All my workouts in times past had been 2-3 hr solo rides where I ended up with an IF of .93 or higher. I'd go hard, I'd sprint and I'd come home pretty beat. I did 2-3 of these a week with a group ride or race thrown into the mix. The rest of the days (3-4), I'd be off the bike unless I could get in an hour hard ride in the hills or such. Weekly total 6-8 weeks, but I was doing very well for myself in the spring.

Now my coach is having me ride 12-15 hours a week, with most of the ride at or under aerobic threshold and then the business end of the ride is LT intervals/whatever in the midst of this aerobic threshold work.

I'm going to ask my coach about this when I see him next, but what's the difference in adaptations and such with this kind of training.

Is the first batch more geared towards crits/shorter events, and the longer rides more towards building long term fitness and longer distance road/stage races?