Training for endurance the right way: Take it slow! Here’s how to build up your endurance on the bike

​There have been days in March when, enticed by the sunshine, I’ve set off for just a quick trip into the low mountain range, drawn by the desire for speed, some climbing and spring weather. I remember the results well: the first sunburn of the year, plus the gruelling after-effects of a far too demanding route. Back then, I told myself: ‘It’ll hurt for a bit, but it’ll be worth it in the end.’ From a training perspective, as I’ve since realised, that’s of course nonsense.

“If you get fast too quickly, you’ll slow down again just as quickly,” Germany’s most successful cyclist, André Greipel, told me after I’d told him about my intensive training camp in March. And with that, he sums up an important rule of thumb: we are still in a phase where one thing matters above all else – patiently building up our fitness.

​That’s why I’d like to draw your attention to the five so-called training zones, which are very important when it comes to planning your training. In highly competitive cycling, seven zones are often used, but for now we’ll be using the 5-zone model here. Of course, these are just models, but they help you to structure your training effectively.

Right now, you should keep your excitement in check – and train in Zone 1 and Zone 2. If you haven’t heard of these yet, let me explain what they are:

What do training zones 2 and 1 refer to?

Zone 2 is a moderate training zone designed to help you burn fat and improve your endurance. In this training zone, you’ll be doing a great deal to build up your body’s ‘powerhouses’ (mitochondria) and its infrastructure, which will carry you through those really exciting routes in the summer. Zone 2 may be a buzzword, but it is the key to a healthy start to your training: ambitious athletes and professionals often train in this zone several times a week, with sessions lasting one to three hours or more, to systematically develop their endurance. “The key is to train regularly,” explains exercise scientist Christian Manunzio from the German Sport University Cologne.

And Zone 1? In this zone, you’re not only moving in a completely relaxed manner, but you’re also clearing waste products (such as lactate and carbon dioxide) out of your cells. Sounds simple, sounds good – but we all know that cycling at a controlled, slow pace really is a matter of discipline. In other words, in March your main task might be to slow yourself down – and to really put in the effort three or four times a week. You can read exactly what happens in Zones 1 and 2, and how to structure your training effectively within them, in our detailed article here:

How can you make the most of your training in Zones 1 and 2?

You lay the foundations for your endurance through clever training in Zone 2. But what’s that all about? How do you get there? And why is Zone 1 important too? The first thing that will help you: avoid training that feels like ‘proper training’. Instead, it’s about developing a feel for it – or even gathering data – that will really help you with recovery and building up your basic endurance.

Zone 1 in detail

This is recovery training. In other words, you’re not just pedalling aimlessly, but you’re not putting your body under any particular strain either. When you’re training at this level, you have absolutely no trouble maintaining your pace; you can chat quite easily, and you often feel as though you ought to be pushing yourself a bit harder.

But you have a goal in mind: you want to recover actively, which is very beneficial for your body – especially after training sessions. On the one hand, this helps to boost your fat metabolism (this isn’t about losing weight, but about making more efficient use of your physical capabilities). This means your body is prepared to draw more heavily on fat reserves for energy.

On the other hand – and this is why this is a recovery phase – you break down waste products from the cells, such as lactate, which may have built up during very strenuous sessions. That is why it is also advisable to cool down in Zone 1 at the end of a strenuous ride.

Zone 2 in detail

Unlike Zone 1, Zone 2 is a training segment in which you really build up your endurance. Over the decades, this has been referred to as ‘basic endurance training’ (or something similar); depending on the school of thought, the approach used to be to just potter about as much as possible within this training zone. It might seem like the opposite of road cycling. But it makes perfect sense.

In Zone 2, you maximise the supply of oxygen, which your body uses to convert stored fat into energy. This means you can sustain this level of performance without needing to consume any additional energy (though there are limits to this – you should still drink, and after two or three hours, it’s fine to have a few carbohydrates from an external source). This is where you lay the foundations for endurance, which is, after all, the be-all and end-all for cyclists. And the best bit is: sessions like this don’t leave you aching afterwards.

How do you define your zones?

I should point out one thing first: most tips on how to determine training zones are a bit vague. But they do provide a guide.

The easiest way

Zone 1 is the range within which you can hold a conversation without interruption and speak several sentences in a row.

Zone 2 is the training zone where you can still hold a conversation comfortably, but need to take a breather now and then.

A little more precisely

Zone 1 is defined as 50 to 60 per cent of your maximum heart rate. Zone 2 is 60 to 70 per cent of this heart rate. It’s a very simple formula:

Maximum heart rate is 220 – age = maximum heart rate

But please note: this figure is a rough guide; individual values can vary significantly. However, you can also determine your maximum heart rate more accurately, for example through stress tests.

Much more precise

To enable more precise training management, a so-called FTP test is recommended (though only if you’re able to make use of the data you collect later on). The idea here is that you don’t base your training on your heart rate, but on the power you’re generating. I’ll explain more about this soon. For now, it should suffice to say that you identify a f-watt value that you could sustain for a maximum of about an hour – and your training zones are calculated from there. So training is no longer about heart rate, but about power zones in watts.

Absolutely precise

You can find out your exact zones by undergoing a sports medicine assessment that includes spiroergometry (this involves measuring your breathing gas using a mask, whilst you exercise on, for example, a road bike, ergometer or treadmill). This analysis is offered by sports medicine centres – such as that run by our expert Daniel Alexander Bizjek in Ulm – as well as by GP practices and specialist providers of performance diagnostics in sport.

This method takes all the key metrics into account in relation to one another, and the experts use this to determine your zones – which, of course, will also change depending on your fitness level. You’ll also discover a metric here that we’ll be covering in more detail soon: FatMax, the maximum fat-burning zone.