Example 1 reminds me of a coach that used to prescribe intervals, where you went balls out in the beginning, faded hard and hung on for dear life all the way to the end, even if you were down to 15 mph, going all out with fatigue. Rest what it took, then go again.

Here, fsacat has you doing say 2 hours with the beginning right under 40k TT pace, then letting yourself slow as fatigue sets in, even fininshing the workout in high end zone2, because that's all you have left without having to bury yourself.

Hmmm... sounds a lot like old Euro training. Head out the door for a few hours on 52x15 without breaks, finish tired.