Three Simple Ways to Boost Cycling Endurance 

At 65 I find the stopping part occurs for me as one or two natural breaks per ride. They also take longer now, so I will excuse myself from that one. I do the other two, they were the philosophy 45 years ago. We called it long slow distance (LSD) training.

Constant pressure was a game changer for me! Doing a Z2 ride at constant pressure is real work!

If you want constant pressure training where you don’t stop peddling, get on a track bike for an hour

I sit on an indoor trainer. 20kg flywheel. I routinely ride two hours, sometimes more, without stopping. No spinning. Cadence 60 rpm at close to 4 watts/kg. In two hours I'll drink 3 litres of electrolyte. No food needed. HR in Zone 2. After around 50 minutes my power increases while my HR lowers, same cadence! Constant pressure. Outside ride is for fun but it's too uncontrolled for training purposes.

A couple important things that weren't mentioned in the video. - Nutrition: Proper fueling before, during, and after a training ride. - Pacing: Riding easy enough to complete the goal duration. - Recovery: Giving you're body time to make adaptations to the stimulus. If you have a busy life and you deal with a lot of "life stress". You might be better off using one day of your weekend for a "long ride" and the other day for a short 1-2 hour ride.

Headwind rides will whip you into shape. And work great for constant pressure

Great tips! I have a friend who is a very accomplished cyclist, but he lives in an area with a lot of climbs, so while he's a very good climber, he freewheels on the way down. So when he comes here to Florida during the winter, he has a very hard time staying on the pedals for even 2 hours because he's used to giving his legs a rest pretty often. We don't have any climbs in Florida that are so big you can freewheel for any real length of time, so we're good time trialists because we're used to pedaling constantly. That being said, what people are going to find is that it's not easy maintaining the same wattage going down a hill as going up. It's really easy to keep a 200-250 watt average up a climb, but trying to keep that wattage going downhill? Good luck. My endurance wattage is around 175, and even that wattage going down a hill takes some effort. But I've been using the polarized training method for a long time, so I'm used to staying in my endurance zone whether I'm going uphill, downhill, or on a flat road. Lastly, if you're going to build endurance, you have to stop caring what other people are going to think about your Strava stats. Those stats are there for you, and you only. There's nothing wrong with coming home with a 16 or 17mph avg because you did an endurance ride.

I remember the first video I watched on your channel a few years ago. You talked about constant pressure. I was a notorious free wheeler. Changing my style of riding was the best thing I ever did for my fitness. Riding indoors helped to get myself more accustomed to it. It takes a bit of mental discipline.

Constant pressure is a bit tricky if I go out in the mountains here in Japan. Often 2-300 meters of climbing, but double digit gradients with very technical descents. You're taking your life into your hands if you pedal down that :-) On the plus side, you usually get a good 5-10 km between significant hills and the descents don't take *that* much time. Plus, I just move my endurance training into my hands as I desperately brake!

I mostly ride on my own so I was following these advices already without knowing it. Did a four hour ride today and stopping time was maybe five minutes or less. Constant pressure is my way to get up my time but now I understand the pros of it much better. Great video and advice! 👍

I learned constant pressure from you, zone 2 is something I’ve been working on now for the last year and my riding has improved significantly.

I remember after Frank Shorter won the '72 Olympics, he was asked about his training, he said, every one runs hard up the hills and coasts down the back, he runs hard up and down the hills. I guess that is an analogy to your constant pressure.

@roadcyclingacademy i went on my normal ride today and followed your advice and used constant pressure. Felt amazing! Big thanks 👍

Great one Cam, yes hard to do constant pressure for a few hours. It’s super hard to do it down hill. The steep hills that is.my last peaks I did 25min stopping time.

I have always used a fixed gear/Track bike or indoor Spin Bike to get continuous pedal pressure at specific watts per my training requirements.

