Those glorious ambling rides will often fall foul of structure and adherence to the HR range and consistency often prescribed. You hit a hill, you’re doing threshold for 5mins, you coast down the other side, you’re doing nothing. You have a coffee stop, that’s a big no no etc…
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Then you need more discipline if you can’t stay in Z2 both up and down hill. As to the coffee stop can’t see why you see that as a problem. It’s not like it cancels out all the benefits, not by a long way.
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Polarized does not require you to ride 3 hours on the trainer. If they make the plans that way they are doing on purpose so they fail.
If you have to ride on a trainer during winter months, rain,etc. one workout is to do a 1.5 hour base ride with 10 second high cadence spin ups with low power. Works on your coordination and keeps the ride engaging. You can also do the same time and do big gear sprints. So start in the 50/13 or so for a full stop and do a FG sprint seated until you reach 100 rpm or 30s. You may need to shift depending on your trainer. Do this 4 times. The rest is base riding.
If they just put in some barely varying ERG ride in zone 2 it will be very telling about if they are putting much thought into the plan.
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Only thing I notice though is I stay faster riding indoors. Even during the summer I will do some hard intervals or VO2 workouts when the weather forces me inside to ride.
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But do you get faster (than what?) or just stay the same as last year?
Haha, okay, I’m sure discipline will make 15% gradients doable in Z2. The arguments I’ve heard is that a coffee stop / long downhills do diminish the benefit, ends up being seen as two rides. Still not a reason to not have a cafe.
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Most cyclist do neither. 
True. But I think in practice, the long weekend ride is the cornerstone of the high volume rider.
Interesting some of the prejudices going around about what a cyclist should be like, or how the should train or behave 
Loads of different types of riders, some probably couldn’t even care that much about cycling other than it’s a part of their triathlon training, but they’re far fitter than most guys who spend hours outdoors in the countryside.
Some just enjoy training, they get a buzz from it, including pushing themselves, and the indoor trainer is the perfect tool for that these days.
I go through phases myself. When I was most in love with training, I did almost 6 months indoors. Other times I cannot even look at the indoor trainer.
I think we’ll see the younger generation who grew up with indoor training apps like Zwift spending longer on it and having a better tolerance for it. There’s century group rides on Zwift every weekend, think about the young dudes doing that stuff - it’s becoming normal for them.
That aside, there’s also a bit of privilege going around unchecked. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to ride outdoors when they feel like it. Many riders live close to work in inner city spots that are horrible to ride in - are they any less of a rider because at that period in their lives they need to prioritise work and efficiency and safety over being a hero and hitting the road?
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You have to avoid those if you can’t get up them in the appropriate zone
Its really hard to put together a route that permits strict zone discipline where I live, so when I find a good one I repeat it
Even with ones like below, it isn’t perfect
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Yup. Maybe I should buy a new house then… Or turn the garden into a velodrome, all for unproven science.
My point was - its possible, you just have to spend some time figuring it out for where you live. The ride above was over five hours with 13 minutes of coasting and about 15 minutes above the tempo range I was using as my max. All in a ride with around 60 feet of elevation gain per mile.
I’m not suggesting you have to do this, or even should - but to say it is impossible is incorrect
Don’t think anyone said it was impossible did they? Phil said long exploratory rides, not finding one loop and repeating.
Riding on the road isn’t being a hero. It’s just what normal riding is.
It is near perfect, great job.
To be honest if that tempo is low end tempo that for you might be very near to perfect, either way it doesn’t matter it is ‘good enough’
Think the hero point went over your head there. People talk about doing a ride on the road like it has some elevated status.
Don’t subscribe to this idea that cycling on a road is ‘normal’ anymore either. If someone spends their time on trails, or a track or on Zwift. That’s all normal to me.
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But no one here apart from you is according it hero status. On the road, on the trail it is all good. Perfectly normal. Neither are hero stuff just what everyday cyclists do.
Of course cycling on a road is normal just like cycling on trails is. People has been doing it for over a century after all. It’s the norm for the vast majority.
Exactly, we’re actually in agreement and glad you’re now including more types of cycling than just ‘road’ as being normal.
Nothing heroic, special or elevated about any one type.
That was my point. Glad we agree 
I wasn’t trying to exclude others as not being normal.
I used to ride my tracker bike down the woods a good 40 or more years ago.