WHAT SHOULD A ZONE 2 RIDE LOOK LIKE?

TODAY WAS MY FIFTH BIG RIDE IN A ROW.  Seventeen hours in the saddle, 210 miles, 22,000' of vertical...

... and my legs feel great.

How is that possible?

All Zone 2 + Good Sleep + Good Nutrition

Take today's ride.

Nearly 5 hours,
60 miles
6329'..

... Strava called it a Massive Relative Effort.

I called it a fun adventure.
Never did any heavy breathing.

• Ave HR 131
• Normalized Power 212 Watts

Above you can see the HR is very steady, so are Watts dropping down mainly due to rough terrain and stop lights.

The key...

... to pulling that off is starting out easy, which means going based on power more than HR because it takes (for me) a while for the HR to rise.  About 30 minutes in I start looking at HR and Power...

... riding as fast as I can without letting the HR go out of zone.

The benefits...

• ride all day, as long as nutrition is on point
• push upper limit of Zone 2 higher
• develop insane endurance

... easily recover and do it again the next day.

The reason most people don't do it...

• they start out too hard
• under eat because effort seems easy
• ride with friends and get caught up in keeping up
• fail to recognize the hidden benefits for those with limited power
• rather than back down cadence and power they blast up the short stuff 

... is because they don't have the discipline.

If you don't generate a lot of power, and I don't,
then the next best thing is to be able to deliver the power you have
for longer than your competitors and recover faster than those around you.

Skip or skimp on Zone 2 rides...

... or feast on them.

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164.2
7.5 hrs
Push Ups and Pull Ups
20 minutes recovery 
75 minutes reading + Journaling