Originally Posted by
Dreww10
When you say intensity, are you talking all-out? Probably 1% of my riding is at breakneck pace, and in general, my average HR is no more than 140-145 on any typical ride (middle Z3). Sadly, I see riders who aren't all that fast who can ride all day long at Z3/Z4 pace, so I gather from that that riding at Z2 for long miles isn't necessarily the only ticket to getting fit or gaining endurance.
Since chasm didn't reply, I'll chime in. By training exclusively at intensity, I believe he's talking about the typical TCC interval regimen, where one does mostly trainer rides, relatively short, maybe an hour, devoted to zone 4 and zone 5 intervals. This has nothing to do with "ride all day long at Z3/Z4 pace." If they are riding mostly zone 3 with a little 4, that's the reason they aren't that fast. And your average HR for a ride may also have nothing to do with the zone in which you are riding. Just because I might do a long ride at an average HR of 87% of my LTHR doesn't mean I
ever rode at that HR. It's much more likely that I did a heckuva a lot of zone 2 time and a good bit of zones 4 and 5. And hopefully the same for you. Zone 3 riding is usually referred to as "riding junk miles," because that makes one tired, but does little to improve either power or endurance.
Chasm is correct. As every coach has always said, "Most riders don't go easy enough or hard enough." Keep away from Mr. Inbetween. Your conclusion should the the opposite to the one you have reached.