I ride mostly alone so I don't have to deal with others asking to stop....or faffing around

Great content thanks RCA team for the late Chrissie present! 🎁 I enjoy outside time more for the scenery and the vitamin D but this is a solid reminder that nothing packs in more value than constant pressure on an indoor trainer session. Resisting those sausage rolls at those bakeries in the hills can be hard too 😅

This year it is 30 years I started this best hobby a man can have. From the beginning, I never ever freewheeled downhill, I always rode as fast as my legs let me go - a fast descent was (and still is) my reward for the hard yards uphill. Especially since I found a descent where I can go up to 60 mph downhill, but also when I ride slower, it is always a great satisfaction for me when I can hold cars behind me. I found out that i can go remarkable faster downhill when I rode uphill on the big chainring before.

One thing is using Zwift and doing rides. The 2/3 rule definitely applies as you are freewheeling unless you are heading down the Alpe or Vontoux. Most of the downhills require pedaling or you will slow down quickly.

In some of the comments below, people identify how hard it can feel to do long zone II rides. I’ve found the magic for me is doing it on my trainer in erg mode with a great movie or two on. It takes my mind off of the slow grind…and helps me get better.

Agree 100%, all my outdoor rides I only stop for red lights and slow down for stop signs, I have everything on me or the bike. But here, in north suburds of Montreal there's not that many places where you can refill the bottles, it's a pain.

Good video, and constant pressure is good for training but objectively not the fastest. Since aero drag scales exponentially with your speed, pushing an additional 10W gives you more benefit at slow speed than at high speed. In a TT you should always push slightly harder going uphill or into a headwind, and recover slightly when going downhill or in a tailwind.

Re: actual pedaling time on flat vs hilly terrain, this is my experience: I started doing (recreational) road riding about a year ago, and I noticed that long, flat rides tended to be more 'uncomfortable' than rolling terrain of the same time duration, which was against my expectation. Even though I tend to keep pedaling down the hills, I think now, in retrospective, this change in pace and posture is what's the main thing missing on flat rides, because I tend to spend more time in the same position, and that's what is causing problems on longer rides, rather than sole effort accumulated. What's bad for training (no "constant pressure" + freewheeling a lot), I think is good for the "big day", when you want to maximize resilience.

Thanks for the information. I'm starting constant pressure today. However, it's a little bit scarry pedaling on descends with constant pressure. Without pedaling I gain 50, 60 km/h... with pressure I can reach up to 80 km/h on the mountains. I'm not confident after 60 km/h. Thanks again for the information.

giong up hard and easy down is the fastest way you get over a hill. On the hard/slow side nearly every watt is going into speed. on the downhill you have to fight the wind. The faster you go the harder you have to push to get even faster. But you also win a hell lot of time when you push extra hard over the top until you reach your desceding speed. But for training: stick to your zones

Never thought about stopping time. Thank you

It’s winter in northern Pennsylvania. The spin bike in my basement gives me great constant pressure and the ability to change resistance. Looking forward to spring

Thanks RCA there are no easy ways to get fit just keep at it getting in the miles using a fixed gear for a part of winter training helps loved the common sense video RCA.

My weak spot!!! Great topic.

I've been pushing as such since the 80's when I lived in the U.S. San Jose Ca. I'd just keep on pushing until I'm ready to brake, all the while I'll still be pedalling, I'll find some reserves and go at it again until I get my 2nd wind, then I'm good again.

My approach re consistent pressure is do it indoors as less chances of stoppage and can go as long as you like and also adding in a fixed gear bike IRL every now and then. I also find riding alone great for endurance as your not sucking along in the wheels getting over stated speed averages for way less effort.

I never freewheel even if I have to spin 110rpm downhill. Been doing weekly 4 hour rides for years, doing few blocks of back to back long days on weekend still gave a great boost on my endurance and teaches you fueling. Now working on doing some tempo on the last hour of a long ride. Lots of ways to progress.

What will help is doing efforts up a long 7 k climb. My best is ×4 times. I freewheel down this climb as it very twisty & bumpy & then there is the wild life . Usually head out 4 another 45/60 minutes depending on the Wind . Very Windy in the town & surrounding towns down here in Victoria However on other long rides with hills l continue with the pedal pressure

2-3 hours of constant pressure/pedaling in training translates into at least 4-5 hours on an event ride or long day ride with stops and/or a bit of energy saving coasting. Basically it enables you to simulate the longer rides in a shorter time slot. You want your training to be efficient and effective, and then be able to preserve your energy throughout the longer event/day ride. You have to train the one way, then do it pretty much the opposite way on the big ride, assuming you're 'riding, not racing'. 👍

Been doing constant pressure for some time now, only problem is long double digit descents when my legs can't keep up the pressure - a good bit to go then tuck, not far to go then light spin often adjusting gears for the next part of the route. After a fair bit of riding I may come across about a 1% descent - stretch out the legs and stand and contort the body - nutrition and hydration then back at it refreshed with no stops.

