In short, to stimulate aerobic adaptations requires low-to-medium-intensity rides that consume as much time as you can afford. Raise maximum muscle power develops neural control of pedalling at specific cadence Short, intense efforts of 30secs to 3mins increase anaerobic capacityīuilds the ability to break away from your competition To boost endurance requires long efforts in zone two… American coaches Hunter Allen and Andrew Coggan developed this seven-zone method of training to maximise riding time. If you’re using a power meter, you’re also attuned to training by zones. Speed, 106%-plus of lactate threshold Riding by power Threshold, 96-100% of lactate thresholdĥ. Moderate aerobic, 81-89% of lactate thresholdģ. Low aerobic, 75-80% of lactate thresholdĢ. Avoid these ideally as that’s the physiological no-man’s land.ġ. That’s due to a buffer between low and moderate and moderate and high. You’ll note that these zones aren’t contiguous. Your average heart rate during the last 10mins is your lactate threshold. You can find yours by undertaking a 30min time trial where, after a brief warm-up, you ride as far as you can in 30mins. Heart rate is a useful way of gauging your intensity (Getty Images)īelow are the five zones based on finding your lactate threshold. So, what’s the ideal intensity? Well, if you’re using a heart rate monitor, you’re looking at around zone two on a five-zone system. An ‘endurance session’ at too high an intensity also tires you out for a subsequent ride that should have been more focused on speed. Too high and while you will boost aerobic capacity, you’ll also veer into the anaerobic side and potentially maximise neither. Too low and while it’s fine for recovery and flushing out toxins from a previous, more demanding session, it won’t stress your body enough to grow. To stimulate these aerobic physiological adaptations requires riding at the correct intensity. Read more: What is FTP and how do I use it? Importance of intensity The rate of oxygen uptake is proportional to aerobic energy production with around one watt requiring around 12 ml/min of VO2! At the professional level, it needs to be high if you want to be a great climber, a fast time-trial rider or powerful rouleur, but it’s also important for a recreational rider who’s looking to ride longer, stronger and, ultimately, faster.” But, as sports scientist and founder of performance system INSCYD, Sebastian Weber, says, “It never hurts to have a higher VO2max, meaning you can produce more power aerobically. Top riders like Tadej Pogačar have exceptional VO2max levels (Getty Images)Īs a sidenote, many at the top level question VO2max as the panacea of endurance as, quite rightly, there are numerous other factors that come into play in delivering world-class performance, like anaerobic threshold, tactical nous and mindset. As a reminder, mitochondria are the powerhouses of your cells and where energy is generated. These include: your heart functions more efficiently, pumping out more blood with every beat your lungs become more efficient, allowing for larger amounts of air to be inhaled and exhaled with every breath as well as improving oxygen uptake and your mitochondria increase in number and become more efficient. To increase your aerobic capacity requires numerous physiological adaptations that make you a pair of bellows on a bike. It's tricky to be too direct in comparison with recreational riders because VO2max is affected by age, gender, sporting history… but a good VO2max score for many would be over 50ml/min/kg. Broadly, the higher your VO2max, the more oxygen you can use to burn for fuel to power your working muscles, the longer you can ride without bonking. We’ll stop right there to explain those metrics, which means the maximum millilitres of oxygen the body can utilise each minute per kilogramme of bodyweight. Over the years, this has become a byword for fitness with Tadej Pogačar’s reported at 89.4ml/min/kg, Egan Bernal’s around 89ml/min/kg and, the highest of them all, retired cyclist Oskar Svendsen’s 96.7ml/min/kg. Again, this could stretch into tomorrow but one of the big endurance wins is boosting aerobic capacity.
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