By the time you get to the end of a 2/3hour Proper Zone 2 workout you know you have done it. Just think, that is constant pressure on the pedals for the whole time and something you can almost never do outside. Some say that such a 1 hour turbo session is equivalent to 2 hours outside, what is the consensus of opinion on that??
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Yes I heard this also, from a cycling coach I had for a few months before I started using Sufferfest. 1-hour Indoor Z2 session worth the same as a 2-hour outdoor Z2.
I donāt think itās a fully equivalent A = B. I donāt think there are any actual studies that qualify a specific ratio. Iāve heard a few different ones. 1 hour = 2. 2 hours = 3. 3 hours = 5. Etc, etc. Mostly itās a general acknowledgement that indoor training is usually more efficient because itās easy to stick to the proper zones. No freewheeling. No accelerating from a stoplight. No terrain to compensate for. No signs to sprint for. Etc, etc. So, definitely more efficient, yes. I just wouldnāt bank too much money on exact time equivalents.
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Agreed, and if there is an equivalent, itās really hard to believe itās 2:1. Seems really unlikely.
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Wouldnāt it be nice if it was 5:1 ha ha !!
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Totally depends on what your local riding is like and how disciplined you can be.
I can go outdoors and do a gravel ride with 90% TiZ and ~1min coasting = itās just as hard in terms of pressure on the pedals as indoor.
If you live somewhere very hilly or with a lot of traffic itās going to be a different story entirey
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It DOES make a difference if youāre talking POWER vs HEART RATE Zone2.
Z2 Power is much more disciplined (and difficult to maintain outside) than Z2 HR.
I just rolled an outdoor ride today, chose my road specifically because the grades are mostly gradual, traffic is low, and there are no stops required at all.
The HR Z2 was pretty easy to manage, notwithstanding a nasty cold rain that hit about an hour before expected today and forced me to roll a little faster at times, standing to get over a hill so as not to hold up a vehicle behind that should have already passed me 1/2 mile before when there was a straight, wide-open stretch. 
This 35 mile ride had 1657ā of elevation gain, so it wasnāt really flat. HR distribution was like this:
Z2 POWER was not so easy, and I wasnāt watching it anyway, just watched the HR and tried to stay in the right range. This is what resulted in terms of Power distribution:
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In other words, it is far easier for nonprofessional riders to control effort (heart rate) then it is to control output (power).
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You dont need to be a pro to have pretty tight control over power.
Just correct gearing, a well planned route and some discipline on the climbs
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I did not say impossible, I said easier.
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Iād like to hear more about this. Does it come in a packet?
Iāve never experienced it.
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Here is the latest from IƱigo San MillƔn, it answers some very practical questions about training.
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I really appreciated his addressing the issue of leaving zone 2 of necessity on an outdoor ride, e.g. on a hill or after a stop sign. It seems you have to be working quite hard, to the point that blood lactate levels are high, for increased effort to ruin your Z2 training. This is quite a relief as I was beginning to wonder how one could ever train outdoors!
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Havenāt watched it yet but looking forward to it. Might even watch it while doing an indoor zone 2 ride on Sunday 
I noticed that as well, and it is a relief.
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Excellent video! Fascinating guy! Thanks for that, @Heretic
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I also really appreciate Si pointing out that it didnāt work for his time crunched training for one hour events. I think it makes a ton of sense. If youāre trying to train to be fast for an hour, maybe train to be fast for an hour. Apparently Nils Van der Poel did almost exclusively threshold work for 10 weeks before a skating event and won with a world record. It was only a 12 minute event though, but the training volume was high. The interesting thing to me is there are two reasons stated to avoid zone 2 (of 3), and one is it prevents going hard on hard days, but it seems he didnāt do much HIIT, and anyway, it didnāt seem to slow down his 12 minute work. Did it damage his endurance benefit? Maybe. But I think many amateur cyclists are not like marathon or triathalon atheletes. They arenāt necessarily training for something longer than what theyāre always doing. For me, I donāt know if training hard is ābad,ā but I donāt believe my middle days ever limited my hard days, because I have limited time and rest days anyway.
It seems unclear if thereās any real difference between polarized and pyramid really since it seems Seiler measures whole HITT activities as zone 3, where many measure by minutes, making it look polarized. I feel like traditional suff might have been neither really, but a more ātime crunchedā balance.
I want to find out more about the evidence (results) for āspoilingā zone 2 training. A lot of amateurs do a lot pretty mixed up riding on weekends. Iām not convinced thereās any meaningful downside to doing that and still hitting a hiit session or two in the week, especially if your goal anyway is primarily to stay fit and ride fast with buddies on weekend rides!
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You should read the whole of the Nils Van der Poel story (howtoskate.se).
Yes, he did a crazy threshold block. But before that he did a massive base block cranking out 30hrs a week of zone2.
He needed the mountain of z2 work to build a strong enough aerobic base to be able to cope with the subsequent threshold work.
P.S. Anyone that likes nerding out on training should give the paper a read. It demonstrates how a real back to basics approach along with some good genetics and a whole lot of hard work can work wonders. Donāt be surprised if you see this guy in the pro peleton in years to come.
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IƱigo San MillĆ”n made it clear that Si should have trained his glycogen system for his race given the nature of the competition. In other videos, he made it very clear that as the race season approaches PogaÄar transitions to more race specific training.
He also stated elsewhere that he has no preference between polarized and pyramid style training.
His fundamental point is that from a bioenergetic point of view, if you want to stimulate the mitochondria growth in your muscles, you must focus on the training stimulus that achieves that result - Zone 2 training. Zone 3 training, or mixed Z2 and Z4 training does not achieve that result.
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I thought it interesting that he likes to push right to the upper end of zone 2. Iām more worried about slipping into zone 3 so have tended to make sure I keep back from that edge.
Iām trying a different season of training, starting with a block of predominantly zone 2 with one VO2/MAP a week, then going to one MAP and one threshold a week with the rest zone 2. Thatās pretty much the point Iām at now and so far have recovered any fitness lost over the off season, if not slightly fitter. Where Iām not sure itās quite working if for how long I can hold sweet spot/FTP which is obviously important for some TT events. Thatās where I think a pyramid approach can work, so I will pick up the SYSTM TT plan after the next block to make my training more specific as I go into TT season. Iām hoping that overall this will leave me better prepared than just hitting back to back 12 week plans which is what Iāve done in the past.
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