Good video and tips overall. I do take issue with anyone who says constant pressure is as fast over rolling terrain as pushing on hills. This is patently not true, and shows a misunderstanding of the basic math of average pace.

constant pressure = zwift/indoor, its interesting looking at cadence outdoor vs indoor, due to stops etc, outdoor is a jagged graph up and down, where indoor cadence is constant TT mode. big benefit, you guys probably need to re-contextualize your z2 endurance approach into how indoor can build supreme z2 power and hr ... no interruptions. It translates to real world cycling extremely well.

Constant pressure? Ride on rollers. You have to keep pedaling (unless you hold on to something). Simple and inexpensive way to train. Great way to gauge fitness gains (or loss) too because outdoor variables - road condition, wind, weather, etc - are eliminated.

This is where people that live in the flatlands have an advantage as there is rarely any free wheeling unless you have a massive tailwind

When I train on flat terrain I use a fixed gear bike, and once I ride hills I use a road bike so I’m constantly pedaling on the fixed

What's the point in riding for 6 hours without a cafe stop? I could do it easily but it would be a pretty joyless ride.

I've got into doing 20 minutes of pushing in 1 or 2 gears higher than normal, now only 5 weeks later I'm up to 30 minutes with 10 minutes rest, I say rest it's more lighter gear to spin the legs out. Regards stopping time it's more a case of stop get water and go, I tend to eat and drink on the go ( ever 15 to 20 minutes ) " get comfortable with being uncomfortable "

I tried constant pressure today on my ride and it was hard! I think I did ok, but need to work on it going forward.

I noticed huge improvements when, on group rides, I stayed at the front for the majority of the time. No coasting, constant pressure for sure.

To do this, you also need the right material. No compact crank, better larger chainrings to be able to pedal at higher speeds. But then bigger cassettes. At the same time, the efficiency of the drive also increases.

Thx for the video. What is about SFR Training in Zone 3? Zwift f.e. often claims that Z3 low frequency intervals will boost the endurance🤔

If you spend half of the ride climbing a big hill and the other half descending that big hill, the time spent doing each is not 50/50 as these guys gloss over.

The best way for your buddy to maximize his 100k fitness is to ride a 100k 3 or 4 weekends consecutively. Each week the body will adapt on the molecular level enhancing the progression. By the fourth week he'll be riding 60 miles like a champ.

I like to ride constant pressure zone 2 big ring riding. Have you got any socks with the logo Constant on one sock and Pressure on the other 😄

Another great RCA discussion! Ta. Helps remind me how to best use my Cervelo RCA investment, too. Did ACDC ask who made who? RCA or RCA; Cervelo started that before 2012, btw. ;-) It sounds a little like you're suggesting that a lot of rider's biggest struggle is with the act of thinking wisely, for themselves, especially when taxing their bodies. Perhaps not so much 'riding wisely'! Does improved riding only come from good habit-forming, only after focused adaptation? I may overthink too many things but under-thinking? No, thanks, that's not something I want to adapt to doing. I've learned the hard way that it pays to always be very switched on when riding, no ABS brakes (yet), no seatbelts, and no crumple zones on any bike. You snooze, you loose. Drivers try to guarantee that for us. 50 years of cycling hasn't hurt either, I guess, but, I am still always readapting. Life is full of ups and downs, not only on the roads. Returning now to riding after a fractured skull thanks to an assault. Step by step, readapt. My 17yo decision to go with 60/46T & 13-28t gearing taught me to always pedal downhill, even if my buddies always tried to use my slipstream. What a blast, 60, 70, 86kph. Sounds like our world of specialisation has so many riders not using their own brains when they ride while they have their 'time off' from their daily grind. Being switched on throughout a ride is also an adaption that successful cycling requires. Perhaps they sit at the back of their group and never see any wind either! Want more time on your bike during the week, commute! I've done 5 x 20kms x 2 & 3 x 30kms x 3 and what a benefit that brought, though an 8:15pm bedtime was tough for a 4:15am wake-up for those 30kay rides until I relearned just what a joy traffic free roads could bring to riding.

