And there it is. 
I mean, not sure I have a better example of the point Iâve been trying to make.
No, it is not simple. Not even close.
Whatâs complicated about it?
You stress the body. Your body builds back stronger after recovery. The more you do, the faster you do it, the more you improve. Gradually increase stress to reduce the risk of injury.
RightâŠwhich is another way of saying âit dependsâ. Asking âwhich is betterâ is a bit pointless unless we understand those issues. Most times when the âwhich is betterâ or âwhich type of training should I doâ questions are asked, we arenât given that back ground.
âŠon this forum. Agreed.
When I had a coach, never an issue.
Well, problem solved. That was easy! Can you believe they actually have degree programs in this stuff? This will free up some of my time.
I think itâs simpler than it seems. Skiba lays it out in his book very simply - train your thresholds - LT1 (endurance) & LT2 (threshold) - do a tiny bit of maximal efforts every now and then.
As Joyner said in that podcast âAll Roads Lead to Romeâ. Personally, I think if you have 6 or 8 hours per week, youâll eventually get to your possible FTP on that volume +/- a few percent.
Thereâs the rub. That time crunched athlete (mostly all of us) wants to get better and better but their main limitation is being time crunched and getting older. They tweak the plan, they try sweetspot, they try polarized, etc, etc. They keep trying different stuff because nothing really unlocks another 50 watts of FTP.
The one thing that might unlock a significant boost in FTP is several years at 10 or 12 or 15 or 20+ hours per week. But that is not available to most of us with jobs, relationships, and responsibilities.
Thatâs it - donât get out of shape during the winter, do some base, do a build starting in January, and you are going to get what youâll get by the spring. Do polarized or a TR plan or whatever plan. It doesnât matter that much. There is no secret interval or secret combo of intervals that is going to make a huge difference.
Oh man that hits hardâŠ.
Joe
I get what you are saying⊠I have one of those degrees. The body is a complicated thing. But we are talking about the what⊠not the why. Training is as complicated or simple as we make it.
As I have posted before I know many coaches who are high intensity and low volume. Others focus on sub maximal efforts and higher volume. Many just do crazy high intensity and as much volume as possible and the strong survive. What do they all have in common⊠they all have won. Theyâve all continue to have successful programs.
There are no secret, âspecialâ workouts. There is no âbestâ way. Usually the top programs have (1) lots of genetic talent, (2) a charismatic coach where athletes have bought into the program and (3) a group of highly motivated athletes working toward a goal.
Is it that multiple paths lead to the same outcome you find complex? I can definitely understand that⊠but I guess thatâs where I see simplicity. Perhaps we are looking at the same thing, just from opposite sides of the coin?
I think that for the vast, vast majority of athletes it doesnât matter too much. Or rather, weâll see gains by consistently sticking to pretty much any training plan that fits our schedule. It might not be optimal, but very few of us need to (or even can, imo) eke out every bit of performance.
Speaking of Joyner and somehow even related to this thread:
Not shabby at all for an older dude like him. And an ambituous goal!
But the shocking news here is: he intends to do no/not a lot of zone 2 training. Intervals most of the days!
How would he be in a position to evaluate TRâs use of AI? He might be right. He might be wrong. But unless TR showed Couzens their tech stack heâs just speculating.
TRâs use case is a fantastic application for AI, just because the number of variables are that much fewer (compared with healthcare, letâs say) and youâve got some really great, insightful and easy-to-quantify data points (TSS, HR, intended workout vs. actual performance).
Lastly â perhaps the greatest ability for AI in this space is to recognize patterns that a human coach just doesnât have the time/ability to identify (courtesy of ML).
In that sense, I see TR as a bellwether of sorts for all sorts of industries. Healthcare notably.
I love how the first response was Seiler âcalling outâ his Peloton bikeâs power meter ⊠in a nice way. 
Iâve only had one week of 20hours, and it was in the summer when I was on holiday and driving to ride a different HC climb almost every day (usually leave early in morning⊠drive 2-3 hours⊠ride 2.5-4 hrs⊠drive back).
I have strong Cat1 fitness according to the power meters, scale, and Coggan charts, but I almost never race so Iâm not actually categorized.