Why Riding Slower Makes You Faster: The Secrets Of Zone 2 Training

What did you make of this interview with Iñigo?

I have stage four cancer and was told that I had 4-6 months.. 10 years ago now. I am a very old roadie and extremely interested in this type of interviews/ research. I honestly believe that my bike has kept me alive. Great interview

I worked under Dr. San Millan for 5 years in his Colorado lab and also hung on to every word he said. He is brilliant, making a huge impact with his research and great at breaking down and explaining complex physiological concepts!

Having this level of information for free is just incredible. Thanks GCN!

As a reminder. Your Zone 2 will change as you gain endurance, so don't think your giving up fitness. Be positive about your outcome from a 3 day focus in Z2. You will see results! Keep it up GCN, we need these interviews.

This really explains why when I was commuting by bike I was always so much stronger/faster than when only training via turbo with occasional outdoors. Zone 2 always seemed to be the right intensity for the commute. Of course, I was also 10 years younger at the time...

This is the way I train. I ride a 'Slow, Steady distance' from home to my son's home 90 miles away. A small amount of soreness but no D.O.M.S. I share out grinding ( uphill ) and spinning. BTW, longest gear on my touring bike is 75 inches, and when it's loaded, its 32 lb. I manage my intake and rest at cafes along the route. Essential to stretch out before getting going. PS. I'm 62.

I have to be honest and say that I haven’t been a fan on GCN content for a while but this interview of absolute gold. Well done Simon on great questions, style and a really good summary at the end. One of the best videos I’ve seen on YouTube. 👏🏻

I absolutely loved this ❤! Please make more of theses sports performance and science based videos.

I've been training slow since I started riding a bike...? It doesn't work, i'm still flipping slow! 😂😂

Time crunched, pushing 50 weekend warrior here. This was the single best GCN video I've ever seen. Zone 2 is a critical oversight in everything I've ever done and just from hearing this I believe this will have the single biggest impact on my training. Thank you!

As a novice rider that enjoys cycling SOOO much as it is the catalyst for my weight loss and maintenance for the last three years, I appreciate your sharing this VALUABLE information and presented in a way that my novice brain can put it to use. A+++

I did zone 2 last offseason to condition for mountain biking because I was recovering from shoulder surgery. My second ride of the season resulted in a PR. Basically I was conditioned equally to the end of the season.

This is the only thing I miss about my daily commute and not doing it anymore. 5 days 1hr per day Z2 just to get to work. It was a great free workout, the fitness level was so high with this as a base.

Iñigo's words absolutely match with my personal experience. I was freaking out about getting faster and doing all that high intensity trainnings, but got into a plateau. Then I saw some other guys in the internet saying you could improve your performance by taking it easier. I tryed it. Guess what? It worked. So now I always do some Z2 trainings.

We tackled assembling the bike as a family project. youtube.com/post/Ugkxzg0clhbtRf2gGxPkVETFKJJKGqdso… The package is heavy, but I have 2 teen boys that were able to move it. The written instructions were great- we didn't need to watch the videos, but it was good knowing that the option was there if we needed it. After we were able to get it set up, the boys each rode 3 miles and I rode 8 and the bike stayed quiet. The display is easy to reset, and you can put it on whichever setting you are using (time, distance, calories, etc). I will say that my butt is a little sore from the seat, but that could be because I haven't rode in a while. While it is comfortable for me, it was not comfortable with the seat position for my friend (could not move the seat back far enough and he slightly looked like a kid riding a tricycle that he had outgrown). He also said that the seat hurt his manly parts. We are going to look for a different seat that will be compatible with this bike for him.I did purchase the Wahoo Cadence sensor and strapped it to the crank of one of the pedals. This will sync with my Apple Watch, iPhone and will import data in to my Health app. Wahoo does have other sensors available other than cadence. I can also keep either my phone or my iPad on the display and they both feel pretty secure.

Having done my fair share of overtraining, I appreciate what this guy is saying. There is nothing worse than putting more energy into training and seeing results get worse. Not to mention the night sweats and low quality sleep that comes with overtraining. What's interesting about what he's advocating is how similar it is to the way it was suggested that riders should train in the 80's.

In rowing this is talked about as base speed training. It's been well recognized in the community that base speed training is essential to get faster. Glad to see this is actually supported.

I've made some progress in the last two months by putting most of my time in the saddle in zone 2. I notice the improvement on sprints over short hills. Feels good to blast over my favorite bumps faster with less thigh burn. This video confirms what I'd suspected. BTW, I'm 66.

Thank you, Simon. I really enjoyed watching and learning from Inigo, and I really appreciate listening to full, articulate and intelligent responses, of which most mainstream news media outlets would only be interested in producing and releasing soundbites. It heartens me to know that GCN respect their audience and their intelligence. Great work, and really great interviewing!