Durability improved similarly after 10 weeks of low-intensity (6.8 h/week) or high-intensity (1.6 h/week) cycling in sedentary and recreationally active adults, measured over a 3-h ride at 48% VO2max; only high-intensity training raised VO2max, and the changes in drift were small
Thirty-five sedentary or recreationally active adults (16 men, 19 women) cycled for 10 weeks with either low-intensity training (6.8 ± 0.7 h/week) or high-intensity training (1.6 ± 0.2 h/week). Durability was measured before and after during a 3-h ride at 48% of pre-training VO2max, from the size and onset of drifts and from physiological strain.
Participants
16 men and 19 women, sedentary or recreationally active.
Protocol
LIT: 6.8 ± 0.7 h/week; HIT: 1.6 ± 0.2 h/week; 10 weeks of cycling.
Durability test: 3 h at 48% of pre-training VO2max — magnitude and onset of drifts (energy expenditure, heart rate, RPE, ventilation, left-ventricular ejection time, stroke volume) and physiological strain (heart rate and its variability, lactate, RPE).
Key Results
Averaged durability improved similarly in both groups (time × group p = 0.42; LIT p = 0.03, g = 0.49; HIT p = 0.01, g = 0.62).
HIT: drift magnitude 8.8 ± 7.9% → 5.4 ± 6.7% and onset 108 ± 54 → 137 ± 57 min (both p = 0.03). LIT: magnitude 7.7 → 6.3% (p = 0.09) and onset 106 → 131 min (p = 0.08), not significant; physiological strain improved in both.
VO2max increased only after HIT (time × group p < 0.001).
Authors: durability improved, but a 10-week intervention did not change drifts and their onset by a large amount.
Practical Application
In beginners, 1.6 h/week of hard cycling improved durability on a 3-h ride as much as 6.8 h/week of easy riding — no long sessions needed at that level. Do not carry this to a trained athlete preparing a long event: untrained people improve on almost anything, and the effects were small.
Limitations
Untrained and recreational adults; 10 weeks; n=35 split into two groups.
Very different weekly hours, so intensity and volume are confounded.
Test at a low intensity (48% VO2max), not a race-like effort.
How this entry was checked and changed
Why this level
n=35, untrained to recreational, durability as the primary outcome