Originally Posted by milmo

So here's the first serious training/racing question in this thread: At our age how many hard (LT and above) workouts a week do you experienced racers do at this time of year? (Assuming your racing season is still 3 months or more in the future)

Originally Posted by Hermes

I am not doing much intensity right now and focusing on strength, core and endurance. However, some z4 and higher, IMO, is okay right now.

Originally Posted by Allegheny Jet

Currently I'm beginning the 2nd month of base and not doing any sustained Z4 riding. Most of my road or mtb rides are designed to have an extended Z3 effort of 1.5 hrs+. As the season goes on the weekly Z3 efforts will be increased to 2.5 hrs. I suspect my coach will start to prescribe some Z4 overgear hill intervals sometime this month. Z5 hills and other Z5 intervals are not part of the training until the racing begins due to the length of the season. As the racing season progresses the workouts are shorter with more and more Z4 intervals, Z5 hills and sprint work.

I do attend a twice a week 2 hr indoor training class that focuses on high cadence, over gear and isolated leg exercises. We do have some drills and intervals in the class that will take us into Z4 and even some short sprint efforts that are at a Z5 effort. We also do a lactate tempo ladder that hurts like hell every time that takes the HR to the bottom of Z5 at the end. In that drill we ride in the 53/23 @ 100 rpm for the first 55 seconds then 5 seconds @ 120 rpm. The drill is constant and every minute we drop 5 seconds of the 100 cadence and add 5 seconds to the 120 cadence eventually working to 0 seconds @ 100 and 60 seconds @ 120 rpm. That drill will open your lungs and burn the legs like a race will.