![Cycling workout of the week #9: Zone 2 Endurance – focus on the foundations of your fitness [2 hours]](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/v7AkjGvi7R9WbDL7ooVvVW-1200-80.jpg "Cycling workout of the week #9: Zone 2 Endurance – focus on the foundations of your fitness [2 hours]")
A cycling workout where you should regularly rotate is a plain and simple zone 2 aerobic ride.
Endurance rides are very much the bread and butter of what training should be. Since cycling is an aerobic sport, improving our aerobic capacity is probably the most important element of training. There is a good reason that professionals spend the majority of their training time working in Zone 2 of all cycling training zonesAnd that’s because it’s one of the most effective ways to improve aerobic performance.
This is a simple trip but it is an essential part of a balance cycling training plan as it creates a strong aerobic base to build on through better fat metabolism, increased density of muscle capillaries and mitochondrial biogenesis. The focus here is to improve the oxygen supply to the working muscles.
Riding harder won’t result in a better training benefit, but it will increase fatigue, so try to start in the zones as best you can.
The training
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simply explained
There are many ways that Zone 2 training helps improve aerobic performance. It all boils down to simply improving the amount of oxygen that can be delivered to the muscles and then improving the systems that use that oxygen within the muscles to produce energy in the most efficient way.
If you think of your body as a car, then what this workout is doing is making it more fuel efficient (using oxygen as fuel) and also more powerful (since more oxygen can be delivered to be used as fuel).
let’s geek
(Image credit: Future)
In terms of oxygen delivery to the muscles, this is enhanced through a process called angiogenesis, which is the creation of new muscle capillaries that allow more oxygen to be carried to the muscles via the blood. Zone 2 training has been found to be very effective when it comes to enhancing angiogenesis and an increase in Zone 3 intensity can reduce the level of angiogenesis.
Then we need to consider the ability of the muscles to use that oxygen once it has been delivered and this happens thanks to the mitochondria; You’ve probably heard of them as the powerhouse of the cell, but they are more than that. The more mitochondria we have, the more organelles (specialized structure within a cell) we have that can process oxygen along with fatty acids, carbohydrates, and lactate to make ATP, which is what we use to make energy on the bike (along with the energy of all others). body function).
The way that Zone 2 training helps with this is called activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator (PGC-1alpha) through calcium signaling. Essentially, because muscles contract regularly over a long period of time, they release calcium with every muscle contraction. This, in turn, activates the expression of the PGC-1alpha gene, which stimulates the production of more mitochondria, which is known as mitochondrial biogenesis.
More oxygen means more fuel to aid in greater fat burning o rate of carbohydrate oxidation for high intensity, and more mitochondria means a greater ability to break down fuel sources to create ATP and produce energy.
Golden Rule
The rule of thumb for Zone 2 training is to make sure you don’t push yourself too hard. These sessions are the epitome of low intensity, long duration training. However, they are often performed at too high an intensity, which will not provide any additional benefits and may actually reduce some of the benefits while increasing fatigue.
Sunny? What if…
This cycling workout is ideally an outdoor session because it’s easy and straightforward to do as part of a club. group ride or just a solo walk outdoors.
However, let’s consider how you would approach having to do indoor cycling training. Let’s say your trainer has assigned you three hours of Zone 2 but the weather is absolutely awful (and to be honest, I’d rather do it indoors if that’s the case!).
If you’re doing this trip indoors, a good rule of thumb I use is to reduce the duration by a third. So three hours turns into two hours and you can watch a movie or a couple of episodes of a Netflix series while doing the session. The advantage of doing this in the turbo trainer is that it is very easy to control the intensity and keep it low enough.
Looking for another? What if…
– Cycling Workout of the Week #1: 20/40s [50 mins]
– Cycling Workout of the Week #5: Unders/Overs [59 mins]
