Chasm, My apologies. It was Vesteroids post I was replying to. I have no idea why I wrote your name beyond the fact that it was the post below his. Sorry to have confused that issue. But, since you've politely responded to what I've written, I'm interested in carrying on the discussion.

As I stated, the 90% of max HR was an approximation for a starting point and as variable as the max HR formulas. Unfortunately, not all of us have access to power info or the funds to test directly for LT. I couldn't even tell you where I first read about using that as an approximate starting point. But, so far, the 90% starting point seems to not be too far off the mark for me. At some point I'll be doing some longer steady state efforts on the trainer and will get the chance to test it to a more accurate degree than I can on the 10 minute or so max climbs I've been doing. Have you had the opportunity to test for LTHR on an ergo and using blood tesing? Or, did you arrive at 156 through the use of one of the TT approximation methods?

I can't/won't disagree with most of what you're parrotting from Friel. It's not unsound. There are however, other ways to approach the equation. I definately need to go back and reread the bible before commenting too much further. I also need to buy a copy of Carmichael's Time Crunched Cyclist for comparisons sake.

I certainly agree that there is more to intervals than just anaerobic work. The mention of the broad transition from 15 second almost purely anaerobic work to 20 minute+ aerobic intervals is more than just a head nod in that direction. With regard to the limits of anaerobic intervals, yep, three minutes, four if you're world class. Which few are. From there to twenty minutes its a long slope of being an increasingly aerobic interval. Heck, we can even start taking any interval time and start to discuss gearing and cadence choices and how they influence the balance between working on strength versus endurance.

I can't say, "not to worry", with regard to my training, fitness and health. I'm paying close attention to it. I recognize that I'm doing all I can to accellerate my re-development and that with that comes some possible consequences that must be monitored and managed. While I wasn't cycling much over the last few years up to last August, I am lucky to have thirty years of history in my legs. Not only does that give them an awful lot of old motor memory, but, also provides me with plenty of experience about how much I can push, what to look out for, what the pit falls are along the way and the ability to slow down and avoid some of them. Am I stressing my system? Most certainly. But, I'm moderating the degree to which I'm doing that by adjusting the volume of intense work, rather than limiting the intensity itself and putting in more moderate miles. I would be even more concerned if guys around me with lots more miles in their legs than me, weren't coming back from rides as or more knackered than myself.



With regard to the place of short duration intervals or Z5 work, my take on there aplicability has to do with whether the rider in question is motivated by pursuing "fitness" or "speed". As the motivation moves toward "speed" they (intense short intervals and Z5 work) have more and more place. On this point, I would suggest that even at an early stage in a riders cycling development there is room for "some" of this work. As long as, as Friel points out, there isn't "too much".

Your last paragraph is excellent advice for any budding patient cyclist. Unfortunately, I'm not. Watch this space. We'll continue to see how I do. I've certainly learned that I have to be scheduling a light week every fourth or so. Its still too early to worry about scheduling those out to coincide with the event in November that I want to peak for.

As I stated earlier in the thread, when I returned to cycling I started down a familliar path that is very close to the classic Friel bible approach. It was as I started to read articles suggesting that limited time be shifted toward a higher percentage of high intensity work that I started to apply this approach. It's still very much an experiment for me. So far, awesome results! In our little tiny sandbox, this weekend a few of us on the B ride caught a couple of A group drops and proceeded to pull them up the climbs back to the cafe. It's really hard to not continue to pursue the same regime when guys way lighter than your are looking at you at the end of a ride and saying, "that was impressive", "those were some awesome climbs you did".

Let's see if I can keep it up with out suffering over training issues, damaging my knees or getting sick:-)