Incorporating some hard intervals into your long bike rides will make you a stronger cyclist. About half of my long rides, include some kind of ‘effort’, and I believe it has really helped me with long course racing.
My long ride today was particularly challenging. It was a four hour ride. The initial hour was designed as an easy effort warm up. This was followed by three hours, each broken up as 5 minutes in Zone 4; 20 minutes in Zone 3; 30 minutes in Zone 2 and 5 minutes easy.
It is hard to stay perfectly within the target power zones while riding outside, so I just try my best. The hills of Western Pennsylvania make it particularly challenging to stay at target power. I have listed below, the time spent in each power zone on my ride today. This shows that I more than did the prescribed effort; I worked hard today.
- Zone 1 = 80 minutes
- Zone 2 = 62 minutes
- Zone 3 = 49 minutes
- Zone 4 = 29 minutes
- Zone 5 = 13 minutes
- Zone 6 = 8 minutes
I think all the work in the high zones came while riding up hills. I ended up with 5,200 feet of elevation gain during the ride.
My legs are a little fatigued this evening. I am not surprised after today’s hard intervals, but it also means that with good recovery, I should be getting stronger.
