Endurance is the ability of a person to exert himself/herself and remain active for a long period of time, as well as its ability to resist, withstand, recover from, and have immunity to trauma, wounds, or fatigue. There are no shortcuts to improving your endurance, all it takes hours and hours on your ride over a period of time along with training that is more focused and smarter and a will to push yourself then you won’t need to spend an inordinate amount of time slugging out the miles.
One important factor to always keep in mind before you tackle longer miles is to ensure that you’ve fuelled up properly; so, a good breakfast or a good pre ride meal and/or energy products and drink to get you through the ride. Make sure you are fuelling little and often, to ensure your glycogen stores are topped up. An ideal time would be every 20 minutes to half an hour if it is a four-hour ride.
Teaching your body to go longer is a talent that has to be earned. If you do have a tendency to do too much, then lose motivation, ride yourself into illness or always feel you’re the only person who never seems to progress, take heart.
It is possible for anyone to extend their endurance and achieve 100k, 100 miles or more. There is no stopping you.
Spokeherd is here to help you with some tips and tricks to boost your endurance on bike to ride long distances with ease:
Aim at Increasing the Length of your Rides.
Over time, from day to day, from week to week, you should aim to increase the duration of time that you spend on your bicycle riding. Biking endurance will come from extending your limits, pushing your own self and the longer you are able to cycle in a single session, the better your stamina will develop.
Interval Training Sessions.
A good way to build stamina is to change the intensity of your sessions and switching up sprints and more gentle rides in one period. What this does is that your body is tested to the limit and is not allowed to fall into the rhythm of any particular speed or incline, hence increasing your stamina and endurance.
Increase your Carbohydrate intake
To develop your endurance, you need to make sure that before long rides you have one or two days where you stock up that carbohydrate foods are eaten every three hours, with plenty of water consumed with each meal. This carbo hydrate loading will help you stock up with muscle glycogen, but only if you ride very easy on these days. Carbo-loading but hammering short, sharp rides because you feel good will not maximize glycogen.
Be Consistent
It will be bad for your own body if you don’t get into a routine of cycling, both physically and mentally. Taking too long of a break between sessions will lead to frequent muscle injuries, and it can also lead to a lack of motivation. Committing to a regular schedule is one of the best ways to improve stamina.
Cycle in Groups
One of the best ways to stay motivated and entertained is to cycle in a large group rather than cycling alone. Exercising with other people is a great way to inspire yourself to keep going, because it won’t be as easy to cancel your session for the day if there are other people relying on you. It is also a way to make the cycling much more fun and less solitary; you can make friends whilst also improving your stamina.
Follow the above-mentioned tips and build your stamina.
Happy Cycling!
