is there much benefit to be gained from long slow rides?
10-15mph over 5hrs or so.

Yes. Relaxation and enjoyment.

It’s more about staying within a specific HR zone rather than a speed but yeah there’s some benefit to it in the context of a training plan for endurance events, there’s not a whole lot of point just in terms of general ‘getting fit’ though unless your prefer that sort of riding over shorter but higher intensity rides (and are therefore more motivated to do it).

Depends on what you mean by benefits.

For training you need to know your HRT zone and what your training for. For just fun, then sure, its like mountian biking, but longer.

benefit to what? it’ll never make you fast but it might be good for the mind.

it’ll be good training for riding at 10-15mph for 5 hrs (it’ll get easier)

Lol at druidh – and he’s right.

In terms that I can’t understand it also develop’s your capileries in your muscles and small oxygen branches in your lungs whilst resting you muscles and lungs. As Druidh hints at it rests your head also.

The net result is you can ride longer/further/faster/more efficiently in the seasonal months.

Its also referred to recovery training, zone 2 or base training. I did a 50m Z2 on Sunday as I’ve started my base training for the winter. Riding with an HRM in Z2 is one way of burning fat also.

There’s a good page in the last Cycling plus Mag which gives 4 winter workout plans that explains this – this being one of the workouts.

aerobic / base fitness

15 mph offroad for 5 hours is fairly decent going already.

I did a long (long for me) ride on Sunday, but to make it feel like I had done any excercise I had to sprint up all the hills.

But then my type of mountain biking tends to be more like whinch and plummet, interval riding. Or Enduro / trail center thrashing. If I was training to win XC races or ride for 12 hrs then different training would be needed.

15 mph offroad for 5 hours is fairly decent going already.

Must be talking about on-road, surely? It would be an exceptional pace for anything but the least technical terrain!

sorry, not all offroad, just riding in general

15 mph offroad for 5 hours is fairly decent going already.

*reminds everyone I got slated for not reaching a 20mph average this year* 😐

There is absolutely a benefit in riding steady for longer than you might normally go out for. It will make harder efforts feel more manageable as you are trained to ride for longer periods of time. You don’t need to even think about heart rates for any of this to work.

Gets you away from ‘er indoors for longer?

Ah – so called Heineken rides – go to places other rides cannot reach.

What’s the doc say ton?

I’d ask him where the happy medium is between intensity and time in the saddle?

Anyway, you know all about long rides – you used to be an audaxer..!

(I’m falling into the slow and steady camp now after my heart saga over the last 12 months.)

it was a conversation over beer on saturday night. some tool reckoned unless you were towing your bag out, you may as well not ride.
i told him he was talking shyte.
all riding is good, especially for the soul and mind……..so druidh is correct.

outmaninthenorth…….heart doctor told me to keep riding and do what i could.
he said i would not have a sean connery cos of my meds doing there job.

8)

Longer less intense exercise is much more beneficial in terms of losing weight as well I think.

nice one. keep on truckin’ then!

for the tool, tell him:

high intensity stuff is fine, but it requires proper recovery (as that’s where the benefit comes from). so battering yourself is fine, but don’t do it every day as you’ll soon overtrain and start going slower.

Long slow rides……benefits?

Yes, it’s the third word in the sentence that is the key 😉

This is a never ending debate on some of the road based bike forums. It seems the most popular answer is that if you have enough time to ride lots then you can get benefit from this kind of riding. However if you dont have the time you get more bang for your buck with only high tempo/threshold/HIT type stuff. This is usualy in tems of 1hr and 20 minute power.

Personally last year I did a load of endurance stuff, 350 miles for 3 out of 4 weeks a month for a few months, not bimbling, I would be knackered at the end of a long ride and it was pretty structured. My power went up a fair bit from the end of the previous season (when I was fairly trained), and I think I would have improved further with the addition of higher intensity stuff- but then I fell off and broke myself so I will never know!

So iamconfusedagain – what is “enough” time? I’m speaking as someone who has limited time for riding, and I’d like to know of my 2-3 rides a week that one/two of them being z2 and one being high intesity is enough?

