I’ve seen a couple of references to Endurance plus in doing endurance rides. Could someone explain the concept, how to apply it, and when/why it would be better than the usual 3-5 base training rides not exceeding HR endurance levels (zone 1 of 3)?
Thanks
Are you referring to including some tempo during an endurance ride?
Something like 20m Endurance Zone 1-2 / 10m Tempo Zone 3 repeated for a period of 3h?
I am not sure. I saw that Trevor and someone else had referred positively to that concept in a couple of their responses, but nothing else was written,
On a side track, in a number of your posts, you speak highly of Moxie. I think one post of yours mentioned that all your clients were on it. What advantages would it have for an endurance rider? Basically, other than some tempo on one long endurance ride, the other ride is just keeping my HR below zone 2 of 3. Which is a discipline as the power drops on the 4th/5th hour.
micomico- From what I know and how i use this concept is to add some “density” or plus/additional work to those longer endurance rides, whether that is on the weekend or midweek depending on an athlete’s schedule. I will add intensive shorter intervals of 4-8 min that are associated with more power or I use extensive intervals that range from 15-90minutes at lower power that work fatigue resistance. if you do not train by power the RPE would be 7/8 on the intensive and a 5/6 on the extensive. HR I would associate with intensive I would prescribe at 95-105% THR (threshold HR) and extensive 85-95% THR. At the end of the day it is about using longer endurance rides to add some density with specific intensites and durations that are event specific, place the intervals at various places in the ride. IE at the very end when you have accumulated some fatigue or in the middle to break up the ride. Hope this helps.
I think the advantage is to having confidence in your daily intensity in the endurance and tempo zone.
There are many other uses during intervals, but with a fair amount of training done in the zone 1-3 (5 zone model) I feel it is important to try and nail this down so there isn’t unwanted fatigue creeping in.
Fpike and Steve, thanks, this makes sense. Especially since I am time-restricted so can squeeze in usually only one long ride a week, adding density will work other systems.