Originally Posted by
ScottCommutes
If you are not a racer and your only goal is to ride 100 miles, you can skip all the zone stuff. For real - it seems like you are making things way more complex than they need to be. Just ride. A lot. Have fun. The zone training is to develop your sprinting capacity.
Knowing your zones is useful to the non-racer, also. Staying within a zone can help you pace a ride, so you can get to the finish.