This is truly revolutionary where did you hear about this?

Sarcasm duly noted. It is not revolutionary in anyway (nor did I claim it was), but it is different then how I trained in the past so some advice in implementation from people who have trained this way would be interesting.

It seems like pretty much the only way to train on the bike. Or the swim. Maybe not so much on the run.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

Perhaps, unless one is willing to put in 3 hour trainer rides etc.
My issue is multiple days in a row with intensity. I performed an FTP test on Saturday, a 4x8 workout yesterday, and my legs feel fine today. Is there any reason why the trainer ride today can not be another intense ride.

Brett Sutton wrote about this on his blog a few weeks ago. I think what he was saying is that for long distance triathletes, particularly those living in cold climates, doing shorter and more intense workouts over winter (the off season) made more sense, and in summer he advocated getting closer to race specific training (ie, long workouts at race pace.) I think Matt Fitzgerald says something similar for running, with the idea that focusing on short workouts in the winter means learning a more efficient neurological pattern that will benefit you in the summer.

I tried it last year and it didn't work for me. The biggest problem is that I didn't gauge my limits well: I went nuts on every workout, mostly because my brain enjoyed it. My body....not so much. Adding the endurance in summer was hard (as opposed to previous years of adding speed in summer.) On the other hand, the year that I did tons of endurance training in winter is also the year that I ran fastest and had no injuries whatsoever. I don't have a problem with getting burnt out, mostly because I'm one of those weird people who likes biking and running indoors, but I recognize that most people aren't like that.

What I got out of my experience versus what extremely successful coaches like Brett Sutton say is that everyone's different. The shorter intensity workouts you're considering didn't work for me, but I'm not a fast athlete (MOP) and probably don't have a single fast twitch fibre in my body. That doesn't help you if you're finding that you get burned out by mid-summer, however. Have you considered shortening your workouts just a tad and doing some long rides and some threshold?

The endurance will get a kickstart with a mid April cycling trip to Penticton, B.C. Where 3-5 hour rides are of no issue as far as motivation is concerned.

Wait, you mean go from less specific to more specific? Crazy concept!

I think "base" became lots of long slow distance because for cyclists that is the least specific for them. For elite runners doing 800m-10k, that's also the least specific. So then everyone trying and copy what they are doing.

Step 1 - get faster/stronger better overall
Step 2 - develop the muscular endurance and adaptation to sustain that speed for your race distance.

Keep in mind that even a sprint triathlon, unless it's draft legal, is ridden at threshold. So even the shorter tri will rarely having you riding above Z4 for any longer periods. You don't need sprint speed, to attack, accelerate. You need sustainable power for 1-10+ hours.

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TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

Here are 2 recent threads with relevant info:

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=5452465

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=5441070

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Awesome. This is why I love ST!

I do but I don't compete. :-) But I do try to improve my fitness as if I did compete.
I don't like doing extended time on the trainer past a couple of hours and prefer to up the intensity and keep it less than 90 minutes including warm up and cool down. I don't like doing 4+ hour rides in the cold and will typically keep it to about 2 to 3 hours. As soon as the temperature gets in the low 50's (F) I don't mind extending my outdoor saddle time.

My favorite indoor training is now to 4 x 8 or 4 x 10. My volume is down compared to previous winter seasons, but my fitness has improved and my FTP has been bumped a couple of times. Mentally I am good to go and motivated and physically I seem to be recovering okay. I can't wait until it warms up because I do enjoy an 80 to 100 mile Saturday route. So yes I follow this type of structure.