I used to ride 2 hours, 5 times a week. Now with the evening getting darker earlier - I changed my route and now ride for 1 hour, again 5 times a week. I try to ride as fast as possible. Actually, I feel this is a better - more effective harder work out scheme-compared to the slow paced 2 hours work outs. Am I right?

Well if your goal is to be able to ride as fast as you can for one hour, then yes, it is a better approach. Specificity, specificity, specificity.

See Carmichael's new book: The Time Crunched Cyclist. He says that 10 hours/week is the lower limit of effective traditional training. Below that, you do better to do 6 hours spread over only 4 days per week, mostly intervals at or over LT. So rather than just ride as fast as you can, which doesn't adequately stress your system, try doing 30 second to 4 minute intervals, at barf effort. Or better, just buy the book. But yes, you are onto something. You weren't stressing yourself adequately before.

Well, to ride an hour as fast as possible; should be better described as an hours' interval training. I push as long as I can, then slow down and ride on and when recovered I start all over again...
So I am on to something ;-) and I like to feel my legs burn after each session! Near Barf effort level not yet reached however...

You're doing tempo intervals, like 15 minutes on, 10 off, etc. Those are a very good use of your time. Some evenings, you might also try a set of three of 3 minutes as hard as you can go, 3 minutes moderate. Highish cadence for those, 90-100. Rest of ride at your normal riding speed.

Be careful of doing this, not to get too tired. If you notice yourself slowing down, do a few weeks of just moderate rides, then go back to your hard rides. As long as you keep getting faster, all is well.

Thanks Carbonfiberboy, I checked out The Time Crunched Cyclist; I will order it - also to give my training routine some more focus. Up till now I thought that just making a lot of hours on the bike would improve stamina, power and strength. A ride with a colleague, who already is training seriously for years, showed immediately that I am still in the "wussy" area. Don't mind that, but I hoped that my training efforts past year should have resulted in more improvement. Maybe the interval training will help me to deal with that . And save a bit of time to check out BF ;-)

judging by your response you seem to be someone that is pretty knowledgeable about training. i am interested in your opinion on my training/riding. due to my wife's work schedule and having 2 young children the bulk of my mileage is limited to commuting. I commute to work 21 miles each way, 3 days per week. i then do a 20-25 mile ride on the weekend to supplement. this results in approx 10 hours per week in the saddle, on my commute in i push myself pretty hard. i sprint to keep up with traffic and also to make green lights etc. on the way home i ride not quite as hard. my route also has approx 10 good sized hills that i spin pretty hard to get up and ride down pretty hard. what do you think. am i doing enough? any suggestions?

Depends on your goals. I guess if you weren't, you'd already know.

Just received the Time crunched Cyclist - lots of info and this will help to focus even better. Thanx for the tip, Carbonfiberboy. Yesterday nearly reached "barf level" " -

What do you want?

If you want to go faster, use Sat for training. group rides would be ideal. This time of year I like to go to the gym, it gets kinda cold up here. You could also try one of the various fitness programs, Crossift being an extreme example.

You are doing great. You don't need to do a thing different. I'd mix it up for fun, but that's me.