You haven’t specified whether this is indoors or outdoors or both, so let me address both. On the trainer, the biggest two factors that make Z2 rides hard, especially those longer than 2:30 hours, are boredom and saddle discomfort. Basically, it is boring, too hard to be easy and unlike harder workouts, there are no rest intervals. Personally, I don’t like watching TV or so, and usually cannot stomach listening to a podcast the entire time. So I have to combine things. Let me add a third point that isn’t a factor for me, personally, but might be for you or others: proper fueling. Also endurance rides should be fueled, especially long ones. In my experience, 80–100 g/h work very well. Taking in carbs is known to lower RPE.
Outdoors, personally, RPE is not a problem, provided I picked the right route and can govern my enthusiasm. Outdoors it is so easy to just want to smash it, especially if there are hills or longer climbs. My trick here is to get on my mountain bike, hitch the bike trailer to it and ride a loop along the coast with my daughter. I pace by heart rate.
Lastly, let me reiterate one thing the others have said: long endurance rides are a different beast than recovery spins. Endurance rides do incur fatigue even if you don’t feel it right away. So you should be well-rested and fuel properly. Also rest afterwards if you can.
Your bladder is my hero!
(But seriously, 10:30 hours indoors, that’s massive.)
I think I have mentioned exactly that issue for outdoor rides: you need to be able to govern your enthusiasm. All of us like to smash it, but endurance rides are like the vegetables that are good for us and that we need to eat. Whereas hard rides are the tempting ice cream, the juicy steak, the delicious chicken wings. I love the feeling of being able to pull off x watts without feeling much in the way of fatigue. But you gotta eat your vegetables to get stronger!
Its probably already been said @Dunk but sometimes you just get in the zone (pardon the accidental pun) and are motivated on those days tempo/ss feels relatively free flowing where as on other days endurance rides can seem more of a drag a lot of it is psychological. Lol I can have it during one ride, it can feel a drag at Z2 but with a little bit of motivation (sometimes due to the higher tempo its self) suddenly tempo/ss is free flowing.
I having a hard time following duration. What is your usual duration of a 60% paced z2 ride? For example all my z2 workouts up to 3 hours are targeted at 70-75%.
With the survey results from TR workouts the team will be able to speak to this. I wonder if there is a subgroup where RPE is a different shape than what is expected? e.g. RPE curves where Z1 and Z2 work are reported as harder (REP) than zone 3. I know there are riders who over report (RPE vs lactate) zone 3 and 4. Could be another way to help shape workouts and tailor programs for athletes of different types. Power Curve and RPE curves. Sounds like a podcast topic.
I do agree with the posters upthread - - even if it feels better from an RPE perspective, too much happy hard, when you are meant to be getting zone 2, is going to lead to over reaching eventually. Been there and done that one.
I reckon an explanation could be that higher levels of power lead to production of endorphins and other “feel good” chemicals. In Z2 your effort is too low to have your body produce a lot of them, but the effort is too high (over time) to be truly be experienced as easy.
To anyone in the know, does my explanation make sense? And is it correct?
Like you I tend to find the same thing. I am also more of a fast twitcher. I’ve always thought its down to muscle recruitment. My theory is that in Z2 I am just using my limited slow twitch fibres whereas when I up the intensity to tempo+ they are getting a bit of help with my Type 2A ones (the intermediate ones). So I’m spreading the load over more fibres so it doesn’t feel as hard.
Does this happen on all Z2 rides? Or do you usually schedule your Z2 rides in a fatigued state? Z2 can definitely feel a bit like Z3 if you’re always doing them following hard rides but the Z3/4 rides are done fresh.
Depends on the athlete, but those fibers can be recruited in zone 1 after enough time. And no matter what, they fatigue faster and have higher glycolytic demand than your type 1s. Muscle fiber type won’t have anything to do with zone 2 feeling harder than zone 3.
Hmm, could it be that you just never fully warm up or activate on these rides? Maybe try doing a little 4-5 min Z3-5 ladder at the beginning of the ride to warm up.
