Which is the better book - the endurance diet or racing weight?
I only read the endurance diet. But i heard a lot of great feedback about the other book. Maybe someone else read it here?
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Racing Weight is mentioned in several threads. I didnāt dig in to find which ones cover the content, but I think you will find something in these links.
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For those who want the exact ACE Talk Test protocol:
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Iāve been toying with doing a polarized approach for my coming season. My recent few weeks have been a bit base heavy as I am unwinding from the season still
Iām thinking Iāll increase duration of the LSD rides and start making the hard days a little bit harder with workouts like Mount Deobrah, Jobs, Taylor, or Kaiser.
My baseline cardiac drift is pretty good (this is from Warren this past Sunday) so Iām not expecting significant gains there - just looking to try something different for a few months
Any suggestions for how to work in different interval duration workouts? Scatter them, increasing duration, decreasing duration? Does it matter at all or can I just do what works based on my schedule? Anything Iām missing from the general approach from you polarized experts?
I very quickly put together this three week block - any thoughts or suggestions?
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I would usually go with coach Chadās way of going short intervals and progressing to longer ones, but it really depends on what youāre shooting for.
When does your season start? If itās not until next Spring then starting vo2 now seems a bit keen.
I was planning (once my last race is over in early October) to spend the rest of the year just doing Z2 rides with maybe one sweetspot and one low-cadence tempo workout per week, with some gym work thrown in. Then change up the sweetspot and tempo into suprathreshold / vo2 in the new year.
My understanding of the Polarized model is that it is about doing the time at VO2 more than the duration of the specific intervals. I could very well be wrong, thus my question. Iām not really sure if thereās benefits to progressing the duration other than your own ability to complete the intervals. I guess even if that is the main benefit that isnāt nothing - might change up the order.
My thinking was to give this a trial run now and see how my body responds to 4 or 8 weeks of this approach (typical 3/1 work/recovery split). Then, go into a true break before putting together my actual plan for next season
I guess this leads to one of my biggest knowledge gaps around this approach. I had thought it was supposed to, more or less, replace the Base->Build->Specialty progression in that you just do this setup for your entire off season, albeit still with block periodization.
So - if I like this trial and my body responds well would I, after my 3-4 week rest period in the November time frame, be better served diving right into some polarized blocks or should I still do some dedicated base work where I drop all intensity before switching to this model?
Iām mostly thinking of it to replace the build period. Although I might extend it to 12 weeks as I think it takes less of a physical toll than a standard TR build plan. In fact I might do 4 weeks of a TR build plan but replace the weekend workouts with 5-6 hours of lowānāslow.
I wonāt be doing āspecialtyā (I donāt think those plans work if you race regularly), but keeping up a polarised model with plenty of easy riding, the odd 4x8 for maintenance, and some anaerobic sharpeners.
TBH I donāt whether the intention is for it replace base as well, but I just fancy taking it easy for a while - especially with the weight training Iām planning to start.
Thatās what Iām hoping to figure out by spending some time on this now - see how taxed I am by this - maybe I can do 4:1 instead of 3:1 - maybe not.
I had thought to use this to replace base and build because have a strong aerobic base already and it feels like with the amount of LSD in the polarized approach I should be able to strengthen it further. Butā¦Iām not positive thatās the intent or if it is sustainable. I guess I can see how fatigued I am after a few weeks of this and go from there
Like you I donāt find a ton of value in the specialty plans other than the taper weeks. I copy workouts from that regularly, and sometimes cherry pick some earlier workouts to mix in during my race season.
This year I just did build throughout the race season but cut volume before important weeks and inserted some of the Rolling Road Race taper week if I cared about a particular race more than others
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Well I did my first baseline/profile testing with a lactate meter yesterday I had previously gotten VLaMax numbers from doing a sprint study last January, so I knew I wasnāt someone who had very low lactate response, but I also knew it wasnāt super high like Jonathan.
Frustrating part is that the lactate meterās single numbers arenāt terribly accurate, they can be off by as much as 0.5 mmol, is what I think I saw as the standard deviation. So finding a true baseline is difficult. Iāve got the results included in this ride here:
https://www.trainerroad.com/career/bioteknik/rides/61441904-free-ride-60
Starting lactate was 1 mmol at 160 watts, but was already close to 1.9 at 180, jumped up to 2.6 at 200, back down to 1.7 at 220 and then 2.8 at 235. Respiration rate would say that LT1 is between 220 and 235 (more on those results later). In previous data set, I was closer to 2 mmol after the warm up periodā¦ maybe I did the warmup/baseline reading wrong, or it was a low reading.
