I only want to share my expercience. I couln´t find any appropriate thread to put it in. I´ve been watching TR podcast for a couple of years and joined TR last october. I wanted to prepare for next season and TR seemed to me the best way. I have followed TT plan SSB MV. I completed BBS MV I and II and I was pleased with the results. Then I couldn´t train all january because I was ill. I had some virus in my body that didn´t allow me to train properly. Not even in low intensity. I decided to restart my training from the beginning because of that long break.
Now I am in week 2 of SSB MVI and yesterday I did my first outdoor ride with my mates. It took about 4,5hrs and cca 110km. I was afraid to get dropped because I can´t even rememer my last ride over 2hrs and I just recently restarted my training plan. I was very surprised by the result, because I didn´t have any crisis during the ride and I pulled my friend all second half home even though I expected him to be in a better shape at least in endurance. I took several 20´ z3/ss pulls in headwind and I was feeling very comfortable. I registered improvement in my pedalstroke and my body kept me subconsciously pedalling downhills (it was fairly flat course though). No slacking, just solid arbeit. I gained 3 kilos during january break and now I am 75kg, and my race weight is 68kg. Unfortunately there is an inverse proportion between weight and watts. That was even bigger surprise for me, cause I am heavier too.
I tried to fuel my body properly during the ride. I had 80g of maltodextrin in my bidons and I ate 2x250kcal snacks. It makes about 200kcal/hour and I am glad I did it.
My main point is that I didn´t believe that you can ride 4+hour rides when you only have 1-2hour workouts.
It filled me with confidence and energy for the following workouts.