Track or fixed gear training always helps training endurance and smoothness

Live in Florida and all we have is flat with a lot of wind. constant pressure is second nature for us.

Just recently started cycling. I'm still in early training and my quads burn out sooner than I'd like. My breathing and heart rate are just fine though. I never get exhausted just sore too soon.

for optimal aerobic adaptation i would recommend people ride to heart rate (zone 2) rather than power, as heart-rate will probably drift into zone 3 or 4 over the course of 4 hours.

The indoor trainer I use in my gym go into stand by if you stop peddling and I've been in the just an average of 9 hours a week for the whole of winter ill be interested to find out how much it changes my road riding

I would love to have seen Cameron do this 30 years ago when I peaked .

if you're worried about going to fast to pedal going down hill you can also take speed off with the brakes a little

Coming from fixed gear I always pedal and actually have to force myself to coast a bit when I see my heart going over 180 just so I can catch a little break 😂 different people same problems just opposite 😅

Neat 👌

I maintain constant wattage up or down hills.... that's why we have gears....

Well, at least one thing in my training is top! My vicinity is completely flat, so the pressure is constantly on as long as I take roads with a minimum of traffic lights which I obviously do.

I'm from the USA. I've never seen a 100K Gran Fondo offered here. 65 miles is typically a Medio Fondo.

Does Constant Pressure mean that the force exerted on the pedals should be consistent regarldess of gradient etc, or is it enough to have some pressure exerted on the pedals at all times without too much concern for how much pressure? Thanks

Did you remember that it's winter here in Germany? Driving outside is hardly possible, at least here in the south, due to snow and ice. Just for your info. 😉😊

It's actually easier to keep going instead of stopping and starting, plus you get home earlier!

What's usually lactate numbers in a Zone 2? Up to 2mmol?

Is it ok to coast (freewheel) now and then, for a few seconds, to recover and let the lactic acid dissipate? Or, is it more that if you need to recover, you're doing it wrong and are not really in Zone 2?

OK i;m a bit confused. If you can break up a 4-6 hour ride over two days and get the same benefetis then by that logic doing 4 1 hour rides on consecutive days is the equivalent of doing a 4 hour ride?

If im overloading on the weekend and all my weekday rides are 1hr, what should those 1hr rides be? Z2? Something else?

For me - it's not hard to do 150-180 km keeping that 30--31 kmh (solo), but hard to squeeze the sprints. As for endurance - just don't forget to fuel yourself.

Minimum stopping time How long should you stop ( in minutes) I ride 2.5 hours 6 days a week with an average stopping time of 5 minutes per stop. Mostly to rehydrate,nature break or minor mechanical As for continuous pedaling. I'm working on that. Like you said it is hard but getting easier. It's more out of habit to freewheel.. At least for me

It seems best to do Z2 training rides indoors...

I would boil everything down to average speed. Work on that and you'll naturally have to do things like applying constant pressure, if you want to get faster.

I find zone 2 very difficult. 2 hours of mid to high sweet spot is way easier for me than 2-3 hours endurance. It's uncomfortable and boring. Low or mid zone 2 for long periods is just impossible until my effective FTP is much lower after 3-4 hours of hard efforts. I can't hold it.

Ok, got a question on constant pressure vs cadence in something like a Z2 ride. I find that currently, I need to be in a harder gear and pedal slower to keep in Z2 (at least on flatish) as spinning faster in an easier gear seems to raise my HR.. I guess my question is how much pressure is constant pressure? is it anything other than just pure freewheeling? Thanks!!

I don’t freewheel down hills at 6 mph and I have yet to find a climb I can get half way up by freewheeling. I gave up at this point.

All the points about endurance are very relevant. However the guy on the left made a huge mistake about cyclists being faster by pushing harder on descent to be faster overall. Actually the exact opposite is true. It is much more efficient to push harder on the climb because aerodynamics forces opposing your progression are much lower at lower speed (ascent) than during the descent. In other words the extra watts that you put out on the way down get you drastically diminishing returns compared to the watts on the climb.

