Two Short Rides or One Long Ride: Which is Better For Training?
by Jim Rutberg,
CTS Pro Coach,
co-author of “Ride Inside“ and
“The Time-Crunched Cyclist”
We received a question about short or long rides and thought we’d answer it for everyone.
Here’s the question:
“Would it be preferable to ride 6 hours in one day with a day off following, or 2 days back to back for 3 hours? Obviously a person can ride harder each day for 3 hours but if the objective is staying in the middle of the endurance zone and that can be maintained for 6 hours is there a difference in benefit?”
There are a lot of training aspects we could focus on just from that short paragraph. The crux of the question is whether it’s better to ride at a higher power output for two shorter rides, or a lower power output for one steadier ride. The short answer is that both scenarios have a place in your training, but for different reasons. Here’s what I mean:
NOTE: This specific question is about 3-hr and 6-hr rides. “Short” and “long” are relative based on your fitness and experience level. For simplicity sake I’m going to stick with the 3- and 6-hour example. It is also important to realize these are generalized recommendations meant for moderately-fit amateur athletes. Ideally, all training is designed specifically for the demands of your goal event, your current training load, experience level, and fitness level.
Two Back-to-Back “Shorter” Rides
Generally speaking you can ride at a higher average power and higher normalized power during a 3-hr ride compared to a 6-hr ride. Even if you’re aiming at staying in an endurance training zone, you will still have a higher overage power over 3 hours compared to 6 because fatigue will cause you to slow down in the final hours of the longer ride. But what does that mean for your training?
Endurance is rarely your limiting factor
Even if you’re training for a long endurance event, aerobic endurance is rarely a limiting factor. A moderately-trained athlete can reach the finish line of almost any endurance event. Your training will affect how fast you finish and how enjoyable the event is, but for the audience reading this blog, you have the endurance to finish already. More generalized endurance won’t improve your performance; specific energy system work (particularly increasing Functional Threshold Power) will. This means I prefer to focus training on maximizing training quality (higher power output, more time-at-intensity) so you can get to the finish faster, more comfortably, and achieve your performance goals.
Shorter sessions are easier to recover from
Even though you’re going to go harder during a shorter ride, you will be able to recover more quickly from that session compared to a much longer ride. Your overall kilojoule count will be lower. You’re going to be able to replenish your hydration status and caloric expenditure more easily, and you’ll be more functional for the remainder of your day (a valid concern for amateur athletes who have a long list of things to accomplish on weekend days).
Of course, this is not always the case. You could go ballistic for 3 hours and come back as shattered as you might be from a more moderate 6-hr ride. You could suffer from heat stress and hydration issues in a hard 3-hr session, too. But in most typical cases, the shorter sessions are easier to recover from. This means your ride the next day can also be a high-quality training session.
Shorter rides add training stress incrementally
This also brings up the idea of frequency in training. Rides induce training stress, and rest allows time for adaptation. But fitness also decays as you rest, which is why the amount of time between training sessions becomes important. For the rider who can choose between one long ride per week or two shorter rides, two rides per week will often prove more beneficial. Even with the big dose of training stimulus from, say, a long Sunday ride, you’ll reach a point where the fitness decay over 6 days of rest is equal to or greater than the training stimulus from your last ride. Your fitness will stagnate or plateau. Increasing frequency (with adequate rest days between rides) lets you add stimulus incrementally.
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Shorter rides are effective for improving power and speed
If your goal is to get ready for a great performance at a goal event or in pursuit of a personal goal, only do as much work as you need to do. Extra work at ineffective intensities just add fatigue, which you have to recover from before you can train effectively again. It has been proven time and again that improved power at aerobic, lactate threshold, and VO2 max intensities can be accomplished with relatively short rides that include intervals to accumulate time-at-intensity.
