Originally Posted by
rubiksoval
Any activity that progressively induces stress and adaptations is "valid" in the sense that improvement can result to a point. You don't even need a "plan" to have "valid" training. Hence any person that starts riding is going to get better up to a point, regardless of what they're doing.
No, I got the point. But training at a particular intensity, especially in that particular zone, is the antithesis of "junk". Especially for those not training a significant amount of time.
And the fact that hardly anyone does it speaks volumes to the practicality of such a training methodology. And the fact that people have been very successful doing the polar opposite reinforces the notion that there are a great many paths to performance, and labeling one as "junk" is silly.
And there are histories of doing very well with one training modality, reaching a plateau, then switching modalities to get more gains. I wonder if you could talk about that. I agree about no "junk." But it seems that different things work best at different points in even one season's development.