Originally Posted by
never_recover
This will probably get lost among all the posts saying you should always be spinning 100 RPM, but riding for hours at 200 W and 100 RPM will do nothing for your ability to sustain 300 W and 100 RPM (principle of specificity). This has been my experience anyway, having tried all training "protocols" that I know of.
So in a sense the OP is right, torque is definitely part of the equation
I don't know, when i ride around in z2 all winter somehow magically i'm pretty fast by the end of winter without any intervals. YMMV, but just riding for this guy will make him faster. He doesn't need intervals yet becuase they would be just as effective as just riding. He's putting out 120-170 watts, it's not like he's at 5.5 w/kg looking to jump to 5.7 w/kg.
op quit worrying about all these details. work on riding more, and spinning more, and trust that the advice of people who are successful in cycling is good.