thecyclist

I've been training and racing this summer doing intervals during the week and longer "endurance" rides on the weekend, usually around 40-60mi. I have been doing these rides at 100% time trial effort trying to get a faster time, should I be riding a little below an all out time trial effort or is it just as the harder you go the better?

euphoria

you're investing too much effort over too long a distance, making your output neither here nor there. A true 100% TT effort shouldn't be able to be held for longer than an hour. You can ride 'tempo' for about two hours, which should hurt a little but not sting with lactic acid. Three or more hours should be ridden at endurance pace which should feel nice and breezy most of the time (this trains the aerobic fat burning engine and adapts your legs to longer hours). The intervals make you faster in each of these areas. Conserving your effort appropriately allows repeatibility and prevents overtraining/overreaching.

Do you train with heart rate?

thecyclist

yes and for those 40mi rides my avg hr ends up being around 183 for 2hrs, its harder than a tempo ride, would I get more benefit from riding at tempo?

45suited

183? How old are you? That seems really high.

thecyclist

15

45suited

Well then that makes sense. If you don't know what your maximum heart rate is then I would find out. Then on endurance days stay below 80% of your max.