So starting to get in to the middle intensity zones, if I got 4 mmol or above, I would then test 1 minute later to see if lactate went down at the next reading, this would indicate that it was in a steady state, and not increasing/building at a rate that couldnāt be consumed. This is what typically happens in a suprathreshold effort, youāll usually reach peak lactate in minutes 2-3 after stopping or greater under passive rest. I say typically as this did not happen in one of the sprint tests I did.
So at 4 mmol for me, that was 250 watts, but next reading dropped. 280 watts, it jumped up and got errors in trying to read successive measurements. So I decided to give the estimated FTP setting Iāve been using. Initial reading 9 mmol, but the next two went down. 5 minutes at 295 wasnāt very hard, so I can definitely try some longer sets with that. Thereās another protocol where you do a 10 minute set, test at minute 4 and then at 10 minutes, but I think for now Iām done being a pincushion for a bit and should just see what my TTE is at that power.
now I can really see the difficulties in using 4 mmol as a guide for MLSSā¦
Yes, time at VO2 is important, as in time around 90% of max HR, not necessarily a specific power target. Seiler has posted slides in some of his presentations that the shorter intervals take longer to get the HR up to VO2max. Billats are supposed to keep you at VO2, but when cycling, they seem to take a fair bit of time to get to that point. In running, HR response is much quicker so maybe that is why the original data shows how those 30/30ās are good at keeping VO2 high with lower physiological stress.
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Thanks for the response.
This point makes sense to me - I was doing 30/30s today at 125% and while I was feeling some stress my HR didnāt get that high. Certainly not comparable to what happens when I do 3 minutes at 115% or even longer at threshold
VO2max is difficult to measure in the field - there isnāt an inexpensive oxygen mask available - and so power, HR, and RPE are used as proxies.
Based on my research and current fitness, Iām slotting in a 9 week polarized intervention between traditional base 3 and build.
Iām in my 4th week of an experimental POL block. I gotta say, itās a lot harder than I initially imagined it might be. The mix of high volume Z1 and making those Z3 hard really start to build the fatigue. Itās still probably less fatiguing/damaging than a high vol SS plan.
I can see why so many recreational riders/weekend warriors choose to ride Z2/āhappy hardā ā Z1 and Z3 are not fun.
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In my experience, yes. The high volume SS plan is just killer. Lots of sweet spot AND time in the saddle.
Iāve found that a polarized approach is a lot more sneaky in how fatigue sets in. Sure, you do 1,2,3 Z1 rides and are like, āhey this isnāt badā. Then you do 1 Z3 ride and then a bunch of Z1 after and you are like, gahhhhh
I also think polarized really works for those that 1) are patient and 2) understand that training includes good recovery and dietary habits.
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I know what you mean. Well at least for the Z1 bit. My endurance zone is broadly 150-190W and Iād previously being doing my long outdoor rides trying to keep in the upper reaches of that. After reading on here and in other places about where the LT1 point really is Iāve started doing them aiming to be in the middle of that range . Boy, my legs are fried when I get back from 3-4 hrs of that. Much more so than before. I find It also requires a lot of concentration to stop the power and the HR drifting up.
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Agreed @Captain_Doughnutman. My version of āpolarisedā for the last few weeks have been 2 microburst Brasted sessions, with the endurance being Vogelsang in my last week before the rest week I know it is not the Seiler model, but there it is. I failed my final Brasted before my recovery. Not sure why, but the accumulation of stress from the Vogelsang and only one day of recovery to the final Brasted may have done it. The accumulated fatigue of Vogelsang etal. is pretty sneaky ala @killroy123.
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Iād also check your diet. I find that I recover better when I make sure I eat a lot of carbs for the long ride day as well as day of interval session. This tends to give me enough pep to hit those intervals hard.
I did 3 hrs of Z1 yesterday (Brasted was on Thursday) to finish off a 9.5 hr week; which is a good week for me. Couple the two ~100TSS HIT days with this Z1 ride and I still felt whacked today. I had to take a nap, which I never do.
My hope is to progress each LSD day out 45-60 min per week. I started at 3hr, and am hoping to get to a 5 hr ride by the end of the first 4 week block.