Originally Posted by
rubiksoval
I think being able to win bike races off of 8-10 hours a week is about as efficient as you can get with regards to training stress and performance.
You want to go slowly for a long time. I want to go extremely fast for a moderate amount of time.
The difference is, I can still go slowly for a long time while you can't go extremely fast for a moderate amount of time. Now you may not want to, just like I don't want to ride long distances slowly. But my training does allow for that, so again, that's about as efficient as it gets in my book.
I bike train about the same amount for long events, though counting hiking it's more like 15 hours. No, I want to go as fast as possible for a long time. I TT my long training rides. In my early 60s, I rode the last 25 mile continuous stretch of a 150+ mile ride in one hour flat (with three racer boys, rolling paceline.) I rode a 400 in a hair under 15 hours, elapsed of course, also in my 60s. That's not riding slowly. I'm not a talented rider at all, just well-trained.