Wasn’t it the case that many pros do endurance rides pretty low % of their FTP, 60% or even lower. Because even if riding 70% doesn’t feel too hard for them it’s still pretty hard metabolically. The amount of carbs burned is high.
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He is more highly trained and he and his coach seem to treat it as Z2.
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No. It is a z2 effort, just not at the same power target every day. It’s not a z3 effort, although I am sure he goes above his z2 here and there during the ride.
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Yes, Z2 which is traditional Z3 (according to ISM.)
Lots of assumptions being made 90% are wrong.
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See comment above. Are you assuming what Z2 is, tell me how he and his coach defines it?
Yes, agree. Lots of incorrect assumptions, plus the information given is incorrect. But there you go.
Genuine question … Isn’t it a case that you can train your Z2 to be higher as a % of FTP (as they were only guidelines in the first place)
I am not assuming anything.
Not aimed at you personally.
Again, tell us how he and his coach defines Z2?
Sola has several hours of content on how he coaches athletes on YouTube. His z2 is the same endurance zone everyone seems to be extremely confused about for some reason (and it’s definitely not z3)
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We don’t know that. In fact, I’d say that’s an assumption of yours.
I’m fairly certain Pogacar knows the power range for his Z2 workouts (call that an assumption, but in my book, it’s a fairly safe assumption 
), and he said that 320–340 W is the upper limit of his Z2. He also said that after a long ride at the upper end of Z2, he needs a day to recover. Assuming he has other training rides in his leg that week (another safe assumption, I’d say), I’d say him taking a day off afterwards sounds fairly standard.
As to the debate how Pogacar and his coach define Z2, whether they use Coggan’s default percentages or whether they base it off lactate values. I’d argue, this doesn’t really matter, because he said the line between Z2 and Z3 is around 340 W for him. (It does matter, of course, when we want to infer his FTP, but that’s just us wanting to know his number.)
We are taking what Pogacar says at face value, we are not assuming anything. We have some raw power numbers, durations and workout prescriptions.
I assume you mean to ask whether you can lift your lactate threshold. I don’t know and if it were possible, to what degree.
You can certainly train to ride for e. g. 5 hours at, say, 85 % of your FTP. (That’s a number I heard professional triathletes can reach.)
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He also says he uses HR not power.
You dont know and neither do I. Thats my point, as you agreed.
Its all speculation.
Of course it matters, otherwise we are talking different languages, which is also my point. And the false assumptions.
He said what? The line bewteen Z2/3 something you are assuming. Whats that line? Tell us?
Without a common language and definition there is no understanding or debate.
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5-hours at high z2 (0.72-0.75) is a difficult workout. That’s like 250-280 TSS. When I do those I have fatigue the next day too.
As a result, I’m not sure you can use that statement to conclude much about how he’s defining z2.
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If you calculate his 320W as upper Z2 (0.67 IF), his FTP would be around 480.
At TDF Plateau de Beille he did 6.8 W/kg for 40min (standardized to 60kg). Not knowing his exact weight, that would be 410W at 0.85IF for 60kg or 480W at 1.00 IF for 70kg.
Really high absolute values whatsoever 
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Yep… that “z2 ride all day no fatigue” isn’t really true. Everything accumulates fatigue. It’s just at a lower rate. My high z2 is 215/220. 3hrs riding precisely at this power and I am tired. Not that I can’t ride next day, but I wouldn’t do a vo2/threshold interval.
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Yeah… if there was a pace I could ride at literally all day without accumulating fatigue, I would be the best ultraendurance cyclist in the world 
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Yes. If you look at a plot of lactate vs power, the top pros are going to have a flat lactate curve that has a sharp exponential rise as it nears FTP. IE, the power at 2 mmol will be relatively close to the power at 4 mmol compared to most amateurs, and very different than someone that doesn’t do endurance training. The more fitness and endurance you build, the more the lactate curve shifts to the right, and the greater power you can produce in zone 2, which ultimately changes the percentage of power at zone 2 relative to zone 4.
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When you redefine “z2” based off changes in lactate kinetics rather than percent FTP or HR, and you find your “z2” is now higher than it was before…
…do the normal assumptions about relative lack of fatigue from doing z2 work and how you incorporate these sessions into your weeks, still apply?
@GPLama Could this be due to the ‘quirks’ of the shimano PMs as much as just being able to put out more power on a climb?
I’d assume he’s doing flats in the big ring and climbs in the small and IIRC that was one of the big issues with the Shimano PMs that the two rings differ significantly in their power readings.