>>952198..listen, buddy, I don't know who you are or what kind of cycling you do. Me, I'm a road cyclist on a local team. I train 6 days a week, and in a normal week the 7th day is in the gym doing core strengthening. Yesterday I did 30 minutes continuous at Threshold, a new PR for me. Looking at doing a TT this year, for the first time since I got hurt a few years back, and I think I can win one, or at least place in the top 5. Not bragging, just establishing who I am and what I'm about. Long rides at Threshold are no picnic.
There are two kinds of cyclists: Competitors, and everyone else. I don't care what kind of bike we're talking about, or what terrain you ride on, or how many days or how many miles a week, everyone falls into one of those two categories. The riders who are not competitors? They'll back off if it's starting to get uncomfortable. Why? Because they have *no reason* to push themselves that hard. In terms of training zones, if they push past Endurance and into Tempo or beyond, they won't stay there for more than a very short amount of time before backing off, because it's *uncomfortable* for them, and they don't feel the need to go that fast.
Competitors? They aren't pushing themselves to the point of it being abject suffering for no good reason, they know that on the other side of that suffering, there are *gains*. They know that as the mesocycles go by, they'll be able to go a little faster and a little longer because of that suffering, and they know that from those gains, comes getting that much closer to winning races, or that town-line sprint, or being first to the top of that big climb on the weekly fast group ride, or whatever it is that, for them, translates into 'competition'. Usually it's about some race or another, but it can even mean being the first to the top of that one big climb on the weekly group ride, or just beating your own PR on a set course you ride alone every week. There's a challenge, and they feel the need to meet it.
