Training: The importance of endurance

By Guillaume Judas – Photos: Orbea/Mavic/Lapierre/Maratona dles Dolomites/3bikes.fr

Training: The importance of endurance

Whatever the sport practiced, Basic endurance must be the basis of all serious preparationThere's no way around it if you hope to make progress – especially in cycling and triathlon – even if some so-called modern methods promise you miraculous results with just a few targeted workouts per week.

Why endurance?

Training: The importance of endurance

Endurance training allows the improvement of several factors essential to good physical condition and any subsequent progress:

  • The ability of the lungs to deliver the oxygen needed by the muscles to transform energy reserves into mechanical energy. This exchange takes place through the blood.
  • The heart's ability to transport this blood in sufficient quantity to the muscles.
  • The ability of muscles to maintain an effort given over time, thanks to greater vascularization.
  • A greater proportion of fat use as an energy substrate compared to sugars for a given pace.
  • The ability to resist fatigue and to stay motivated over time.
  • A faster recovery after the effort. And therefore easier to chain several efforts.

A good level of endurance optimizes the ability to use available oxygen to the maximum, because it is this ability that pushes back the energy threshold of fatigue.. It is on this level of endurance that the famous threshold of lactic acid production depends when the effort intensifies, or more precisely the moment when production accelerates to the point where it can no longer be synthesized by the body. All experienced athletes know this famous threshold, the limiting pace beyond which a few minutes are enough to "explode", out of breath, empty tank and legs paralyzed by muscle pain. We therefore speak of endurance for intensities that extend from the regular pace but sufficient to produce a significant effect on physical condition (below, we speak rather of active recovery) to the sustained pace just at the limit of the anaerobic threshold that we spoke about above.

Training: The importance of endurance

However, Before trying to progress to the level of high endurance, let's first look at basic endurance, an intensity that is not always understood and mastered by amateur athletes. In other words, Before riding fast, you must first know how to ride slowly. But not too slowly either. To put it simply, the "good" endurance pace is around 70% of your maximum heart rate. This is the intensity at which you must accumulate the maximum amount of time in training, but also be able to maintain this pace for longer and longer to improve your endurance.

Endurance and health

Without aiming for performance, practicing an endurance activity has a definite benefit for health. All doctors agree that regular physical exercise protects against high blood pressure and excess sugar and fat, factors responsible for clogging of the arteries and cardiovascular diseases. It helps fight certain diseases, such as osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers, while strengthening the immune system. Endurance work strengthens the heart by increasing its volume and efficiency. With each beat, a large heart sends more blood to meet the body's needs.

An endurance athlete therefore sees his heart rate decrease for a given effort, but also for all activities of the day.

An endurance athlete therefore sees his heart rate decrease for a given effort, but also for all activities of the day. The resting heart rate is around 70 beats per minute for a sedentary person, when it can drop below 40 beats for a high-level athlete. Endurance also strengthens respiratory faculties and maintains muscle mass, which is essential from a certain age. For a regular cyclist or triathlete, what we call basic endurance also and above all has the effect of allowing fat to be lost and maintaining fitness.tage. This is one of the reasons why it is essential to maintain long outings throughout the season.

Training: The importance of endurance

Endurance in cycling

Improving the level of endurance allows you to improve your ability to maintain an effort for longer but also to gain comfort during outings. Some would like to " gain power and have less leg pain on hills", while in reality a better level of endurance would allow them to approach the difficulty with more reserves already. And therefore more margin compared to their maximum capacities. During a race, endurance makes the difference between two cyclists of equivalent level., because with the accumulation of fatigue, the most enduring sees his maximum capacities decrease less quickly than his opponent. Cycling on route is a sport with a strong aerobic dominance. That is to say that 95% of the time spent on the bike, even at a high level, is spent in the zone between basic endurance and the anaerobic threshold. You can be very fast in sprinting for example, and therefore have great explosive qualities, but if you never finish a race or are not able to follow the best in the difficulties of the course, you have no chance of winning.

Training: The importance of endurance

However, a super endurance cyclist also has no chance of winning if he cannot change pace and produce a lot of power in a few moments, to follow the attacks or to make the difference. This is therefore the whole complexity of a well-conducted preparation, which consists of training the body for all sorts of demands. The fact remains that So-called endurance training runs, those which consist of lining up kilometres at a fairly regular pace, have always been the basis of any preparation which works.. And that they have sometimes been enough to have good seasons, in addition to competitions. Firstly because in the absence of working on other qualities, these already allow you to build up a correct and solid physical condition. Then because the courses are never completely flat and without wind. In response to the terrain, the cyclist who only does this type of outing is thus led to produce variations in power which make him work on a wider range of intensity than it seems, and almost independently of his will. Which would not be the case if he only made efforts at a targeted intensity, for example, as in running for example. It is from this base that we can modernize training by introducing specific intensity sessions, but never forgetting this fundamental rule.

