Hi all, just started a MV Polarised plan and while looking at the calendar noticed my first scheduled VO2 Max workout has a PL of 5.6 and says it is not recommended. It also has no Alternative button available. Looking further down the calendar all VO2 workouts are PL 4.5 or higher.
Now my question is considering my PL for VO2 is a 1 does this seem correct or is this a bug?
Should I just do the planned workout regardless and just let AT scale me back if necessary?
Cheers
Your VO2 PL is likely 1.0 because you’ve not done any. Depending on your fitness, experience etc the lowest VO2 workout that will actually be productive for you might be a 3.9, 4.9, 5.9 or 6.9.
Try it and see. 
Have you actually started the plan? Or just scheduled it? I ask because the workouts often change once you start the plans.
As mentioned above, your VO2 number will go up fast. It’s only a 1 because you haven’t done one.
Could you post a screenshot of your current week and the next 1-2?
This is just an assumption, but from my experience with the Pol plans, the VO2 and Threshold workouts are pulled from a specific set of workouts. If you adapt one of those workouts it can’t just be any WO at the given PL, it has to be from the polarized set. Salado is likely the lowest PL in the polarized set.
Ah it’s not an easy one, seems like you have some rough shifts coming up. I’m also doing weird shifts, respect that you’re training through.
With your days off in the calendar you’re essentially missing the intensity days and that’s a part of why it looks so weird.
That said, the VO2max workout has no easier alternatives.
You could just play like it is now and see how it goes. overall i wonder if this is the right plan for you - might an LV plan where you can do 3/3 workouts per week not be better?
Do you have an event coming up? Otherwise some trainnow action if you don’t have an event come up?
No I can get a PL 4.3 alternative if I choose “achievable” in alternates.
Thanks for the reply’s. I may have been a bit unlucky in that I created my plan at the same time TR was moving the POL plans out of Early Access. So maybe that could have caused some issues.
I’ve run into issues before where I burnt myself out when the ramp rate/rate of progression through PLs by TR has been too fast. For me this was because I was doing extra volume with extra Z2 workouts each week and the occasional outdoor ride.
To address this, without reducing my volume, I started choosing lower level alternatives, in this case where you don’t have the option to choose an alternative I would just delete the workout and pick something I think I can do in the same power zone,
To give an example, for one of the weeks I have coming up I am prescribed 3 workouts: Katadhin -5 VO2, 2.4, Sleeping Beauty +3 VO2 4.3 and The Chimneys +2 Threshold 4.1. For a total of 3h30m and 231 TSS.
What I plan to do instead is: Baird -1 VO2 2.9, Grassy Ridge -1 VO2 2.4, Arrow Threshold 2.9 and Brasstown -1 x2. For a total of 6.5h and 323 TSS.
Its certainly slowing my progression through the PLs by doing the additional volume but I’m hoping that it will pay off in the longterm as I work my way up through the PLs and start increasing the intensity of the 3+ hours of Z2 I should start approaching a weekly TSS of ~400. Over the longterm, I am hoping this will make me a much stronger rider than if I stuck with ~240 TSS and 3.5h of workouts per week but with faster progression through the PLs.
Going into the calendar and updating each phase of base and build for the new POL seems to have fixed the issue.
Cheers for all the help
