palewin said:Something sounds wrong here. First, L3 is Tempo and L4 is Threshold - neither of these are "base mile" ranges. I'll really stick my neck out and guess that most of us, esp. at this time of year, aren't doing more than 60 minutes of L4 in a daily ride; I typically end up with about 45 minutes of L4 in intervals greater than 10 minutes or so (i.e. there may be more time in L4, but I don't count the 1 & 2 minute stretches of climbing, etc.). And typically a workout is either L4 or L3 intervals (not both in one ride), and even in L3, I don't think many people put in more than an hour or so at Tempo. (Now, before Fergie appears, I'm talking about Masters and lets say cat3/4 riders, not professionals, world-class amateurs, or the genetically gifted abnormal ones 😉 .) But back to basics - if you've only been riding for 3 months (I think you said that in an earlier post) I think most of your riding would be L2/L3 (and not as specific intervals) with some low-end L4. Its been mentioned in other threads that you can see huge improvements simply by accumulating L4 time, without doing anything in L5/L6 (and certainly not in January!). If you're having fun with those high-end intervals, fine, but if you're doing them because you feel you're supposed to, I think you're working too hard for someone quite new to the sport.
We must be talking about different levels then. L3 is endurance, L4 is tempo, L5 is threshold, and L6 is anaerobic. Thats the levels I've been using at least. Sorry if there was a miscommunication.