Training: The importance of endurance

Endurance in triathlon

Depending on the format of the event, the ability to maintain a sustained pace for a long time is more or less important, but here again basic endurance must be the foundation of all preparation. Unlike cycling, however, the longer the distances, the greater the proportion of the aerobic pathway (dependent mainly on theoxygen utilization) is important with 100% determining performance on Half or Ironman. However, the need to progress technically and gain ease on the day of the event in swimming, cycling and running rightly encourages working on other areas. It is obviously a good method for progressing, but on the condition that you remain measured on the proportion. You don't progress in an endurance sport like triathlon by doing ONLY short, high-intensity sessions.

Training: The importance of endurance

Risk of imbalance

Like the foundations of a house, core training is designed to provide a solid foundation for the rest of the season.. But also to a career. Thanks to this work upstream, physical condition is then more stable, less subject to fatigue or recovery problems between the main events. Well-done basic training increases the basic potential of the cyclist or triathlete, who can then carry out specific sessions designed to optimize their capacities according to a specific objective. Endurance is therefore essential for athletes, whatever their preferred sport.. Without endurance, his (progression) capabilities are limited.

How many practitioners are there who give themselves a lot of trouble with short but too hard sessions, but who do not progress?

How many practitioners are there who give themselves a lot of trouble with short but too hard sessions, but which do not progress? With new tools like home trainers and power sensors, or even connections with other disciplines like running, it is tempting to want to optimize the time spent training by targeting only specific intensities, and in particular those which are supposed to improve maximum capacities.

Training: The importance of endurance

But it is impossible to expect high performance with high-speed work if the foundations are not solid. For example, the development of anaerobic qualities is of no use to those who do not first boost their aerobic qualities. Without basic work, the famous anaerobic "threshold" is low in power and heart rate, and we quickly find ourselves in the red with the impossibility of renewing efforts because of the accumulation of lactic acid.. For a high-level athlete, it is estimated that 80% of training time should be spent in the fundamental endurance zone. Because this privileged zone is also ideal for warming up as well as for active recovery between competitions or difficult sessions. It allows to accelerate the elimination of waste due to the accumulation of lactic acid in the muscles.

-> SEE AS ​​WELL : 8 home trainer training sessions

Endurance user guide

If endurance is the basis of physical preparation for cycling or triathlon, it is however obvious that we cannot be satisfied with a single type of intensity to progress. If it is essential to maintain a good level of endurance throughout the season, it is also not useless to integrate some variations of pace during the winter period or during any recovery period. The rule is to impose regularity and progressiveness in training.. This also applies to endurance. Outside of competition periods, one or two sessions per week dedicated to endurance work are necessary, if possible at a distance from each other and gradually increasing their duration, in relation to the objective sought. We do not embark on a 6-hour outing in January if we are preparing for the Stage of the Tour in July, but it is to be considered a few weeks before the objective, in order to be physically and mentally prepared on the day. During competition periods, unless extreme fatigue is felt between two events, one long outing per week must be maintained. In addition, short outings can be reserved for physical and/or technical work, in order to develop other qualities useful for performance. Triathletes, for their part, of course have everythingtagand to work on their endurance first on the bike, in order to limit the risk of injuries when running, for example.

-> SEE AS ​​WELL : ReconBirth of the 2019 Tour Stage

-> SEE AS ​​WELL : Work on your weak points

Tangible benefits

Training: The importance of endurance

For those who still doubt the need to devote time to basic endurance, let us recall the benefits it can bring to the amateur or occasional cyclist. Week after week, the rider is more and more comfortable on his machine. The hills, descents or the position of hands at the bottom of the handlebars weigh less on him. Breathing is more regular, and above all well controlled. Fat mass gradually decreases, he feels less cramped in his clothes, much more toned too. But the most tangible sign concerns the heart rate. At rest, it is more regular and above all lower. The day after training, fatigue is only light and superficial. After a medium-intensity effort, the heart goes down faster. And during training, on the usual routes, the heart rate is lower, he feels less out of breath for the pace that was adopted at the beginning of the period. Good reasons to avoid rushing things, right?

-> SEE AS ​​WELL : All our Coaching articles

Guillaume Judas

  - 53 years old - Professional journalist since 1992 - Coach / Performance support - Former Elite runner - Current sports practices: route & allroad (a little). - Strava: Guillaume Judas

Leave comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *

This site uses Akismet to reduce unwanted. Learn more about how your comments data is used.

You may also like