I follow Adam Myerson's blog via Facebook & he just posted a response to a question that seems to validate Ze's points.
I got a question via Facebook about my training blogs that I thought was worth reposting here:
Here's the question:
http://www.cycle-smart.com/blog/2010...bruary-11-2010
This is interesting to me because his TSS for almost 6 hours which included an hour at tempo was about the same that I saw during that 4.5 hour endurance ride we did a couple months ago where we did a figure 8 route out near concord/carlisle. So, why ride 6 hours at really low enduro when you can do 4 and get the same training stress with only slightly higher intensity? Is there really a difference in 'systems worked' between low endurance and mid-endurance?
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The most concise answer to your question is to answer the last sentence with "yes."
The main additional benefit you get is improvement in economy/efficiency, but also an increase in kJs for the ride, which is important for me right now as I try to lose weight.
If you're not a pro, if you don't have unlimited training time, if none of your races are longer than 100K, then doing 6-hour rides is not necessary. I definitely have my clients focusing on more tempo work in shorter durations.
Things to keep in mind is that my rides aren't going to get longer. My first goal is to max out the duration I have available. Each week, you should see the work done in those durations go up. My power should start coming up, the amount of tempo work I do will start coming up, and the TSS will start to come up, at least until I also raise my FTP.
If you have limited time, then you max out your duration potential sooner, and start raising the intensity and work rate of the rides earlier as a way to increase workload.
So for sure, I hope the guys don't look at my training and think they should be doing it. Further, they should keep in mind that for the next two weeks, these rides will get harder, or at least, the work rate will increase now that I've maxed out my duration potential."