Originally Posted by
dz_nuzz
@
grolby one workout I have credited with really giving me a lot of mental and physical gains is going out for a 2-3 hour ride with the sole purpose of keeping my average watts inside of the tempo zone. Aside from the obvious aerobic workout you get there is an element of mental toughness you end up learning as well that really comes into play during the end game of a road race. See if your coach will schedule one in for you. I don't do them often (Maybe 1-2 times a month) but I really recommend them no matter who you are or what your strengths are.
Be warned, you will want to cry at the end if you did it right.
I almost never do this on a training ride, except the occasional 2 hour fast group ride at the low end of the durration. But almost every road race ends up with average power in tempo zone (Z3). For some reason I'm never motivated to do that solo. Though I do get NP in tempo for a 3-4 hour ride pretty often.