Zone 2 is the suggested place to be living for early season Base training for most aspects of racing (Road, Gravel & Cross).
Question?
How exactly does Zone 2 or LSD training as we used to call it make us faster for racing?
endurance doesn’t directly make you faster, but increasing volume with endurance riding makes it possible to do harder efforts. the more aerobically fit you are the easier it is to recover between workouts and enable you to do the hard stuff
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Who’s suggestion? Most coaches would probably not just have someone do 5-10-20 hours per week of just zone 2. Typically the more volume you can put in, the lower in power you’ll ride at.
We make adaptations from just riding. It doesn’t have to be at a certain zone. Of course, 50 watts might be a bit low but zone 1 is totally fine if you are doing longer endurance rides.
I came across this Steve Magness video the other day. He explains endurance training in 25 minutes. He coaches and writes about running but what he says would apply to all endurance training.
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It’s important to remember this is early season/base, not primary build part of the season.
Although a bulk of training should be Z2 and increasing overall volume. It’s often recommended to still do intervals every 7-10 days, which is what I’ll be doing.
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Here’s some TR info that might help answer your question:
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Exactly… this it a total myth.
Steve Magness, Joe Friel etc talk in detail above the reps, intervals and neuromuscular development to do in early base… it is far from Z2 is the place to live.
However what are the benefits of Z2 is a valid question… best just google it, and cross reference the information from at least three different sources. Its very easy to find indepth information on the subject that isnt just rubbish from influencers.