Muscular Endurance: the key to strong long distance cycling

Muscular endurance is probably the most important energy system that you can develop for high performance in long cycling road riding and racing efforts. High performance cycling requires that you are able to sustain a high muscular effort for a sustained period of time. This type of effort combines force and endurance. On the bike, this means you must turn a relatively high (hard) gear at a high cadence for a long time. This capability is based upon your muscular endurance. Training your muscular endurance is a key and fundamental component of your preparation for long distance events. Trained properly, excellent muscular endurance insures that you can stay with a fast attacking group without suffering, or helps you keep up with the group on long, steady grades. 

In order to train your muscular endurance, you must develop the components, force and endurance, as separate areas of concentration. After you have honed these two components, you should begin doing focused workouts that combine the two. Muscular endurance training should begin in your Base training period, but continue throughout your training year. Muscular endurance can be improved using tempo rides, cruise intervals and threshold rides. Optimal muscular endurance workouts are characterized by long repeats, to emphasized the endurance component, combined with gearing that demands greater force, such as high (over geared) gear efforts on a long sustained grade. Begin muscular endurance workouts at a level below threshold, but as you do them over a period of time, increase the intensity to threshold level and, eventually, over-threshold efforts. To make maximum benefit for muscular endurance workouts, you should keep recovery intervals relatively short, typically less than 25% of the interval length.

If you want to be a strong rider, you must develop strong muscular endurance.

This training tip also to be featured on: www.CenturionCycling.com/training