Question regarding lowering the ramp rate of the polarised plans (could also be applied to any training plan). Has TR considered providing a way for experienced athletes to individualise their ramp rates? So that it allows athletes to adjust the ramp rate of a given plan up or down at the start of the training block.
Previously, Iāve wondered if the ramp rates were a bit too low for certain blocks relative to the level of fitness and perceived effort. Appreciate that I could manually adjust each workout using alternates, but not the most practical or beautiful way to handle this.
Just curious if this has ever been considered or if others would find this helpful.
Theoretically, yes, but Iāve not seen a ton of evidence of this yet. Iāve been using Adaptive Training since it became available. I do not know if AT is working within any boundaries or statistical conventions when it comes to ramp rate.
I was just working on the basis that if your workout questionnaire responses are saying āBring itā to the AI then youāll get more difficult workouts served up and a correspondingly faster ramp rate.
You can always override AT, but in my experience most of the time AT is better at judging what is good for me than I am.
The ramp rates are not some fixed number, they get recalculated based on your prior workouts. So this isnāt a number you can simply plug in and keep fixed.
Going to swap out my Low Volume SSB and Build plans for Hi Vol Polorized. I tried these plans back in 2021 and I donāt think I realised at the time just how useful there were. Iām hoping this adds a bit more training stimulus and as TR support advised then, āwhat got you here wonāt get you there.ā Iām also needing a break from a winter of VO2 and anaerobic. Looking forward to seeing how the plans differ and AT interacts.
Just one question for TR or community. Should you not be able to fit in the odd long endurance ride due to time constraints, what would be the recommended alternate (if any at all) or reduce to a shorter endurance ride?
You could do a shorter endurance ride at higher intensity. If I have time I like to do my endurance rides outdoors at 0.60ā0.65 IF. However, life is what it is and I often donāt have the time.
Focus on consistency. So if you hate indoor endurance workouts and you prefer (easy) sweet spot workouts, do those instead. The most important variable is consistency, then a distant second is workout selection (i. e. whether you are doing an endurance or sweet spot workout).
Tack on short endurance rides after workouts. Even 15ā30 minutes will make a difference over time, once you start doing this consistently.
I just ran into an concern with Plan Builder related to this. Note that Iām a recreational rider, focused on endurance rides, not a racer. I have a couple of events loaded that are essentially gran fondos (50-100 miles each).
I created a plan and and switched the Base and Build sections to the Polarized versions. So far, so good. But, Plan Builder looked at the events and added Specialty phases that are lots of intervals, which is counter to the prior Polarized phases. I canāt take all that intensity.
My current option is to just keep doing individual Polarized plans. Iām ok with that, but wondering if thereās anything else I should consider. Thoughts?
The Specialty phase cannot be polarized, because it is meant to prepare you for whatever event type you picked when you created the plan.
If you have trouble with the intensity, drop the volume to low volume and add endurance rides as you see fit. But these workouts should be doable, especially once you let Adaptive Training do its thing.
Iāve been using these for several months now and theyāve definitely improved since the initial plans. I kept finding myself exhausted and lacking motivation over time with the SS plans. These POL plans, with 2 āhardā rides a week, work a lot better for me as a masters athlete.
Iām still looking forward to the plans where I can feed AT my daily hours of availability, but until then, this has been a nice step in the right direction for me.
I was excited to hear @Jonathan mention on this weekās podcast that Half and Full distance tri plans are getting some revisions/updatesāwondering if polarized versions of these plans are on TRās roadmap?
@Jonathan , I have a triathlon plan via plan builder that I bult. How can I swap in a polarized plan into one of the phases of that plan? I realize I would lose the swim/run portions when doing that, but canāt see a way to do it via the suggestion above of clicking in the calendar header in the top left.
Use the āHow to Change an Individual Training Blockās Volumeā section of the link below
Select the āPlanā drop down option instead of the Volume one and you can select from the related ones in your current phase (ex: Base or Build) as youād like.
Yep, tried that before posting the question. Canāt change out of a tri plan, actually canāt change out of a half or full plan (like to an OLY or sprint). Looks like itās locked into those two plans and their available volume levels.
Really good changes and Iāll be doing a polarised plan next.
One thing that would be helpful is to be able to select maximum length workouts for the high intensity week sessions - reason being that while I can manage 1.5 hour endurance in the evenings, high intensity in the evenings completely ruins sleep. Iām sure Iām not along in this regard.