I find constant pressure difficult to do also. I don't know how you guys can do it going down a hill. Are you all blasting down at 80kph? I don't know what cadence is acceptable when I'm trying to train for it. I look at all the hitters in my area and I can see they can do it at 90rpm going downhill and with power. Are they riding the brakes to get that resistance? Whenever I try it I end up spinning out to 150rpm.

think like Fausto Coppi which means never wanting to get off your bike then distances become really easy

When we stop on a group ride, I feel shit when I start again. My legs just can’t get going again. Mind you we don’t stop that often on our rides unless we have weaker riders with us.

my best friend for constant pressure is Z2 training on trainer.. At first didnt realise how difficult it is going on a trainer for Z2 for 1 hour, compared to a tempo on the road but it has really brought my endurance up over time

What do you do if you're riding 24 hours on the first day, get an hour and a half of sleep, ride another 28 hours, sleep for an hour and a half, then you wear out about 12 hours in. How do you build the endurance for the third day? I can do a 100K, 200K, 300K, 400K, 600K. But I had problems with 1200K. I can't see doing this kind of distance every weekend.

Unless you live somewhere fairly flat with no stoplights or stop signs, constant pressure doesn't seem to be very practical IRL. However, indoors on the trainer? Very doable. Applying the power nonstop for an hour or two, even if doing Z2, is deceptively hard work.

If you can hold constant pressure on a trainer for 4 hours does that mean 4 hours with freewheeling outdoors should feel easier?

I have seen a road cyclist riding quickly up a hill in training but I caught up as they hit a careless resident coming out of a side street .

Ride a fixie on the road. Then you will know how much you don't pedal. But pick your route carefully.

5:28 I get it that they compare constant pressure to pedaling hard uphill and not pedaling at all downhill - but the fastest way is to somewhat increase the power up and recover on a downhill, while still doing some work, but less (well, unless you are going some 60+ km/h - depending on your aerodynamics - at which point it's faster to tuck in without pedaling at all)

Ride FIXED GEAR regularly for Z2 Rides: non-stop pedaling, et voilà

I have a great ability to ride for hours and hours. Never could get faster. Rode 10,000 miles last year and average speed only went up 2kph . So annoying!

Fun looks painful if it is all about best time over a distance or best distance in a given time period .

Ride fixed!

5:50 sorry but I disagree with this. If you go a little harder uphill (let's say +5 km/h compared to zone 2) and a little easier downhill (zone 1, let's say -10 km/h), your average speed will be higher. This happens because the time you spend going up is much more than the time you spend going down, especially if the hill is steep (5% or more). For example going up at 15 km/h and go down at 40 km/h is faster than going up at 10 km/h and going down at 50 km/h. If you go up for 1km, it will take you 4 minutes to go up and 90 seconds to go down in the first case, but 6 minutes to go up and 72 seconds to go down in the second case. Basically going up slower will take more time (6 minutes) than going up faster *and* going down slower (4 min + 90 secs). Of course this is not good if you are training zone 2 because you might go to zone 3 or 4 uphill, but it will increase your average speed.

Not everyone can do constant pressure, I can't, my FTP is so low I can't get up any significant hill without going way above my zone 2 power zone, even going very slowly while in the granny gear. I do pedal down hill though.

This shows its a matter of economical and cultural class and definitely not race

Improving endurance is quite vague. Typically performance goes down by 50% when power is increased 7-8%. So what does endurance mean. Being able to ride 200W for 2 hours is about the same endurance as riding 185W for four hours. Pushing this to 195W equals 210W for 2 hours.

I’m just curious, is there a difference between taking a 1 minute rest between every hour to so for say a 3-4 hr indoor ride, vs taking a single slightly longer rest (5mins) midway? This assuming constant z2 power fluctuating between your 60-70% ftp.

I once saw Cameron get overtaken easily in a group . It made me laugh .

Don't be afraid to drag your brakes to manage your speed so you can more safely peddle.

No free spins on the Peloton ‼️💯

If you're doing constant pressure, you never get to force others to hear your stupidly loud freehub. NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRN!!!!