I've been going on for a few posts about the difficulty for the amateur cyclist of using Zone systems to control training intensity. I want to suggest another way.
How about thinking of the context you're riding in? How about thinking of the terrain you're riding? These are likely to be much more apparent to the amateur cyclist than an abstract Zone.
So if you go for a long bike ride on flat terrain, and you don't indulge in any sprints, you can be fairly certain you have completed a low-intensity, endurance capacity building training session.
If you head for the hills, and the hills are frequent and steep, then you have completed a hill climbing training session.
If you go out with the local club chain-gang you may be contributing to your speed training.
This is obvious I hear you say. Yes, that's right and perhaps for the amateur cyclist "obvious" is a good place to be. Obvious means you can think about your training in a way you can understand, and therefore in a way you can control and manipulate.
And it means you can relate your training to the nature of the challenges you want to take on. If you are aiming to complete a hilly sportive then you know what sort of training might be appropriate. If you are aiming to complete a week long tour then again you have some indications from the challenge for what you need to focus on.
Training becomes purposeful and directly connected to what you are trying to achieve.
Italian events and European climbs