Generally speaking, unless the athlete is new to cycling and we're early in the base phase, I would not prescribe this workout. What are you training for? Where are you in your periodization? What's your athletic background?

Also, why not throw in some very short higher intensity intervals to simulate a hill, surge or pass?

So the question here is, do you trust your coach? And have you asked him why he is doing this?

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Ian

I get these rides too but not 2.5 hours, usually a bit shorter. The way to break them up is get something good to watch! You can always stand up and sprint a bit just to change things up a bit but I wouldn't start doing intervals since the ideal of the session is probably to log some good z2 mileage to prepare you for the longer miles when the weather is nicer!

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Twitter - Instagram

Speaking as a coach, there is no way to understand with just your post. Recovery week vs build week/day. Weekly training load? Specific to race or goals? Training steady state riding (specific) vs just logging z2 miles (general). There is just so much that goes into a week, month, year build that to isolate 1 specific day might not be the best method. A lot goes into this and it's an art/science.

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COROS Sports Science

My endurance rides (and IM bike) end up being Z3 for HR and high Z2 / low-mid Z3 based on power. I think my Z2 is actually larger than "normal" but I'm probably an anomaly.

There is value in training your body to ride how you plan to race. If you plan to race at Z2 power (which peaks at 75% of FTP for Coggan I believe) then I think you should be getting long rides in at that intensity. My IM plan has lots of miles like this, which I end up doing at 75-80% which coach has never had an issue with.

The closer you get to the race, the more of these miles you should do.

A bit more info:

I'm working with a new coach this year, who is a good friend. I trust him a lot and know that what he does works. The past two months have included a lot more high intensity intervals, but now is more of a base period. One 2 hr ride from two weeks ago included a total 45 min @ FTP.

My A race is IMMT and my goal is winning my AG. My run was my limiting factor when I raced there two years ago, and with a decent run would have finished top 5 in the AG (I missed a KQ by 7 seconds). Biking is my strength (2:18 at 70.3 WC).

When I was training for IMMT two years ago my long rides (4-5.5 hrs) would average around 70-75% power, with a range of intervals thrown in. On race day I rode at 70% (232 watts).

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Hey Nate-I get similar workouts periodically but they will often include 60 secs @ 110% FTP every 5th minute. So you end up with 24 min of harder intervals during a 2 hour ride. Really breaks up the monotony of just riding as you are always rotating between recovery from the harder interval and preparing for the next. Still a fairly easy workout but a little more interesting.

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Randy
http://www.gulfcoasttriteam.com

Mine are under an hour at this point but to break them up, my coach has me doing 3 minutes at 65 rpm with a gear large enough to put me pretty well to the top of Z2, then 6 minutes at 90-95 rpm as "recovery", drop HR to mid Z2. Repeat till session is over.

Or, pyramid your rpm. Stay within Z2, start out at about 80 rpm for 10 minutes (after suitable warmup), look at your average power over the 10 minutes. Bump up to 85 rpm for the next 10 minutes, stay within Z2, check average power. Repeat and when you get to a point where you can't keep in Z2 (120/150 rpm), drop back down. This lets you stay in Z2 for your workout but also lets you see at what rpm you produce optimal power - of course all done in aero. By pyramiding up and down, you should be able to get averages that take into account cardiac drift to some extent.

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BC Don
Pain is temporary, not giving it your all lasts all Winter.

Not trying to derail your thread, but I was curious if you went to the wind tunnel and did you make any changes? I saw you at the indoor TT in January and something just seemed a little off on your fit on tour bike.

Don

Tell him you're not enjoying the rides and ask if he can change it without impacting your overall training stress. The openess will give you two a chance to test your relationship.

Maybe he's doing it to give you a mental challenge (i.e. how to deal with monotony). Maybe he has reasons for keeping it very aerobic. My 0.02, If you're just optimizing for performance then trust him and judge him on the basis of your results.

Yeah - Steve used to give me these ones too. This is just 120 min @ 70-75%.

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I decided against the wind tunnel, partially due to cost. I've tweaked a few things this year, including dropping my bars by about an inch and getting a new Dash saddle. At the TT I was also riding in the hoods, so not sure of what was 'a little off.'

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I had a 1:15 bike this morning with a 20' warmup, then 50' @ 70-75% and a 5' CD. I did the 50' piece alternating every 2' at a cadence of 80 or 90. HR and power stayed the same, and the time went pretty quick. Think I'll do this for the longer ride with 60 of these switches over the two hours.

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Blog: http://262toboylstonstreet.blogspot.com/
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I think you can vary your cadence more than that and get a lot more out of the workout while staying in and around Z2. I've done 3-4 hour indoor rides all at z2 HR and alternated between 2 mins at 50-60rpm/2min 80-90 rpm/2 min 100-120 rpm for long periods. I include about 60-90s standing out of every 10 minutes focusing on solid core and good form. More extreme cadence work is great to break up monotony because it demands focus but isn't exhausting.

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