Or would just riding against my average with an aim to beat it 3 x per week over the same varying 20-30 mile course do the job better?

If your out and doing it has to be good,
in the sun so you get vitamin d, social so it improves your mindset, slow riding like jogging must be fat-burning , and good for the muscles without risking damage so win win win win win win win.Not everybody gets to be a racing snake , Mart

If your out and doing it has to be good,
in the sun so you get vitamin d, social so it improves your mindset, slow riding like jogging must be fat-burning , and good for the muscles without risking damage so win win win win win win win.Not everybody gets to be a racing snake , Mart

😉

I spent a couple of hours out round the woods on the normal slow pace Sunday morning ride. I felt much better for it and I was in an electric off road wheel chair. That is a brain benefit rather than a fitness benefit.

I seem to remember an argument along the lines of ‘the fitter you are, the harder you have to train to get any benefit’.

It seemed to make sense so I try to avoid being fit so I get maximum benefit from every ride

You might see more nice scenery

Long slow rides
Get you good at
Long slow rides

And enable you to get faster
And further
And enjoy yourself for longer
In the long
Run

Kryton57 – I am no expert just an average club rider, and I can only say it helps for an hr tt, but I reckon from a purely training point of view I would not be doing a lot of easy rides on less than 15-20 hrs a week unless I was ages away from a target race. I would be mainly doing threshold 2×20 or something a couple of times a week and maybe something a touch lower for an hour the other time. Then when it got closer to the race I would do more high intensity stuff, keeping some threshold. This time of year some nice easy rides are nice though. I just go out and ride.

They’re the only kind of rides I do. 🙂
Don’t care if riding is good for you, I just do it ‘cos it’s fun.

If I want to hurt myself, I’ll go for a few drinks with the son in law – works every time.

Just come back from one and i still can’t feel my feet.
63km over 4 hours on the 29er round the south lakes. It’s nice to get out and just pedal rather than slog up and plummet down (that’s fun too,don’t get me wrong)
This type of ride is the reason i bought the 29er as i was thinking about a road bike but thought i would get bored with it so the Scale means i can do longer rides with a mixture of road, fireroad and some mellow singletrack alot faster than on the El Guapo and i find it very enjoyable and relaxing as has been said above.
It seems to be good for general longer ride fitness as this is something i used to struggle with but has been better since i started doing this kind of ride

Druid I have no wish , desire or ability to be a racing snake.I’m a short fat **** that likes a beer after a ride and a natter during it

Druid I have no wish , desire or ability to be a racing snake.I’m a short fat **** that likes a beer after a ride and a natter during it

Me neither. Too many folk on this forum and elsewhere seem to regard cycling as one constant battle to get “quicker”. 😆

Don’t care if riding is good for you, I just do it ‘cos it’s fun.

part of the conversation was when one of the older lads said he had been talking to a local club rider.
he asked what kind of training he did, my mate said non, he just rode his bike.
the club rider said that was stupid, everyone should have a training plan to get fitter and healthier.
my mate told the club rider, that even if cycling was bad for you, he would still do it, cos he loved it so much.

i reckon he is right too. i ride cos i love it, rather than for health reasons too……….. 8)

Get a copy of this. I’ve found it really useful.

all riding is good, especially for the soul and mind……..so druidh is correct.

+1

Why should you have a training plan to ride a bike? Nothing wrong with having one….but nothing wrong with not having one either. To be honest Ton, it sounds like you found yourself some pretty simple minded folks there.

Anyone can tell you that riding a bike is good for you, and damned good fun. Doesn’t matter how you ride. If you don’t take it too seriously…

Everyone should have a training plan??… thats a bit odd. Why if you have no race or fitness goals would you bother.
Often people seem to think that their way is the only way. There are so many good things you can get from cycling and (except turbo trainers) they are all good.

butcher- beat me to it.

I use one to get fitter, cause I’d like to ride a race or two in an amateur way, but actually I’m really training for MTB events (Gorrick spring series/Enduro’s).

I do like to socialise now and again but a) I’m not good at it and b) its hard for me to commit to the all day Sunday rides that the local club does.