Time for Some LSD

Let’s talk about LSD. People have known about it for decades (it was super popular in the ’60s and ’70s) but you don’t hear about it as much these days. I’m talking about Long Slow Distance. Also known as base training or Z2 riding, it is some of the most important riding you can do. LSD is critical to making you a faster rider, but it’s not glamorous and many people neglect it. It is often thought of as something most necessary in winter (and that is a time to focus on riding slow and easy) but it is work that is necessary as maintenance all year and if it’s a part of your regular riding, you will become a faster rider with less effort.

I’m talking about it now because late summer is a time to get back to some of the basics — most people have been chasing fitness for a while now and neglecting the simple things. If you feel you’ve been pounding your head against the wall in training, it may be time to simply go around that wall by going the long way.

Cycling is all about efficiency. Someone who can ride consistently faster than you is not better at suffering, they are just more efficient and most of the time suffering less. Riding long and slow is a critical part of increasing that efficiency. And, the “slow” in the acronym is something that also becomes relative. Because the more you can focus on riding at an effort that is less than about 75% of your max HR and feels like about a 2-3 on a scale of 0-10 (10 being the hardest), the faster you will go with no change in perceived effort or HR.

This works because cycling is an aerobic sport and so it is all about developing the ability to carry oxygen. Riding at an aerobic pace that is conversational and generally feels “not hard” allows the body to increase its oxygen carrying capacity which increases efficiency which, in turn, makes relative speed increase, not the effort.

Suffering and going hard is important in small doses, but you can’t take too much LSD, and it’ll open you up to a whole new world — you’ve got to ride slow to go fast.

—Jeff Louder