Cycling Endurance Training
As the name suggests, these training sessions focus on building endurance, specifically the ability to ride the distance you’ll need to cover in your chosen event.
Benefits of Endurance Sessions
The aim of endurance sessions is to prepare you both mentally and physically to complete the required distance for your event. These sessions teach you how to pace yourself so you won’t blow up because you’ve started too fast. Psychologically, they also help you toughen up, enabling you to learn how to deal with pushing your body for an extended period of time, when physically your body is trying to tell you to stop.
In addition to the physical and mental event preparation benefits, endurance sessions also give you a great opportunity to experiment with nutrition and hydration, in a way that short sessions can’t. Having to cycle for three to four hours requires you to think much more about what you will eat and drink – that is unless you like trips to the hospital because you’ve become so dehydrated that you need to be put on an IV!
How often should I do an Endurance Session?
You should aim to include at least one dedicated endurance session per week. More often than not, time constraints will mean that most of your training will be of a short, intense nature, but there is really nothing that compares with a really good long session, and it's something that all endurance athletes need to include in their schedule.
How long should an Endurance Session be?
How long your first endurance sessions are will depend a lot on your present level of fitness and current mileage. The golden rule I use is to never increase your training volume by more that 10% each week. That means that if your longest weekly ride is 20km, only increase it by 2km next week. Gradually over time you’ll build up to your event distance, and if time-permits, you’ll actually train above that distance. I’ve found that the 10% rule helps avoid over doing it and reduces the risk of injury.