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Home / Training / Off-season Training / Long bike rides are key for triathletes: how far and fast should you cycle?

Long bike rides are key for triathletes: how far and fast should you cycle?

Long bike rides are a crucial component of triathlon training. Find out how hard and how long to ride to prepare for your target triathlon distance.

Woman cyclist riding ahead of four male riders
Credit: Getty Images

Long bike rides are a staple of many triathletes’ training  programmes, especially during the off-season. 

But come winter, it can be tempting to move your bike training to the turbo trainer.  You’d be right to as  well – for many reasons. 

Training indoors is warmer and safer. You’ll avoid wet and icy roads, potholes and low light.  Training indoors is easier and much less faff as well. There’s less clothing involved, you can crack on with a session with little to no planning and you don’t need to clean your bike afterwards. 

However ditch the outdoors cycling completely and you’ll be missing out on some valuable  benefits. This is why many triathletes will use the turbo trainer for targeted mid-week sessions but then still head out for an adventure come the weekend. 

Why is this? And what benefits are there to be gained by spending most of Sunday morning out on the road? 

To break it down, let’s take a look at the three main reasons why long bike rides are so important for triathletes. Get ready to find out about the three Ps – Physiology,  Psychology and Practicality.

Physiology

three smiling cyclists stopped at roadside
The social element of long rides is a bonus in itself (Credit: Getty Images)

Any form of specific endurance  training undertaken for a prolonged period of time exerts a profound effect on long-term success in that sport. 

To become well-adapted to any physical task, we have to ingrain its movement patterns into our neuromuscular system and strengthen the postural muscles that hold our body in the correct position. 

We also need to stimulate growth of the tissues and systems (like muscle fibres and  blood vessels) that provide the infrastructure needed to increase output.  

These don’t happen overnight. To see effects, a consistent application of pressure over a long  period is required. 

Think of how tiring and uncomfortable you found it sitting on a road bike at first. Only by repeatedly going out and riding for longer and longer periods of time did you start to feel more at home.  

This would never have happened  fully had you not gone out for more  than half an hour at a time, even if you rode relatively briskly. 

The long ride is crucial to first build and then maintain the attributes that make us successful endurance athletes.

Pressurising the body to adapt and become fitter through volume overload – lots of hours at a steady pace – often improves our ability to use less oxygen at a given power output (economy) and use fat more effectively as a fuel (fuel utilisation). 

There’s also an increasing school of thought that says a few glycogen-depleted long sessions a  month also forces the body to use fat, which is ideal as we have that in plentiful supply.  

The Psychology 

Group of cyclists climbing hill in winter
Long training rides build mental strength requisite for racing (Credit: Getty Images)

Triathlons are long. Even a sprint-distance event takes more than an hour to complete and  means racing as hard as you can for over 30mins on the bike. 

Training rides that are longer than race distance are an important psychological crutch for many of us. It means that there’s no niggling doubt about whether you can go the distance come race day.  

Many Ironman athletes will ride over five or six hours relatively regularly – mostly for the physiological adaptations that this stimulates.

But it’s also great to know that they have the willpower to keep turning the pedals for that long without stopping. 

As the long ride is often a talking point among training partners (“How far did you go at  the weekend?”), there’s also an ego boost to be gained by putting in some monster mileage!  

The Practicality 

Shot looking over woman's shoulder on to TV showing Zwift ride
Time-crunched triathletes will need to ride inside too at higher intensity (Credit: Wattbike)

For most of us who aren’t pro athletes, training for an endurance sport inevitably leads to some level of compromise. 

Often we can’t put in the kind of training hours we’d like to every day of the week. 

This inevitably means less overall volume of training than is ideal. 

So when the weekend comes round and there’s a little more time available, fitting in a long ride  seems both logical and feasible. 

For a number of clubs, the long Sunday ride is as much a social event as a training session, a scenario that’s likely to encourage long rides on a frequent basis. Happy riding.

How long should triathletes ride for?

The main determinant here is time. If you are time-limited, then you’ll have to ride shorter, harder sessions. If you have more time available, some ultra-long sets will no doubt be of benefit. 

Sprint  

For sprint-distance athletes, riding for between 90-120mins will be more than adequate. 

While many will compete after much shorter training rides than this, the physiological benefits – fat burning and economy of movement – are hard to achieve without riding for this long on a regular basis.  

Olympic  

Regular 2-3hr rides are common for more competitive Olympic-distance racers

These can be up to three times the length spent in the saddle during races, but are lower in intensity, so the overall stress on the body is similar. 

They must be coupled with some high-intensity interval training, though. 

If you only ride long and slow, you’ll struggle to blast out a fast 40km TT.  

Long  

Athletes competing in half and full Ironman events often spend upwards of four hours out on the bike  ‘putting the miles in’. 

There’s much debate around the value of long, slow miles. In reality, a combination of sessions just below, at and just above long-distance race pace is probably ideal.

Long-session essential kit

Three cyclists descending a hill wearing jackets
Descents can be very cold in winter – bring a jacket (Credit: Getty Images)

Here’s everything you need for a comfortable ride! 

Tuck one into  your back pocket  in case you get caught out.  

  • Mobile phone and money

A waterproofed phone case is  essential for calling in assistance in the event of an incident or  mechanical. 

And carry a few quid or a card for more food – or a taxi/train ticket if abandoning early.  

  • Fluids and snacks 

We only generally store enough glycogen for about an hour of exertion. So energy bars and energy gels or a sports drink are essential for fueling longer rides and stop you from hitting  the wall.

  • Spare inner tubes and tools 

You need to be  able to fix basic issues by the roadside to get you home should things go wrong.  

Punctures and snapped chains are the most common faults. 

  • Chamois cream

Paste it onto the pad of your cycle shorts to reduce  chafing and keep  your bum happy  on a long ride.  
The best anti-chafing creams often contain antibacterial agents to prolong the life of your best cycling bib shorts.

Profile image of James Witts James Witts Freelance sports writer and author

About

Former 220 Triathlon magazine editor James is a cycling and sports writer and editor who's been riding bikes impressively slowly since his first iridescent-blue Peugeot road bike back in the 80s. He's a regular contributor to a number of cycling and endurance-sports publications, plus he's authored four books: The Science of the Tour de France: Training secrets of the world’s best cyclists, Bike Book: Complete Bicycle Maintenance, Training Secrets of the World's Greatest Footballers: How Science is Transforming the Modern Game, and Riding With The Rocketmen: One Man's Journey on the Shoulders of Cycling Giants