Originally Posted by filtersweep

Sorry, but that is a complete load of crapola. Sound training principles are the same for everyone. Two years ago I raced with a few cat 4 teammates who were mid-pack finishers. Two guys started following Friels program like religion and quickly catted up and were winning as cat 3s- within a year- and they were on the wrong side of 30. The trouble is, most weekend warriors don't have the discipline to follow the program. The other problem is that it simply is no fun to follow a highly structured program.

Yes, it is easy to overtrain- if ever ride you go out and ride as fast as you can, all the time, everyday, you will be a wreck. You do need to go slow to get fast- obviously not ALWAYS- but to incorporate rest into intervals, blah, blah, blah...

And riding slowly should be less about base and more about recovery... presuming someone doesn't completely lose their base.