so … for 4-5 hours a week, do whatever you please (just a little harder)? 
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I still think about this quote a lot.
When doing a threshold progression, let’s say that I can do 5x10 where the last interval gets quite hard. I can manage to do two of these sessions per week (100min TiZ).
If I would keep one interval in reserve I do only 4x10. However that would allow me to do 3 sessions in a week (120min TiZ) as I recover faster.
The stimulus of the single session may be lower but the overall stress for the week would be higher.
The 5x10 scenario reflects more the “keep the hard days hard” approach and is the way I did it in the past.
I’m very tempted to give the “one in reserve” a try in the next block and focus more on the overall stress.
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This is more of a concept than a prescription. It’s saying don’t empty the tank and kill yourself in training. Train hard and train consistently, but don’t fly too close to the sun. Save those efforts for race day as they are extremely taxing both physically and mentally. Those types of efforts should not be called upon regularly.
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Do you think this only works because of the huge volume of training they appear to do coupled with their genetics and isn’t therefore applicable to us mere mortals who have lives beyond cycling, swimming and running and have nowhere near their talent
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Manon had got lardy so a dose of Z2 was probably good to get back towards a racing weight but GCN were giving people the impression that only Z2 was (or <LT1) was a training methodology. Well maybe it is, if you want to be a bike courier.
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What works?
I was wondering whether doing that very low intensity <= 1 mmol only works for someone who had the genetics and time to put in the hours they do, whereas less gifted and more time constrained people would need to put a bit more intensity into their easy rides to get a sufficient stimulus.
Just a little harder every week = Progressive overload.
If you can’t increase time, you increase intensity. TR plans do this for you.
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Again we’re thinking static weeks, but this balance of hard/easy is in the context of progressive overload.
Many adaptations come simply from the hours of muscle contractions, not whether those contractions are at 150 or 180 watts.
I honestly think that riding a little bit harder all the time because one can only ride 6 hours per week is not going to lead to a measurable difference in FTP. Mostly it just adds extra fatigue. It’s probably better to add a sweet spot session to the week whereas the rider with 20 hours will continue to just ride around doing endurance.
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I’ve never measured my lactate levels. However if you do a lot of volume, or are genetically gifted, then I believe lactate levels will be low.
How to get faster on the bike: ride a lot with proper nutrition and recovery. Add an interval day or two a week. You’ll find the recovery and nutrition part is easier when a lot of your rides are endurance pace.
If one gets similar adaptations riding at 60% of FTP vs 70%, do that and have to eat less?
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Thanks for the link. Good pod to have a listen to.
Interestingly this is what he says later on though:
"For many age groupers, doing extremely easy training would probably not be the best investment of the time.
Then I would rather see that they do plenty of work around the aerobic threshold"
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My coach challenged me to work around the lower threshold (target power 66-79%), although at various times during the year those 2 to 2.5 hour sessions would take too much out of me and I would be too tired to do the longer weekend rides (intervals on Monday, Wednesday, Friday). So there was always some adjusting based on feel. Last year I pushed my self-estimated lower aerobic to 72-74%, but then took some time off and right now its down around 68-70% ftp.
As a result of that experience, and more recently doing Coach Tim Cusick’ JoinBaseCamp winter group training, I’ve adjusted those sessions a bit and split them into endurance- and endurance+ and plan most at endurance- and push up a little if feeling good.
Point is, it all comes down to how you feel and what you can handle given the other 22 hours of the days.
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This is also of note if looking for year on year gains.
Most of the athletes in the national team are very close to race fitness almost every point of the year, compared to others we do not take any longer off season break and let the fitness shrink substantially during the year.
This year, in total we had two weeks of no structured training after the season ended.
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yeah, last year I completed 3 years of incremental increases in volume. Very little workout progression, just enough for adaptations. Focused on consistency and the highest quality intervals… no “get it done even if pedaling ugly” - all highest quality, always leaving an intervals the road, except for the all-out test efforts and even those were high quality. And 2 or 3 short breaks a year. And remarkably stable yet increasing fitness, posted a summary here:
FWIW, and in response to some of the “progressive overload” comments. While I believe in progressive overload, I also believe in frequency, consistency, small increases in duration, and focus on recovery. All to allow the magic of compounding to deliver fitness increases gradually over time. At a time of my life when I’m suppose to be thinking of retirement and seeing my aerobic ceiling decrease. Defying aging and doing it while averaging under 8 hours/week and mostly easy endurance riding.
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Which would be around 72 - 82% FTP/MLSS/Anaerobic Threshold for most reasonably well trained i.e a decent Aerobic Foundation.
Note:- Fitzgeralds Zone 2 is 70-83% (and ISM from what I can gather)
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Oh No! Stand by for it all to start again 
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72-82% of what, is around AeT?