Riding long and slow (endurance pace) is easy. I haven’t been able to go over 2 or 2.5 for the past 2 months but I could do a 4 or 5hr at the same wattage for sure if time allowed. It’s a matter of fueling if you have the fitness. If I was going to do a 6-7hr ride I’d prob get in a few 3-4hr ones leading up tho.
We would all be better served if we stop referring to such rides as Long Slow Distance rides and instead use Long Steady Distance rides.
Your speed is irrelevant…it is about long, sustained efforts at a steady pace.
5 Likes
If that makes you feel better about it, but they are slow, relatively speaking. Steady just implies a consistent effort
It has nothing to do with feeling “better” about it….it is simply a more accurate term for the type of training you are doing.
@eddiegrinwald great reply. I just had a quick follow up question. Your reply said that Custom Duration Caps would theoretically allow one to specify that we have up to 4 hours to ride on a given day of the week. When I read the instructions at the link you shared and went into my calendar, it looked like the duration range maxxed out at 2 hours. Is that because I’m on a mid-volume plan?
(Apologies to @Jorgito if this is off-topic).
Thanks!
Sean
1 Like
Thanks @SeanInDC! 
Days of the week labeled as “Hard Intervals” have a max cap of 2 hours, because we don’t recommend consistently doing workouts longer than that with high intensity, though those types of workouts do exist… 
Days labeled as “Easy Ride” or “Endurance” allow for a cap as high as 5 hours.
2 Likes
I did up some cheat sheets for myself for when I want to do an endurance ride based upon target power & type of work rather than workout level. In the context of this conversation they may be handy for others. Feel free to use & abuse.
There’s a few oddball workouts in the catalog but I’ve specifically excluded the ones with hard starts, sprints, etc. For the ones I’ve included I categorise their profiles as being flat, a wave, or a “castle”, like the cartoon image of the top of a castle where it has peaks on the sides & middle, with hard transitions to the valleys between. Antonio tells the story better:
Say I want to be in the vicinity of .7 IF for 2½ hours I’ll pick Ochoco or something similar.
Or if I want to sit right on .74 IF for 1½ hours I’ll pick James because its profile is flat.
Or if I can/want-to be on the bike for 4 hours to do a few segments of work at .7 IF but save myself from being toasted with some easy spinning in between I’ll pick Cheyne.
(Edited to replace a table with an error)
5 Likes
Wow @roleypup! That is a very impressive and time-consuming compilation. Thank you very much for sharing it with us! 
Nice. I don’t think you could pay me enough to consider being on the trainer for 4+ hours though. I’d definitely need to get outdoors to be able to handle that sort of session (mentally).
2 Likes
Same. I haven’t been been on a trainer for months, even for intervals. I’m blessed with generally good riding weather & appropriate locations for giving my power targets more attention than I normally would.