Yes.

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Strava

double yes.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

It depends what you want to do on the bike, there is a lot of power in your upper aerobic and anaerobic energy systems and those are trainable. Even for a steady state effort there is a "rising tide lifts all boats" effect from doing a day or two per week of focused quality work. Mostly I think it's key to avoid the "medium hard" kind of pace you might encounter on a lot of group rides, it leaves you a bit tired and might not improve you as a cyclist

Counterpoint

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Amateur recreational hobbyist cyclist
https://www.strava.com/athletes/337152
https://vimeo.com/user11846099

Best thing I've read in a long time. This had me dying:

"Nowadays it’s a come one, come all mentality because no one wants to ride hard, and so everyone can join. It’s democracy of the weak. Back then, when Fields invited you on a ride, you were honored. Terrified and honored. And you turned your guts inside out for him because you didn’t want to disappoint him. And you know what? He never gave anyone no fucking kudo. The invite was the kudo, and the seal of approval was that you didn’t get dropped, something you earned yourself. He never gave you shit."

Interesting and amusing, but it's also "back in the good old days when I was a lad" nonsense.
The author is at once saying this Fields bloke reckons nothing's changed if there are guys trying to get away with easy sessions and also saying it's all different these days because guys are doing easy sessions...... pick one!

And as always, it's an appeal to authority. Does this Fields guy training so hard and being a great cyclist mean its the best way to train? Not necessarily. It's an anecdote and not a whole lot more.


Having said that, I don't think cycling is equivalent to running in terms of ideal training intensity. I'm no authority on the subject but you can train harder without inflicting the same need to recover as would be the case with equivalent running. The impact forces from running surely make it much more demanding and necessitate longer recoveries from high intensity sessions. If your volume is relatively low, it's very realistic to do quite a lot of training around threshold or VO2max intensity and fit in some lower intensity stuff when you have time. That approach is not so wise with running...

"Of course Fields rested. He rested a lot. And he had easy days"

From the training log pictures, "weekly total, 19hrs 20 mintues, 2 hrs 15 mins of speedwork".

Sounds to me like this maybe isn't so much of a couterpoint at all, just lots of hyperbole. Fields trained a lot and did some hard work, but lots of easy work too.