Particularly for higher intensities (lactate threshold and above), the maximum time an athlete can ride effectively at a given effort level is limited, and once you have maxed out that time, the goal of the workout is accomplished and you can be done. Improving lactate threshold power will make your performance in long – even ultradistance – events better. As I’ll explain below, the long training sessions are necessary, but for a different reason.
One Long Ride
The fact you can develop the fitness for great performances in long-distance/duration events with shorter rides doesn’t mean you should avoid huge rides. Not only is the all-day ride a big part of the reason we love cycling, it is also a necessary component of training for big events. It’s just that while there are some physiological benefits from long rides, they are similar to those from shorter rides and they aren’t the most important training benefits of those 6-hour rides anyway.
Nutrition/Hydration Strategies
One of the biggest benefits to your 6-hour ride is the opportunity to test and hone your nutrition and hydration strategies. You can make some pretty big mistakes in a 3-hour ride (or a one-hour ride) and get away with it. Those mistakes will be a lot more noticeable and detrimental when you go long. If you’re preparing for a really long goal (100-mile MTB race, long course triathlon, gran fondo, gravel race, etc.), it is crucial to learn what foods work for you several hours in. Just as important, you need to learn how to eat and drink in the first 3 hours when you’re going to be on the bike for another 3-6 hours after that! You can’t learn that in the shorter training sessions.
Bike Fit and Contact Points
Just as your nutrition/hydration strategies need to be tested and honed in long rides, so does your bike fit. A riding position that is powerful and comfortable for 3 hours might be utterly unbearable after 6 hours or more. You may not have a sore neck, numb hands, or hot spots on your feet during short rides, but if you’re event is a long one you need to make sure your position and contact points (saddle, bars/grips, pedals) are still comfortable and effective many hours later.
Mental Toughness
To be 100% Prepared for your event you have to train your mind as well as your body. Can you remain focused 6 hours in? 12 hours? During the Unbound Gravel race one year I remember riding into a stiff headwind, almost entirely without a draft, for 70 miles. Physically, it wasn’t that terrible. I just maintained a power I knew I could maintain and let the speed be what it would be. But mentally it was awful. Even with 40+ years of cycling experience in all kinds of races and conditions, there were times when I wanted to quit. I had to call upon mental skills and reserves of determination to keep plowing forward. Long training sessions – especially solo training sessions – are essential for developing the mental toughness to make it through the rough times in endurance events.
What You Should Do
The best solution is not a choice between short and long rides but a combination of both. You could, for instance, devote some weekends to back-to-back 3-hour rides and focus on developing fitness (power and speed). Other weekends commit to one big, long ride and focus on the skills, techniques, and habits that make long rides successful. Your goal is to finish those long rides tired but not so shattered that the last hour is a death march. The important thing to remember is that it’s not the individual comparison between two short rides and one long ride that matters; it’s the how the two scenarios impact your fitness and performance over the long term.
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Comments 55
I think you have missed the point of the question?
They said: ” if the objective is staying in the middle of the endurance zone and that can be maintained for 6 hours is there a difference in benefit?”
You’ve answered about riding harder for 3 hrs each day compared to riding easy for 6hrs straight.
You noticed that, too, huh.
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Aca se plantean 3 y 6 horas. Yo pienso que se debe hacer un incremento gradual, es decir, hacer 3 horas e ir haciendo 3,5- 4-4.5- 5 y luego pasar hasta las 6 horas. Pienso que depende esto del terreno y ko del tiempo porque hacer 6 horas con un alto desnivel no es lo mismo que hacer 6 horas en terreno llano.
Yo tengo casi 63 años y me encantan las rutas largas de más de 4 horas de duración y la satisfacción que se siente al hacer recorridos largos en kilómetros y distancia es indiscriptible asi que animaos a plantearse y cumplir retos siguiendo las pautas de una buena hidratación y constante alimentación.
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Shorter rides add training stress incrementally
But fitness also decays as you rest, which is why the amount of time between training sessions becomes important. For the rider who can choose between one long ride per week or two shorter rides, two rides per week will often prove more beneficial.
