Speed vs Distance: Which Is Best When Training for an Endurance Ride?

If you’re training for an endurance ride, you might be wondering where your focus should lie in training. Should you invest more energy into riding faster or longer? Well, if you want to build cycling endurance, there’s no getting around it: you’ll need to put in the long miles. But that doesn’t mean that you should neglect speedwork. 

Knowing when to push the pace and when to prioritize steady cycling is key to success in any long-distance cycling event. So here’s how to increase your cycling stamina as you prepare for your next grand fondo or multi-day cycling event.

What is a Speed Workout?

A speed workout in cycling is all about increasing your power output, enabling you to sustain a higher intensity. You’ll typically cycle at a high intensity for a short period of time or distance, followed by a period of recovery. 

Speed workouts come in various forms. Some examples of the types of speed sessions you might see on a cycling plan include:

• Threshold intervals (riding at or just below your threshold power)

• Tempo rides (sustained efforts at around 75-85% of your maximum heart rate)

• High-intensity interval training (HIIT)

Speed workouts increase your lactate threshold and your VO2 max (both of which help you to push hard for longer before fatigue sets in). That means that you’ll be able to maintain faster speeds for longer with less effort, giving you a bigger and more efficient engine for endurance events.

What is Long Distance When Cycling?

Long distance riding emphasizes endurance over intensity – meaning long rides at a steady pace. ‘Long’ is all relative and depends on your fitness levels and cycling goals, but it could be anything from 18 miles over a couple of hours to 7+ hours and substantial distances. 

These types of rides help to build muscular and cardiovascular endurance, as well as helping you to train your body to efficiently use energy stores over long periods of time.

Why is Speed Important when Training?

When training for an endurance event, it can be tempting to only focus on easy-paced rides and neglect speedwork. But that would be a mistake. While long rides build your base endurance, speed work is also an important part of any endurance cycling training plan in several important ways:

Maintains Fitness Levels

When you do speed sessions, your body has to work harder than during steady rises. That can translate into overall fitness gains, improving your VO2 max, muscle strength, metabolic fitness and even improve your mental strength, helping you to push through when times get tough.

Clock Up the Miles Quicker

Speed workouts are short and fast, meaning they’re easier to fit into your week than long rides. And when you take that time to improve your speed, you’ll be able to maintain a higher pace for a longer time, meaning you can clock up more miles, faster.

Build Muscle and Strength

When you push hard during speed workouts, your muscles develop in ways they don’t during easier rides. Whether it’s hill climbs or tough interval sessions, speedwork helps to strengthen the main muscles you use for cycling, namely your quads, hamstrings and glutes. This translates to having more power when you need it most during long rides, from climbing up long hills to fighting against a headwind.

Perfect Your Positioning

When you cycle at higher speeds, you need to pay more attention to riding with proper form. Regular speedwork encourages you to find your most efficient riding position, keeping your upper body relaxed, body leaning forward, and positioning your hands correctly on the bar – and these form improvements carry over to your long-distance rides, helping you to ride more efficiently and effectively.

Why is Distance Important when Training?

Speedwork is important for building power, but if you’re training for a long-distance ride, the cornerstone of your training needs to be endurance rides. It helps to build a strong aerobic base, and trains both your body and mind to help you not only conquer challenging long-distance events – but enjoy them, too.

Teaches How to Set a Pace

Long rides are the perfect training ground to check what works and what doesn’t when it comes to pacing. When you spend a lot of time in the saddle, you’ll learn what speed feels comfortable and what’s too hard to keep up for the whole ride. This is crucial when it comes to long-distance races because if you go out too hard, it can lead to suffering later on in the ride. 

Avoid Burnout on Race Day

There’s nothing that prepares you for a long ride quite like doing long rides. Being out for hours on end can be both mentally and physically challenging, but cycling for long durations can help to make sure you’re prepared for both aspects. When you’ve already cycled 50, 80 or 100 miles in training, it becomes much less daunting to do it on race day – so you’re far less likely to hit the dreaded wall.

Increases Stamina

Long rides are essential for increasing the efficiency of your heart and lungs, as well as helping your body to become better at using fat as fuel. That means you can maintain the same effort over extended periods, so you can keep going for longer.

Checks Comfort of Bike & Cycling Gear

You should never try anything new on race day – so it’s essential to make sure that both your bike and cycling clothing are comfortable during your training and that will translate to race day. There are some things like a slightly uncomfortable saddle that might simply be a minor discomfort during short rides, but they can become frustrating or worse – painful – during a long ride. Testing your planned race day kit and set-up during long training rides gives you the chance to identify any potential issues and resolve them before the big day.

What is the 75 Rule in Cycling?

The 75% rule is a training principle for endurance cycling training which suggests that 75% of your training should be done at or below your maximum heart rate. That means the bulk of your training should be steady paced, with 25% hitting a higher heart rate zone – that’s where your speed training comes in. 

This works as:

• Low-intensity cycling builds your aerobic base

• High-intensity training gives you cardiovascular and muscular gains, helping to develop your speed and power output

• The ratio of speed:distance workouts prevents you from becoming overly fatigued or burnt out, while improving both your pace and endurance abilities

Which is Best?

When you’re training for an endurance event, there’s no question that you should be including both speed and endurance work in your training – it’s just a matter of how to prioritize them in your training plan.

Distance Should be Priority

For endurance events, distance training should form the foundation of your training. Speedwork is critical for helping you to improve your pace, but there’s nothing like training for long distances if you want to ride long distances. 

It builds the physical adaptations you need to handle long events, as well as giving you the chance to test and refine nutrition, hydration and gear you need under real-world conditions – as well as preparing mentally for hours in the saddle.

Speed Should be Secondary

Speedwork is important – but it shouldn’t be the primary focus of your training plan if you’re preparing for an endurance event. It’s crucial for improving your lactate threshold and VO2 max, but low-intensity rides are the key to building your aerobic base and stamina over time.

To get the most out of your training, aim to include 1-2 speed sessions a week in your endurance cycling training plan. This will help to build both the speed and the endurance you need to go the distance in your event – and hopefully with a smile on your face.