intensity sessions in the week I personally try to make endurance easier in order to not stress the sympathetic system too much and to help the parasympathetic system.

I’ll finish with these thoughts of mine from another post:

@Rizzi

@Ajm235

One other thought - has anyone seen research cited around the best % of FtP to perform z2 rides at? Ie is my original thinking of 60% being good and 70-75% verging on being too intense correct?

This probably is very individual. You can think of two concepts: minimum effective dose versus maximal recoverable dose. It’s a balancing act and sometimes you need one and other times you need the other and most of the times you may not even know the exact point from which a stimulating dose begins.

And you need to think both of those concepts in combination with your interval sessions. Overall, with dedicated training you want to give your body a stimulus, recover, progress and repeat. So in combination with harder interval sessions I would keep the z2 sessions more on the easy side and concentrate on nailing the interval days (as @Helvellyn said). And there are other times where I do those upper end, longish z2 sessions, which feel hard and exhausting in the end, but then I think of those sessions as hard days (and would not put hard interval days on top before being recovered again).

And sometimes there are those young or genetically gifted that can do week after a week, combining hard days and upper z2 days without burning out but I would be very cautious with that approach.