Absolutely, and I think enough folks (this thread and elsewhere) have had enough time to run through a few blocks (or longer) of this “not endurance but not tempo” focused training (mixed in with other stuff) to demonstrate the benefits, even for riders on less time than 15hrs / week (I’m not sure there was a question of its effectiveness for riders who have generous time).
Because my improvements with an approach similar to, but not quite the same as strict LT1 focused blocks, my biggest question right now is “how precise do we have to be”? I know there are various schools of thought between either extreme:
- this rider/coach doesn’t even pay attention to LT1 or any lower threshold…it’s not a thing. doesn’t show up as a modeling artifact in my precious WKO/GC, don’t have a good field test, lactate sucks, etc. “just feel it, bro”
- I eat, sleep and recover at LT1. I can’t wait for real-time lactate analysis
I did similar for two years (and continue to do it, sort of) except it was in and around this lactate balance point concept, not the same thing as LT1. For me (and most riders), it is slightly (but not insignificantly) higher.
So taking a step back, LBP for me started about 5bpm over LT1 and then progressed to about 15/16bpm over LT1. In power terms, it went from .78 IF to .84 IF. Most ppl would read that and think sounds like you rode a lot of endurance and tempo. They would be right.
When I participated in Steve Neal’s website we saw graphs like what you posted all the time @DarthShivious. Most ppl are just happy to see the curve lower and extend and didn’t dig too much more into it (other than what steve told them). They recognized the value, did bunch of low but not too low intensity riding. It might have been prescribed in an overly-precise way, but who really knows.
TLDR; comparing your experience and mine: we did the tempo a bit differently (mine chronically harder). It didn’t seem to matter.
@DarthShivious Did you also capture HR? Curious to see what happened w/ HR around the 180/190 x-axis mark.