Regarding repeated days of intense training, it seems an increasing number
of coaches have abandoned the philosophy of 'hard-easy'. One example would
be American cycle coach(es) David Morris (and Dean Golich) who advocates
blocks of intense training (not surprisingly called 'Block Training'). For
more, see 'Performance Cycling' by David Morris (McGraw-Hill).

Jack Daniels has also been an advocate of repeated days of intense training,
see the most recent edition of his book, 'Daniel's Running Formula'.

As a cycle coach myself I think part of the problem might be due to heart
rate monitors. HR is often suppressed the day after an intense session at
the same absolute intensity. This is often mis-interpreted as being a sign
of fatigue / overtraining. Athletes can often still complete the same amount
of work; this is apparent if they are using an on-bike power meter. I
imagine the same is true of runners who train using pace rather than HR.

L.