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I learnt from CTS literature that any work longer than 3 hours doesn’t have any benefit for mitochondrial increasement. So 3 hours is the ceiling in the mitochondrial universe. 😉
Thank you for a great read. Will the longer ride not only improve aerobic endurance better (ability to ride for a long time) but also improve metabolic efficiency (more use of fat vs glucose at a given power) thus sparing glycogen stores better? Or does this happen solely through raising the anaerobic threshold? As a marathon MTB racer I generally train 14-18 hours/week (including gym) and if I am going to do an endurance ride, 3 hours or less does not feel like it helps much (also low training impact score on WKO). Endurance rides of 4+ hours with tempo climbing definitely makes an impact…
Love the answer. I figured this out for myself. But great to hear from a trusted source.
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100% agree
I did a 290 mile 12 hour off of 6 hours per week with similar principles.
Did a couple of long rides but nothing more that 4 hours.
Thanks so much for sharing!
For ultra-endurance training, your personal definitions of long and short rides may be most important with respect to nutrition/hydration. Lots of ‘sub-elite’ weekend warriors do ultra-endurance stuff. What works OK for me on a 6 hour training ride may fail miserably for a 12-24hr endurance race. Not saying you need to do 24hrs in training, but if you can ‘only’ do 6 hrs as your long session in ultra-event training you (and your gut) should probably aim to feel pretty good and fresh after those 6 hrs.
I couldn’t agree more with the advice given and as presented. Here follows my anecdotal support. I have hopes of riding the 6 Gaps in Vermont later in August. So I rode 4 Gaps two days ago. Went as easily as I could and was great for two Gaps and after the third I stopped in the little town with a park at the foot of the original Gap (other side). Sitting down on a bench, I realized I was feeling light-headed and surprisingly tired–iow, I was in a preliminary stage of bonking. I rested and drank a little, and I finished the ride feeling like mush. In retrospect, I realized that my hydration was at same level as if I had been riding in 50-70 temperatures (20 oz per hour) when temperatures were in the 80s and I overate (an ice cream sandwich that put me at half my kilojoule level half way through)–two sure things for me to avoid doing in the future! If I hadn’t ridden the 6 hour ride and tried to go for the 13 hour ride (normal amount of time I allow myself for the 6 Gaps), I could not have succeeded. In short, the 6.5 hour ride re-opened my eyes as to flaws in my execution of long rides that have hamstrung me too often. It was absolutely necessary. Now I’ll think about attempting the 6 Gaps again, but only after increasing my fitness with shorter, more intense rides, and having the lessons from my long ride pasted in writing atop my handlebars: on the right–DRINK MORE!; on the left–EAT LESS! No idea if I’ll succeed. Bonne Route!
Excellent article, but let’s not forget in the midst of all these concerns over maximizing performance, that those longer rides can take us to new places to explore. You probably started riding a bike because of that, not just how fast you could become. At 70+ my typical 60-90 minute bicycle rides with intensity, year round here in Maine, allow me to make trips like this on the water in summer https://tinyurl.com/yczl52sa This is a pedal driven prop drive cat designed by Harry Howard’s brother, John Howard (yeah that guy) —- nothing I’ve pedaled in my 50 years of cycling compares with the fun and adventure I’ve had with this thing exploring offshore islands. Get out and explore just for the helluva it.
Understanding power and keeping my mind in check is critical! I study the route beforehand and keep to my numbers, I’m not trying to be a hero because my ego will destroy me. I’ll get there when I get there!
@Michael very cool!!!!! Great point and awesome pictures!
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Great article! I love how there are a lot of reasons why we should ride a bike.
I’ve been thinking of buying my kids and my husband a bike as a way to bond,
and it’s good to know that it can also boost our immune system.
I should definitely consider this. Thanks for sharing!
