I changed my upcoming plan for second A race to Polarized Base + Build high volume and after adaptation? Those look highly logical to me. No workout is over 2 hour (My build plan still have 3~4h ones, but looks like they will be gone after adaptation) . 2 high intensity days. Total weekly volume around 8 to 9 hours. Nice volume for my current situations.
This is the truly out-of-shelf training plan for time crunched athlete, I think. There was time when “Low volume with added z2 workouts, substitute Saturday workout with long z2” was way to go, but no. Take a look at current POL plan. Looks totally legit to me.
Next week I have 8:20 minutes scheuded - in two workouts there is 1:10 just above threshold - it doesn’t feel like too much for me, that is even less than the 80:20 model.
What has your experience been?
It’s actually a fairly common comment here in the forums. I’ve never understood it. I think their point is that you’re doing a bunch of Z2 work, so the recovery is built in, but I’ve never seen it that way. You’re progressively adding hours to any Pol plan and doing lots of long rides on the weekends, and for my body, that adds up, even if it’s at very low intensity.
I’m enjoying Polarized Base Mid but that might be because I like threshold efforts and zone 2 riding. Nailing a threshold workout outside just feels amazing and I still get the z2 rides which are doable even when outside stressors or a lack of adequate recovery have me not feeling super motivated.
I think for the most part we are all effectively doing progressive overload with these plans. Not having rest weeks, which again aren’t “off” just Z2, will catch up to you.
If you really don’t understand why someone might need a rest or cutback week then your FTP is probably set too low.
Not sure if this is the right place for this, but hoping someone won’t mind humouring me on the following points:
I understand the rationale behind polarized training and I’d like to try it, but why does a WORKOUT need to be polarized? I thought the idea was for easy rides to be easy and hard rides to be hard, but when comparing POL build vs General build, the TiZ for the hard workouts is lower for the POL workout, so the workout is easier, and therefore the overall TSS each week is lower.
The reason I’m considering a POL plan is because I’ve previously always done Sweetspot base low volume,plus extra unstructured z2, but I’d now like to try following a plan that only has 2 days of intensity per week. The reason for this is because I get through the aforementioned base phase quite well, but then burn out during build phase. Is following a POL plan better for AT than following Sweetspot and replacing an intensity session with z2 every week, considering my intensity concerns listed in the previous point?
I want to use plan builder, but it always gives me sweetspot base, which is 3 intensity days per week. How do I use plan builder and only have 2 intensity days, without constantly replacing workouts?
A question I have about polarized, at least within trainer road, is how does it actually flow into a specialty phase?
I’m two months from Leadville and not going to switch to polarized now but am interested in try it. It just seems like an abrupt change going polarized build to specialty phase.
It is an abrupt change, but I’ve hit my speciality block feeling strong and prepared.
I switched to polarized plans earlier this year as I was rebuilding from a knee injury.
I completed a low volume polarized base block, then a low volume polarized build block, and I’m now three weeks into low volume rolling road race speciality - all workouts this block have been VO2 or Anaerobic focused. It feels good to get some power down, see big jumps in my top end progression levels, and I’m coming into a de-load week feeling like I’m making progress.
As @pedalpusher174 said, you should be entering the Specialty Phase feeling strong and prepared.
By the time you complete Polarized Build, you’ll have laid a solid foundation down with sustained Threshold and VO2 work. All that conditioning you’ll have built up from Base and Build will make up the bottom two-thirds of your fitness “pyramid,” which will allow you to finish up with your Specialty Phase at the very top.
We’d recommend the Cross-Country Marathon Specialty Phase for a long race like Leadville. You’ll find there is actually some decent crossover between the Polarized Base and Build plans and the XC Marathon Specialty plan – the Specialty Phase will have some more surges sprinkled into your workouts, though, to prepare you for the higher intensities you’ll encounter on race day.
Rest assured that by the time you enter your Specialty Phase, your fitness will be right where it needs to be to tackle those workouts. Additionally, Adaptive Training will make sure you’re getting appropriately challenging workouts for your current fitness levels, which will further dial things in for you as you work through your plan.
Hope this helps! Feel free to ask me any other questions.
My personal experience with Pol. plans. Regarding FTP they have done nothing spectacular. Please see the 4-month comparison below. Just for the record. I never had the feeling I overperform on the ramp test. More the opposite.
I did mid-volume back in 2020-2021 and low volume Pol plan with a lot of added Z2 riding this spring.
The TSS is up by about 30 on the 6 Wk. avg in the Pol. plans
old school plans
POL Plan
What about sustained power for a longer interval? I do not know as 16 min. intervals were not really part of the old workouts I did.
The only thing I see that I gained from the Pol plans is more time on the bike.
Please also note that Low volume will no longer be 4 hours a week when you get your PL up (over 7). It will be 6-7 hours a week. The only way TR can push the PL in endurance is by adding time. The Low vol. Pol. base I do at the moment will give me 4 hours alone on the Saturday ride.
I’m not Zach, but I’d like to ask a clarifying question. It sounds like you’re saying you burn out from too much intensity, but are questioning why you don’t get more intensity from the Pol plans because you’re chasing CTL, is that correct?
I ask because Seiler (and others) frustrate me sometimes because they talk about how all TSS is not the same and that you should not chase CTL, but then turn around and talk about progressively increasing CTL…
As to your workout distribution question, I’ve heard Seiler say about 80% of workouts should be LT1 and 20% LT3, but time in zone usually looks more like 90/10.
I wouldn’t expect “big” FTP gains if any with a low volume polarized plan. That also depends on your training history/ experience where it might work for newbie gains.
One hard work out a week is more like a maintenance week for me, in my opinion.
Just my point. With the added Z2, and also an extra hard day added every second week, I do between 8-10 hours a week (TSS between 400-600). That is not enough riding for the Pol. plan to work for me.
Why don’t you try the medium volume polarized plan? That way you actually get two hard consistent workouts every week. Riding zone 2 all the time can only get you so far on 10 hours a week.
It sounds like you’re not actually doing polarized but more maintenance with 1 maybe 2 harder workouts a week. You might need to add the extra hard day consistently to notice if it works.
Im not chasing CTL, just trying to understand why TR would create special POL workouts that are easier than their non-POL equivalents. In my mind, the “easier” element of a POL plan comes from fewer intensity days, not easier workouts.
Ideally I’d like to try 2 hard days per week instead of 3, and those 2 days be just as hard as a normal plan. I could do the normal plans (sweet spot base, general build etc) and remove a workout every week, but im not sure how well the adaptive training would handle this.
