Train Slower, Ride Faster: Why It Actually Works

Comments · 264

• IR

  @ironmantooltime · 1 year ago

  Literally everyone: I'm not average, I can sustain more intensity, this will give me an advantage...

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• AL

  @alainpoirier1 · 1 year ago

  I live the mistake of pushing hard on every ride. I will now embrace easy rides. 80-20 easy hard riding will also be more enjoyable…ego aside😮

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• UF

  @uffa00001 · 9 months ago (edited)

  From the &apos;20s to the &apos;40s, people would train like this, long slow sessions every day (Girardengo, Guerra, Bartali etc.). Coppi begun using slightly different training patterns and also slightly harder gears, but it was especially Bobet and later Anquetil who made the use of harder gears &quot;popular&quot;. That involved also higher time devoted to training strength. This phase lasted probably until the early &apos;90, when I think there was a transition. People like Bugno used to go with very hard gears, but Indurain was noticeably more into &quot;high cadence&quot;. Since then, there probably was a gradual shift toward smaller gears. That, in turn, made training different, giving more attention to the benefit of high cadence, and concentrating less on building strength. Of course, professionals train all &quot;zones&quot; and all abilities, and they still train strength, but it seems that now all trainers are talking about the good old &quot;slow-long&quot; training that was popular 100 years ago.<br><br>My take is that it&apos;s horses for courses. Probably Bugno would not have become a champion if he had trained and had raced differently. One should understand who he is.<br><br>Maffetone, who popularized the MAF logic, said it well. He noticed some of &quot;his&quot; athletes had a high VT2 (anaerobic threshold), which is good, but had a more than 10% difference in heartbeats between VT1 (aerobic threshold) and VT2. When that&apos;s the case, one should concentrate on raising VT1. After some time of this work (two years or so) one reaches his own personal &quot;plateau&quot; and VT1 cannot be raised any more. At that point, he advises the 80-20 logic, devoting a certain attention to other zones, because one should not train only &quot;slow-long&quot;. What he stressed is not that training other zones is not beneficial, he just stressed that people tend to train the other zones too much, they tend to raise VT2, but they don&apos;t realize their full VT1 potential, and that is a common mistake.<br><br>Some people in the comments say that when one hasn&apos;t enough time, one should train &quot;hard&quot; (no pain, no gain) because there is no alternative, training &quot;hard&quot; requires less time and gives, in their opinion, equivalent results. <br>Maffetone would define them &quot;fit but unhealthy&quot;: fit because they are able to sustain heavy training sessions, unhealthy because they are stressed, they don&apos;t sleep well, they have headaches, they have muscle pains, they never feel &quot;really well&quot;. This is because they have a low VT1 and a high VT2. They can train and race in that zone where you &quot;recycle&quot; your lactate, but the stress for the body and the mind is higher than when you are below your VT1. Raising your VT1, and spending more time below VT1 during training, will raise your VT1 and make you spend less time between VT1 and VT2 also during the race. I think he is spot on.

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• OR

  @OrsoCamApicoltura · 1 year ago

  I do three training sessions a week: two low-intensity rides in zone 1, and one high-intensity MTB session on dirt trails with sprints and race-style efforts with friends. I also do one gym session per week — and I&apos;m absolutely flying!

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• DJ

  @Djacob_ · 1 year ago

  I work a full time job and maintain a household. Only ride around 100 miles every week. I smash every ride and I’m still getting faster. Maybe it has something to do with weightlifting.

  6

• PA

  @pakamisamkabile8504 · 1 month ago

  I am falling crazy still learning the cleates

• BR

  @bradtowne2305 · 10 months ago

  I will only add that this method is great, but you HAVE to really maximize the 20% high intensity.....I&apos;ve caught myself in a trap where I have not done enough higher intensity and I do not have the snap when I need to ramp it up.

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• SP

  @Sparky-b5q · 9 months ago

  Well done video, especially the part about even spending a lot of Z2 at the low end or even high Z1. &nbsp;We called this Long Slow Distance or LSD training in the 1970s. &nbsp;I coached cycling from 1985 to 2020, and my approach with my athletes was if your hard days are not showing improvement on a steady basis then you are going to hard on your easy days.

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• MO

  @mondoabz · 1 year ago

  Just remember a world tour pros slow is most normal people threshold. Poggi’s high zone 2 is 5W/kg 😂

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• PI

  @pierre-yvesjeanrenaud2481 · 1 year ago

  Fully agree with you. I am now 67 years old and I have been training, for the last 10 years, according to the Maffetone method, which consists of zone 1 and 2 ridding only. I do on average 330 to 450 kilometers a week. During this period, I have been injury free, I have had no illnesses, I have never felt overtrained and I have posted some excellent times. I usually podium in age group races including regional and national championships. I do several races every season, which vary in distance between 80 and 200kms and generally average between 35 to 39 km/hr.

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• NO

  @norsangkelsang7939 · 3 days ago

  there is a lot to be said about time in the saddle. the nervous system need to be trained. Just look at the duration of training rides of Merckx. High intensity was from racing.

• ST

  @strandedpaki · 1 year ago (edited)

  Isn&apos;t it also a question of volume? Those pros can ride a huge volume because it is their job. While I agree you shouldn&apos;t kill yourself every time and ride again before being recovered, maybe there&apos;s a place for a bit higher intensity like tempo, if you can&apos;t do that much volume.

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