I’ve read that usually you can ride 1.5 x 2 your normal training distance. But you can also feel like you’ve left the solar system in terms of your orientation. It’s pretty easy to dial in the mental toughness for 3 hour rides, the hydration and fueling but when you start pushing 2 x that it becomes uncharted territory. I agree for fitness a little more power for shorter rides is good but you need your mind/body to go where it hasn’t been before too.
Mental toughness part of this is relevant to me. I am learning, with the assistance of Coach Jason, that I can do more than I thought I can do. Ward B
Good question and good answer. Thanks.
Great article CTS. Has put in great perspective for me a point I have pondered over quite often – especially, as stated, given limited available time in week ends.
Creo que acá se debe hablar de la edad de las personas y el objetivo que tengan de acuerdo a esta. 6 horas pueden verse como un reto fácil para personas de 30-40 años pero de 50 o más ya se habla de otro tema porque la recuperación es más lenta
This is great — I emailed CTS about this a few days ago and never expected such an excellent and thorough follow up!
when are you guys going to include numerals in your posts? On my screen it says that a -hour ride is longer than a -hour ride. That’s less helpful than it could be. Besides, this is CO Springs, where 25 minutes on North Cheyenne Canon feels like 2 hours around the Hanover loop.
numbers show up fine for me – must be a problem on your end Edd
Very helpful explanation of the differences and benefits of each, thanks!
Thank-you, this was very helpful 🙂
I do 1-2 hour training intervals which really help me to increase my aerobic capacity, speed and form. I also ride in a moderately fast paced group to hone my group riding skills, I am 71. The longer 5-6 hour rides are normally charity rides, Grand Fondo’s etc. I swept all 3 medals in last years Delaware Senior Olympics and set a 40K record held for 15 years. This program works for me along with the great advice I get from CTS.
Very impressive. I like watching the pros but the older crowd’s accomplishments, like this poster or a 50yr old guy that takes 1st place in a Cat 1/2 race is just more motivating to me.
I got it right! I was just going to say “it depends” but that’s a pretty short answer, yours was better.
That’s funny.
A 3 hour ride IS a long ride. This is not where you can develop speed and power. 90-110 minutes is a ride on which you focus on speed and power. I think CTS is imagining we are all elite riders getting ready to ride for Quickstep at Paris Roubaix tomorrow, just like Chris C used to be. Sorry Chris I never made it beyond Cat 3 amateur.
Author
Though it was in the question we originally received, we struggled with whether using 3 and 6 would be problematic. Near the beginning of the article there’s this: “NOTE: This specific question is about 3-hr and 6-hr rides. “Short” and “long” are relative based on your fitness and experience level, but for simplicity sake I’m going to stick with the 3- and 6-hour example.” The principles are the same whether your long ride is 3 hours and your short rides are 60-90 minutes. We coach everyone from beginners to very time-crunched athletes to ultraendurance athletes and professionals. No matter where you fit on that spectrum we strive to provide actionable advice you can use and we hope that you continue to improve and love your sport! – CTS
My short/long distances are more like Geoffrey’s but your response is EXACTLY how I took this article!
Just ride and enjoy.
OMG….that is a GREAT answer! And saves you a lot of money on coaching also!
very interesting my understanding that long endurance rides work a different part of the heart which is very much needed to increase your overall performance. Also you are right about hydration which most people mistake for bunking . The right stuff product that I market is really important for those long endurance rides. It has saved me in cents like the Everest challenge and my baldy. You can read about its benefits on the web under the right stuff hydration prodicts
so you don’t know how the “heart works” and training benefits of endurance exercise, but you know all about hydration and fueling for endurance exercise? brilliant.
Now I’m more confused.
Hey Ed Zatta, sounds like you need a CTS coach…LOL
Summary: If you want to get stronger, two 3 hr rides is better than one 6 hour ride. But, if you are planning on doing an Endurance race, it is helpful to do the occasional 6 hr ride to test bike fit, hydration, and eatting plan to make sure you don’t run into problems you won’t know about by just doing 3 hours rides.
Great summary
Very helpful.