Deep dive
Durability.
Durability is your ability to hold power, pace and judgement late in a ride, after the early efforts have already cost you. It is the gap between what you can produce fresh and what you can still reach when fatigued.
This cluster covers why riders fade, what fatigue resistance actually is, how to train it, and how to read it in your own numbers.
The deep dives
- Why you fade late (when a rider with your FTP doesn’t)Fading late is a durability problem, not a fitness problem. What actually breaks, and how to train it.
- Why your FTP drops after two hoursYour threshold falls about two percent an hour once a ride gets hard. What it does to your zones, and how to pace for it.
- How to test your durability (the Fatigue Power Reserve)A simple two-effort test that scores how much power you keep when tired, plus how to read it and train it down.
- Three workouts that build durabilityDo your quality work after the fatigue, not before it. Three sessions that teach your legs to hold power late.
- Why you blow up on climbs (the three real reasons)Cracking on a climb is rarely fitness. It is pacing, gearing, and fuelling, decided long before the road tilts up.
- What fatigue actually is (brain, muscles, and fuel)Fatigue is a negotiation between your brain, muscles, and fuel. What each part does, and how to train all three.
Want to measure your own fade? Run two efforts through the Durability Score calculator and get a single durability number.