Durability training for masters cyclists

DURABILITY TRAINING FOR MASTERS CYCLISTS

You can hold 300 watts for an hour fresh. But what about after three hours of racing? That's durability—and it's what separates masters riders who finish strong from those who fade.

When most riders think of fitness, they think of FTP, watts per kilo, or intervals. But there's another measure of performance that becomes more important every decade after 35: durability.

Durability is your ability to hold on to your power, posture, and focus when fatigue sets in. It's what lets you stay strong through the last climb of a long ride, or still push during hour four of a gravel race when everyone else is fading.

What durability actually means

In simple terms, durability is your resistance to performance decline under fatigue. Two riders might have the same FTP—but if one can still hold 85% of it after three hours and the other fades to 70%, the first rider is more durable.

Durability shows up in three main ways:

Power resilience: maintaining a high percentage of your threshold late into long efforts.

Postural endurance: staying stable, not slumped, in the last hour.

Cognitive steadiness: being able to fuel, pace, and make good decisions even when tired.

It's the difference between surviving and racing all day.

Why durability matters more after 40

Once you hit your forties, your physiology changes—not dramatically, but enough to notice.

Glycogen replenishment slows, meaning you burn through stored energy faster.

Tendon elasticity declines, which affects power transfer and recovery.

Hormonal changes (especially lower testosterone and growth hormone) make tissue repair slower.

Sleep and stress load compete harder with training recovery.

That combination means you can't train purely on "tired legs" anymore. What used to be a badge of honour in your thirties becomes the fastest way to stall progress in your fifties.

Durability for masters cyclists isn't about tolerating more fatigue—it's about recovering from it faster.

A real-world example

I coached a 52-year-old who could hit 3.6 W/kg for 20 minutes in January. But by hour three of his target sportive, he was down to 2.8 W/kg and struggling to maintain power on the climbs.

Six months of durability-focused training—long rides, MIET, and gym work—meant he finished the same event at 3.2 W/kg in the final hour. Same FTP. Better durability. That's the difference.

How to build durability

Durability isn't built from one magic session. It's the product of three key ingredients layered over time:

1. ENDURANCE VOLUME

You still need aerobic depth—that's the base layer. Two to three long, steady rides per week at a conversational pace build the metabolic machinery that keeps you going when everyone else cracks.

But for masters athletes, duration matters more than hero volume. You'll get more benefit from a 3-hour steady ride done consistently each weekend than from the occasional 6-hour epic that wrecks your recovery.

2. MODERATELY INTENSIVE ENDURANCE TRAINING (MIET)

This is your "sweet spot" work—roughly 85–90% of FTP. It's sustainable for 2–4 hours depending on fitness, fuelling, and mental focus. These sessions condition your body to burn lactate efficiently, maintain force under fatigue, and build that deep aerobic resilience that defines durable riders.

Start conservatively with 3 × 8 minutes at 85–90% FTP, with 3–4 minutes recovery between. Once you can complete that comfortably, extend to 2 × 10–12 minutes, then eventually 3 × 12–15 minutes as fitness and fuelling improve. There's no single perfect structure—the goal is to build time at quality intensity that you can sustain week after week.

3. STRENGTH TRAINING

The gym is where you reinforce what the bike can't. Your back squat, leg press, standing hip flexion, and calf raises rebuild tendon stiffness and muscular endurance—the mechanical durability behind your aerobic durability. Without it, the chassis softens before the engine does.

Together, these three systems—endurance, MIET, and strength—form a durability triangle that keeps you steady long after the initial freshness fades.

Durability in practice

You don't have to overcomplicate it. A simple 7-day structure could look like:

This is just one example, not the only way to do it. The structure that works best is the one that fits your recovery rhythm.

Combining gym and bike

How you schedule strength work depends on your week—but the main rule is: don't scatter stress.

If possible, do your gym work on the same day as your harder rides, after the bike. That way, your recovery days are actual recovery, not a series of medium-fatigue days. Many riders find this "hard-with-hard" pattern works best once they've adapted to gym load.

If double days aren't practical, separate strength and bike sessions by at least 48 hours. The key is consistency—two quality lifts a week will build strength and tendon resilience steadily.

Fatigue resistance intervals

Durability is also trained under fatigue.

Once a week, try placing your threshold or MIET work at the end of a long ride, not at the start. That teaches your body to sustain output when glycogen is low and stabilising muscles are tired—exactly what happens in races or long sportives.

Start with something like:

3 hours endurance
then 2 × 10 min @ 90% FTP

Build up slowly, and fuel appropriately (60–90 g carbs/hr).

Recovery: the hidden half of durability

Durability doesn't just come from how hard you train—it's how well you recover between sessions.

If you're constantly tired, you're not building durability; you're depleting it.

Sleep and nutrition

Nutrition, sleep, and mobility are non-negotiable. Masters athletes need 7–8 hours minimum, and protein intake matters more than ever—aim for 1.6–2.0 g per kg of body weight daily.

Post-ride recovery protocol

After hard rides or gym sessions, use a recovery mix with protein, carbs, electrolytes, and a touch of cocoa for flavour and polyphenols. Something like:

30 g whey protein
40–50 g maltodextrin
3 g leucine
pinch of salt
10 g cocoa powder
300 mL water or milk

You'll accelerate muscle repair, glycogen replacement, and immune recovery—the real foundations of repeatable performance.

The masters mindset

Durability isn't about how hard you can go; it's about how often you can come back. The most durable riders in their 40s and 50s aren't the ones chasing every KOM—they're the ones who can string together month after month of consistent, high-quality work.

That's how you keep your power, your posture, and your love of the sport.

👉 To see how strength, endurance and recovery fit together in a weekly structure, download The 6 Pillars of Masters Performance.

Richard SternOctober 30, 2025