after talking to some friends and listening to this stephen seiler’s ted talk, I was wondering if trying the polarized plans would be a good option.
has anyone tried them? has your ftp improved? did you see improvements when riding outdoors?..i know it sounds kind of stupid, but I fear that too much low intensity training will leave me a “low intensity rider” , with lower power output and few capacity to dig deep and push hard both indoors and outdoors
it would be great if you could share your experience!
For me it was completly opposite of what you are afraid of. My sprint sucked before polarised and after polarized it still does, but I’m not targeting it at all. I’m training for sustained climbing somewhere between 4-60mins. (Local hillclimbing competition, best times on selected strava segments) After doing polarised my 1-10min power improved much more than before when I rode around sweet spot, my endurance improved too, but 10-60min power increased the least. I’m guessing its because of lower fatigue thanks to lot of Z2, and then I could really dig deep and finish intervals at upper end of target zone, sometimes even add repeats. All in all, after doing polarised I have my best fitness ever, and breaking power records all over the curve month after month. And I’m fairly trained, this is 3rd year with some structure and even before I was riding regularly since I got my first bike with training wheels.
Really?
I’m interested in pretty much the same thing as you: increasing my climbing habilities, so your post is really helpful!
I don’t compete or anything but I really enjoy giving everything during my outdoor weekend ride with my friends; and local climbs are the place where we really push it hard.
Awesome! I’m starting to think that it can be a good option
Thanks!
Interesting, glad you’re seeing results. Longer term I’d be interested to know if you plateau with polarised, or how much of your gains are from training novelty.
After a winter of polarised, I switched to pyramidal training. Polarised got me where I needed to be for racing after a long break, and with some long and low rides I’m more efficient in Z1 & Z2. I’m finding that pyramidal style training hasn’t given me power gains as much. On the flip side, repeatability, and endurance are better.
I based it on 8 week high volume, but customized it because I wanted something longer, and I stopped riding at trainer, so it was mix of this and garmin TT training plan. In the end it was 7 weeks base, 8 weeks build and 6 weeks specialty. Then it was my race day and now im repeating build. Still getting improvements.
Customized TR plan I would say, but I only stretched it and added volume based on my understanding from podcasts and other resources. So I’m fairly confident the goal and methods of getting there werent changed, just volume and time span.
I used the polarized plan without AT for two cycles of the plan. After that my progression levels looked like:
After I got into AT I used plan builder to make a plan and then, per @IvyAudrain, swapped the base phase for polarized. Now, after a couple of weeks, my progression levels look like:
To me it looks like AT is gradually changing the plan to a typical, non-polarized, plan after starting with a polarized plan. I don’t know if AT is smart enough to realize that I started with a polarized plan and then keep it polarized. @IvyAudrain any opinion of that?
Might help to know if you did all rides that were included in AT (inside rides and Garmin outside ones that fully count). Not to mention what your practice of accepting or rejecting adaptations was in the process.
I had a few outside rides that didn’t get counted but I did all of the prescribed rides indoors. When I got adaptation suggestions I blindly accepted them to see what would happen. It appears the the adaptations don’t keep the character of the plan (polarized). They just seem to crank every category up and down…
YEP Chad’s advice is correct, and its important to keep in mind that while Adaptive Training is still in beta, the adaptations you are experiencing on a POL plan (or ina POL block) are not guaranteed to follow a polarized framework. These plans are still in their experimental phase and as such, we simply haven’t built for that edge case yet.
It would be worth getting in touch with support@trainerroad.com so they can check those adaptations out, and we can start documenting how the beta athletes are experiencing POL + AT to help improve it! Thanks in advance.
After my A event in January, I did Traditional Base MV, Polarized Base MV, and and now working my way through Polarized Build MV. Even though I haven’t been able to do as many long aerobic rides as I would have liked (in and out of lockdown several times this year), my FTP has gone from 255 in January to 280 (this is after about 3 years of structured training). Judging from how comfortable 16 min threshold intervals are feeling, I think I am due another FTP bump when I retest.
Due to just 2 intensity days, I have been able to also build up my running to 40k/25 miles per week while doing MV POL.
I’ve just started SSBLV2 and thinking of swapping it for the polarised plan. The thing is though, that on weekends I like to get out and ride. No intervals, just a social ride generally hard and could be anywhere from 60 minutes to four hours. I’m assuming this doesn’t align with the polarised aspect of the plan, but has anyone got any advice/experience with this? Will it greatly affect the outcome?
I like to stick with low volume so I can fit in a couple of these rides a week.
I guess as long as the extra rides don’t diminish the quality of the hard rides there s no problem.
The only problem is: how do you really know for sure if they don’t
Just play it by ear - if the weekend ride one week is longer and has more hard efforts, then call it one of your ‘hard’ days and drop one of the interval sessions. If its an easier ride or longer endurance pace then just make sure you have sufficient recovery before your next hard interval day.
I think the problem comes if your social/group rides start to become 3-4 times a week and you lose both the steady aerobic endurance rides AND the higher intensity hard days. Then everything becomes a fudge in the middle - that may or may not work for you, but it wont be polarised in any sense of word.
Thanks, after thinking about it a bit more, I think I’ll stick with sweet spot low volume and then add in endurance rides if I want extra time on the trainer and keep the outside rides for fun.
, with lower power output and few capacity to dig deep and push hard both indoors and outdoors
