No Toks I didn't say structured training, I said structural training.
Structured training is obviously having a plan, having specific goals, looking for specific improvements. Having some structure to your riding rather than just commuting to work every day at the same speed, and doing a couple of long rides at the weekend.
Structural training develops the structures within the body. So LBP-20 will increase the bloodflow to the muscles, increase the amount of mitochondria in the cells, increase the amount of capillaries within the muscles, train the body to use fats as fuel and to spare the glycogen in the muscles. If you stop training structurally for a few weeks, you will still have some of the benefits left within your body.
Functional training is different, and this is what I believe you are doing and what most people do. It is a higher intensity type of training and doesn't see as many long term permanent effects in the body. Ie if you stop doing all functional training, you very quickly lose the benefit of it, as you saw by being off the bike for 4 weeks earlier in the year.
This is my point, there are benefits in getting an lbp test and then spending long hours in the saddle at lbp-20. And Huw was trying to increase my fitness base because I had not responded as well as I could have to the much harder, higher intensity sessions I was doing last year.
But if you don't have that amount of time, then you need to spend your time wisely and use your - ie Toks - type of training to get the results you want.
Ps sorry to hear about your bike