It’s more like people have different priorities and budgets and can choose how to spend their money how they see best. TR works great if it works for you and your goals and availability line up with the plans that they provide. But if you have more or less time, the plans burn you out, or you don’t have a consistent schedule then a coach can do a lot to alleviate the stress around adapting the TR plans to your schedule. They can also provide advice around racing, nutrition, skills, weightlifting, motivation, etc etc.
TR is great and at a price that works for a ton of people, especially if they are relatively time crunched. But I don’t think anyone would argue that TR is better than a good coach.
Oh I am really familiar with that and the study it is based on. Just pasting this as a huge contrast to typical polarized approach - expecially as the first week is not hard it is extremely demanding.
I don’t remember the studies but the gist of his video was that if you do it right you could end up with the peak of all fitness peaks. but if you get it wrong then you could spend weeks trying to recover.
I think a lot of people screw it up as they don’t actually get enough quality intensity in the first week, so don’t overload enough to get the benefit during the following weeks. You need to really put on your big boy bibs for that first week! Of course that means you also need enough underlying fitness to handle the load and adapt rather than collapse from it.
I just watched this video. Does make a solid point in terms of people on TR starting from a very trainable base initially.
I am curious, how many people have opted for the long slow approach to base? Perhaps opting for traditional base instead of SSB programs. It is quite a time commitment and a challenge if you’re working full time and have a family as well. Would be interesting to hear how people have managed traditional base alongside work and family commitments and any strategies they employed to undertake base training that way … no doubt some very early mornings before everyone else wakes up!
PErsonally I started with a long and slow approach, then went to sweet spot build MV, then moved to sweet spot base HV, and then after about 7 months of “base training” I got some physiological testing and was told that once it makes sense, based on the specific needs of my physiology, that I should move to more of a polarized approach.
Mostly spend a lot of time at fatmax to increase capillarization and mitochondrial function, and then some really high intensity stuff with full rest inbetween for some structural muscular work.
I am just finishing up 8 weeks doing this, and not only have I seen further improvements, but I feel fresher.
It took me a while to fully absorb the stress from the sweet spot high volume, but I think the long deep 7 months of base REALLY set the stage for some great adaptations now.
I get re-assessed this weekend, and atm I am in the shape of my life.
I even ran my best ever 10k ( broke 36 minutes, yay! ) off of 1/3 of the volume I used to run, and only a handful of actual run workouts.
Typically in the past when in season ( 2016-2017 ) I’d peak around the 325 watts mark on the road bike, and then on my TT bike I’d be about 5% lower, so a good 20 minute effort on my tt bike would roughly match up with my road bike FTP.
Starting this progression in the off season after about 2-3 years of mostly focusing on my running ( and then hurting myself from possibly over running ) I Rode for a while before finally getting the guts to assess at 272. I knew it would be down as I had a half iron in 2018 that was 15% lower power than the previous 2 years that I’d done the same race, and had been cycling even less than that recently.
Going from 272, I climbed to 316 by the time I was done sweet spot high volume 1.
I have an assessment this weekend, but based on a recent 20 minute time trial on my tt bike at 339 watts, some of the online racing I’ve done, and the intersection of my power curve vs lactate heart rate based on a step test, and then a pretty damn tough workout last week based on the estimated FTP, which was meant to help me verify my estimated ftp, it appears I’m roughly 340 watts at the moment.
Find out on saturday what the number is, as well as what the training progression will look like going forward. Based on the results so far, and the room I see I still have to grow on the vo2 max side of things to raise the ceiling, my guess is that it will be more of the same, though at a higher intensity given the increase in fitness.
As far as progression here is my personal experience, your mileage may vary
2019 season: SSB1 &2 and General build - huge gains made and setting all kinds of PRs
2020 season: SSB1 &2 and General Build - tiny gains, barely any PRs for power though still moved forward a little
2021 season: Traditional Base 1,2,3, short power build - all kinds of all time power PRs and feeling better than ever
Following up after my lab testing, “Lactate balance point” ( can be a proxy for lactate threshold or ftp ) was pegged as 333, with my balance point power zone as 331-350.
Best overall assessment I’ve had to date.
Also saw the BEST vo2 numbers I’ve ever reported which shows the ceiling is getting bumped up significantly and will allow me to further exploit higher ftp numbers once i start to focus on bringing the floor up to maych the new ceiling.
They don’t really exist yet so not sure, maybe the a few hundred folks in beta are better suited to answer that. So far the response has been seemingly mixed from our users
The polarized plans were brought out after the Dylan video (in response to ??) I don’t think his channel is about commenting on everything that TR/Zwift does, just training in general