It seems to me that the appropriate intervals for targeting fatigue resistance the end of a long ride would be different from the intervals you would place alone or at the beginning of a ride when the focus is “high quality” completion of the intervals.
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I’m not saying that they should be the same.
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One thing I now know for certain…
Randomly attempting someone’s structure / volume based on a forum post, is light years from wise. There’s just so many variables that aren’t detailed. Exact training history, age, diet, job, sleep, stress, illness etc etc.
What is worth trying, is some careful experimenting.
If you are looking to increase volume. Start by simply adding more Z2 to your existing training rhythm. Don’t go crazy. Try adding just 30mins per week. It won’t take long to build into solid hours. Be certain to up your fueling weekly, to compensate. That’s the most common error I see in riders upping volume. Failing to adapt their diet. Usually, by a fairly dramatic level.
When you go beyond, say 15hrs a week. You’d be shocked at how much you need to increase your weekly calorie intake.
In regards to fatigue resistance. I don’t think there’s any really solid data on it yet. Doing intervals early, mid or late into a long ride are likely going to have very similar physiological adaptations. Personally, I do feel that attempting some of this interval work at the end of a session can be very valuable. However, I expect it’s more psychological than physical improvement that’s gained. Also, as others have said. This sort of training is incredibly taxing. It’s due to the low glycogen. As recent studies have clearly demonstrated, the recovery from heavy to severe training while in a very low glycogen state is significantly longer.
There’s also the issue of ultimate performance. If you are only training two or possibly three hard sessions a week, it’s wise to complete them when well rested and well fueled. This simply allows you to generate more power. Both in maximal numbers and time in zone. This is likely the main driver of adaptation, long term.
It’s not the epic workout that makes you stronger, it’s the accumulation of many sensible workouts repeated week on week, year on year.
Boring, but true 
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I use all different combinations but definitely harder first most of the time. I’m a big fan of 2-a-days. Makes it easier with life.
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It seems you might be on to something 
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Hehe 
. I will try it sometimes. And then I come back and then I will say lucky it was only 4x2.5 min
I don’t have problems with long indoors. Did zwift London full and Uber pretzel. Those hurt. Especially my legs suffer indoor more then outdoor.
But for my goals I also have to perform some intervals later on in training ride after some solid work. 2 weeks ago I did 3hrs Z2 and then 75min sweetspot. Felt good.
My goal is a 8hr GranFondo with 5hrs of climbing. So I want to be able to do the 4 Alpe cols at 0.85 so I need the fatigue resistance for the last climb (alpe d’Huez)
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What sessions do you do? Is it 2x 1h30? Two interval sessions?
This is where I’m falling on this as well. Too taxing doing too much hard work late in a session, so save it for specific times where it will fit in the schedule.
Maybe because I’m trying to balance three sports, and running and swimming are typically shorter than cycling but i attack my overall volume by small incremental increases in each sport, it’s not as easy as just adding in time in the saddle. Plus running and swimming are both harder to eat during exercise, so you may notice small changes in volume from those two sapping away your overall energy.
Also, olbrecht had his athletes do very easy work with intermittent intensity as a boost to overall aerobic capacity, as their o2 consumption increased in the easier efforts afterwards so there has neen measured benefit from the go hard early approach. In my experience, overall volume allows me to have more productive interval sessions, which is what translates to better fatigue resistance.
No, I actually don’t do that many interval sessions. And this season is slightly different. From Nov-Feb/Mar I only chased one metric progressively: 7d-work (kJ)
And this by riding/running at/below LT1. It did not matter to me how this metric was met, whenever I had time.
Here is a week in Dec:
Actual intensities of these endurance sessions was the result of how had felt.
I just did a short threshold block recently and moved into 5d-Ronnestad-pre-race-shock-microcycle yesterday 
This means intervals + an easy session in the afternoon:
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I’ll be interested to hear how you do on the Marmotte this year.
I did it in 2016 when it turned to freezing rain on the Galibier and they closed the summit in the end! I was close to hypothermia descending afterwards in a river down to Borg and almost DNF’d due to cold and fatigue. I carried on up AdH and had possibly the worst 1.5hrs riding of my life - zero energy and a total mental meltdown from the cold and wet earlier and probably just not quite being fit enough that year. It ended up putting me off thebike for 2 years after questionning my sanity and life choices multiple times on AdH 
I’d done 10 years of Euro GFs and Raids including gold medal times, but this one crushed me!
Right now I’m already wondering if I should try it again though and banish the demons 
I’ll need to be better prepared this time but having done it once at least I know what to expect…
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Dolomites and Alps can get snow and poor weather year round. I remember being snowed in, in a mountain hut for 3 days in July, about 16 years ago.
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Wow! Nice months. Will be super for your aerobic condition I guess. Great work!
Hehe. Marmotte. Always great stories. 
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It is the 5th time. I always said I stop biking if I go under 8h (Total time including first descend). Did 8u07 in 2018. My Strava comment was: ‘this is the last time. Suffering got again another dimension’. And see…I Will be back again. 
But indeed. It is a very hard one. If you emtpy the bottle too soon, the Alpe is horror. But last year I did the Otztaler. That was even harder.
But I keep you posted for my work towards this GF. Today did a 20min Treshold climb in zwift and then 60min SST up the Alpe du zwift. Fatigue resistance training
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Yep - all bets are off in the high mountains!
A few friends did the Raid Dolomites a few years ago and literally had 9 days of non-stop biblical rain in mid summer 
I shouldn’t laugh as I’m there for a week in July…culminating in a ride up the Stelvio
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But why are you fan of two-a-days? And aren’t you training for long races? Why two-a-days during weekend, why not one long?
Because
- I have a wife and 3 children
- I have a job
- winter is miserable for outdoor riding; 4-5h on trainer are miserable, too.
- I don’t believe 2-a-days vs one-long makes a huge difference for endurance in Nov and Dec.
- high volume and running are sort of exclusive
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I have to add to this, if I had wanted I could have done more single long sessions. However, I did not see the need for this. Mainly inpspired the the Norwegians when the started prep for long distance after the Olympics. There were not really many longish sessions. Actually, it is always said they do high volume but this is the sum of many shorter sessions. Of course, they have to balance three sports but compared to other IM athletes the long grind is absent. With the exception of a few sessions which had probably test character.
Furthermore, looking at all my cycling pros on Strava, most of them do their long rides with loooong breaks. Lunch breaks, Coffee breaks. And so much descending when Andorra (or similar) based.
Therefore, metabolic flux over a week appears to be more important than executing a single session like a Duracell bunny in Erg-mode.
Apart from this, it allowed me to execute everything at a slightly faster level. Far more entertaining. Even though it violates current mainstream: we all have to train super super super easy.
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Because of biomechanical limitations and stress?
Cycling no such issues.
But I’m mainly surprised by the absence of frequent longish bike riding.
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Brendan Housler won two US national titles in 2021, and I believe is coached by Tom Bell (? not sure). He posted “less 5 hours rides and more consistent 4h rides” on the 2021 what worked / didn’t work thread:
Similar seems to be working for me, but at my age its more consistent 2 hour rides.
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