100 miles in 4 hours in Z2. Yikes. I am weak.
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Nah, Zwift “physics”….the BMTR “C” group will do 4 hours and the pace is pretty easy, less than 200w for me AP.
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I do this for hard interval work sometimes. Pretty motivating to trick yourself into thinking you are racing too.
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This is me. It’s the same with time left. I’ll think, “oh man, I still have 2 episodes before this workout is over, and all I want is for the show to end.”
I’d pick that over an hour on the trainer. 1 hour on the trainer is about 4 hours outdoors for me in terms of mental energy. I’ll pick outdoors every day if I could. But as I’m looking at 12 inches of snow outside and single digit temps (Fahrenheit), it’s not an option.
As far as what works for me, I’ve found music to really help for intervals. It’s the only time I’ll listen to electronic/house music, but I’ve found it really helps me push through. I can sync to the beat and I like little to no lyrics. For longer steady efforts and long Z2 stuff it’s either races or movies. Sometimes races will get me through, but sometimes watching other people suffer while I’m riding doesn’t do it, so I’ll watch a movie, and almost always a comedy. I’ve found that laughing/smiling helps me get through the workout easier.
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so I posted something in the middle of my ride yesterday, but I’ll go into a bit more length now.
the first thing with doing long indoor rides is you need to want it, if you’re focused on a goal. you can make it happen
it does take some building up to, though. lately I’ve been riding 3+ hours twice a week, but I ramp up a little each week, adding 15mins of duration to each long ride. The more you do it, the more tolerable it gets.
Of course the entertainment factor is a big focus of responses and that comes into play too. I don’t have any one go to thing, sometimes it can be watching soccer on the weekends, sometimes it can be throwing up Zwift in tandem with TR, sometimes it’s nothing but YouTube and browsing forums. But I think the big keys are wanting it and building the tolerance
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The power variations for the intervals are small, think something like 10 watts. So you are not switching the power zone, just moving within the zone.
If you’re talking about the sprints, then yes, doing an endurace session without them is more “by the book”. However, stress from a couple of easy effort sprints in a long ride is fairly minimal. You are still spending 99% of the workout at the desired zone so it’s not like they are going to diminish the response either. Easy sprints during long endurance workouts are actually fairly common in running and xc-skiing.
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Sounds good.
Providing they’re short, don’t see a problem. The issue comes when they’re long enough to fully fire up the glycolytic system and it then takes 20 min (YMMV) post-sprint to fully turn up the aerobic pathways again. A 4h Z2 ride with sprits then actually returns a lot less aerobic stimulus (i.e., mitochondrial development, capillarization etc.) than a pure (but dull) 4h strict Z2 ride.
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Wahoo Kickrs. Still feeling my way around Systm. Have PerfPro but it isnt ‘finding’ the Kickrs. Weather has been good so road/gravel rides have been more important than figuring things out. Also gym has Stages bikes and those are in mix. In short I have zero cogent advice here. But it’s all fun.
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Nope, A pace is too much for me. It’s the “freebirds” group in the B’s, basically a break-away B group that is a standard thing for this ride and we usually finish about 10 minutes in front of the main B pack. Starts with about 50-60 riders in the group and usually ~ 20 at the end. It takes some threshold work at the start to deal with the surge and getting the separation, but settles in nicely after 15-20 minutes. That start is quite a way to wake up (sucks first thing in the AM). I typically end with low 230’s NP and basically sit in the draft all day and hold steady power except the surges on the hills. First time I did it, I exceeded my best 3:30+ AP ever and that’s with crappy off-season fitness. Besides a ride like this, there is really no situation where you go that long without coasting or stopping. It’s a crazy-good aerobic workout.
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Having options is important. Sometimes when I’m browsing titles I’ll see something I really want to watch and decide to save it for the trainer. Or I really like watching the Champions League so I tend to ride a lot indoors on those days so I can both get my ride in and watch entirely too much football on a weekday.
Yeah, it’s good and bad. If you get annoyed by long stops and constant stopping at lights, flats, etc., the Zwift group rides are the opposite of that. Before the start, it’s key to have your hydration and nutrition sorted and within reach, your fan pointed in the right direct, and the right cloths on for the entire ride. If you like to make stops to break up long rides, many of the courses have laps under 30 minutes, so plenty of time for the traditional store/coffee/bathroom break. Jump back on when the group comes by on the next lap. Just make sure you are basically sprinting as they come up on you or you’ll be out the back before you realized they were there (“What was that??? Was that the other riders…”).
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Yup…joined them a few times, but usually if I go with them I drop out at 100km. If I am doing the full ride, I hang with the Beacon group.
Once I get back on the bike and rebuild some fitness, I’ll hopefully see you out there at some point.
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Yeah, having a great series that you only allow yourself to watch on the trainer is a great way to get motivated to hop on the trainer and ride longer.
Podcasts…
I have done 6+ hour indoor training workouts with just water using TR and Zwift (together) - but I do need my podcasts. 
I just read that series on the PC Kindle app while riding the trainer. Super engaging!
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+1, my mentality and strategy as well. Nothing like numerous big stretch goals for the year to keep that motivation churning.
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I need to link my trainer sessions to my season goals. It helps that my season goals are long races. The long rides build specific fitness and self-belief (ie if I can consistently do 4h on the turbo, I am in good shape for a 100m TT). In my head, failure is not an option! If I approach the rides with that in mind, its easier.
Conversely, if I go into a workout thinking “I’ll go as far as I feel like”, I never get very far!
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I’ve only done a handful of three hour rides as my max. But breaking up the entertainment source worked well. First hour watching one episode of a show I like, next hour youtube race videos with my music, third hour was a football game on tv. Also I planned nutrition to include some candy on the x:30, so something to look forward to. Seemed manageable, but don’t plan on doing anything that length any time soon.
I have done 3-4 hours after work every Tuesday and Thrusday this week on Zwift. In the weekends 4-6 hours per day if the weather has been bad. The rides after work have consisted of long sweet spot efforts, sometimes only one longer interval, sometimes three. I have focused on extending the time on sweet spot. It is mentally taxing but racing for several hours isn’t either. Often I have music or podcasts to listen, but I have found that Netflix or other entertainment impairs my wattage on the trainer. Easiest way to get a good hard long sweet spot workout is to hang with the A pace partner on Zwift, but that isn’t for everybody.
In fact my long indoor rides are most about trying to overcome the negative thoughts when you get bored and tired. Specially when you’re doing like 5 hour aerobic threshold rides without coasting. I have found a good way to extend the training with thinking about “just one more kilometer” or “just 30 minutes extra” and then I am again closer to my goal with the workout. Most of time the hardest thing is to avoid the need to go to the toilet, I drink always too much before workout…
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A lot of this was indoors (the weeks before look similar):
I’ve come up to a point where I can do regular 3-4hrs comfortably indoors.
- give each session a pupose; have an overall goal.
- break it into chunks (consider even 2-a-days instead of one long)
- find distraction you like;
- and if riding outdoors is simply not an option
In the end, it’s very personal. And even for one person things can change from session to session.
Today, some intensity, a bit over 3h. Time flew by
3.4 h Endurance work on Saturday
4h plain easy endurance, reading newspaper and watching the finale of El Chapo
This followed a day of watching only El Chapo. Started the session with a brief fatox booster as mentioned in previous other threads here. At the end I had to include some simple alterations, made things easier
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