But for the rest of us, the ratio for training enough to get fit(ter), faster, reach personal record goals, jump up to the next start wave or Category is pretty similar.

You can get a LOT of bike improvement in with a consistent schedule of 60-90 min workouts. One of the considerations of this above intensity business is that workouts can be shorter. The average “serious” Cat 4/5 cyclist spends a lot of bike time wasted on “going medium” as an old teammate used to harangue us…

The one cycling goal of relevance to us old fat guys is calorie burning, since many will have weight loss as a goal. The bike mags used to discuss optimal target heart rate for weight loss on a recurring basis leaving people with a “go medium for weight loss” theory. Also wrongo. Because the assumptions were unexamined. The caveat of “because you can keep this up for hours” was overlooked. In fact, the best fat-burner workout is the most intense workout in terms of overall workload. Intensity also helps to build muscle mass and endurance which lets you work harder next time. see? no issue that isn’t solved by a train-to-race approach

In fact, it is the riding-as-hard-as-you-can-until-you-feel-like-your-heart-is-going to-explode-and-your-legs-fall-off-and-then-get-dropped-anyway that provides the high-intensity work necessary to get better. Every time you get dropped, you are putting in the effort to get you that much closer to not getting dropped.