Polarized Training Discussion (Fast Talk podcast & Flo Cycling podcast)

I was over 6% coasting on a 54 minute 40k last year in central Illinois lol, definitely way more coasting than n the trainer

https://www.trainerroad.com/career/fastskiguy/rides/37639914-paw-paw-abr-40k-illinois-tt

While I don’t see the usefulness of this, I was still intrigued how this 2x4min protocol compares. Did for 8min bouts around my LT1 markers (nose breathing test, heart rate at VT1/LT1 from several spiroergometries, ā€œexperienceā€):

grafik

It was not entirely clear to me how they calculated PD. I tried two different methods.

When I only consider the ā€œgreensā€, yes, there is a sharp increase in the region of my ā€œknownā€ first threshold. HOwever, the final data point at 265 W messes this all up.

Furthermore, I’m far away from PD =25 for LT1/VT1.

Nose breathing is less of a hassle …

I created a workout in TR to see if it worked for me and got the following on successive 8 minute intervals ( 5 min v.easy recovery between each)
Power 1st half 2nd half Beat diff.
HR HR
127 110 113 12
147 115 119 16
168 120 125 20
186 125 133 32

https://www.trainerroad.com/career/carytb/rides/65418447-submax-8-minute-_-lt1

Interpolating between the last 2 gives me a HR bang on where I am sure my LT1 HR is with the power where I think it is rather than where I hoped it would be. I plan to try and narrow it down in the future but more importantly see if it is repeatable. Just gives me something to do make my easy workouts a little more interesting

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How have you calculated the beat difference, e.g. the count of beats per 4min?

Yes, just multiplied the difference in beats per minute x 4 minutes

I am not sure whether you have seen this personalized polarized time-in-zone calculator? You enter your data and your training type and it works out your zone types: FFT Time In Zone Calculator [quick link: fft.tips/tiz] - Google Sheets. I think there might be another one in german, but I have lost the link.

Yes I’ve seen that. Intervals.icu use that to give a weekly report of TIZ like this.
13

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nice! i’ll check that out

This looks great, I’d like to give it a shot for estimating LT1…would you mind sharing the workout? Or maybe you already have and I just don’t know how to download or search for it? I might end up getting a Lactate Plus meter to see how this method corresponds with some hard data, provided I can get my wife to agree to repeatedly attack me with a lancet…

Ill have a go at sharing it. Please note that it is not the same protocol as they did in the study. I just made sure my heart rate was down ( for me below 100) before I did each interval

My only niggle about the intervals.icu training distribution charts is that they work by power, whereas Seiler was working by HR.

My indoor session yesterday was all in HR zone 1, but 22% of the ride was power zone 3 – so it registers as ā€œpyramidal.ā€ Seiler would probably categorize it as polarized.

I must be blind. How do you access the weekly summaries in ICU?

I just went and figured that out as well - hadn’t noticed it before and wanted to see it.

On the activities page there is a link on the left of every week - when you click in that area it opens a pop-up that was screenshotted above

image

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THANKS! I was in List view and don’t see the option there.

Switching to Calendar view and all is great :smiley:

I’ve messaged the guy at intervals.icu and suggested he did a zone distribution by heart rate as well. He said he’d add it to the list of things to do

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Please forgive the question if it’s been stated before. The polarized model definitely looks appealing and all the stats make me want to give it a try but I don’t quite understand how this its applied in practice. TrainerRoad was my first experience with any structured training so maybe I’m looking at this from that angle but how does the polarized model fit into the Base, Build, Specialty framework? What actually is it? Base and Build? Maybe polarized is it’s own thing and I’m looking at it in the wrong context…

Essentially when are we supposed to be following the polarized model? Year round? Can I be doing it now when I’d typically be focused on base conditioning?

Thank you greatly for any insights on this.

How is that a 3 zone model? If the top of Zone 3 is 6 min power, what zone is any power above your 6 min power?

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Sorry I can’t answer that as it’s not my model. That is Dr Seiler’s model as transcribed from episode 54 of VeloNews Fast Talk podcast. Go listen to minutes 29 and 30, pretty sure he brushes off the question of what about power above 6-min with something like ā€œnow we are getting into anaerobicā€ but I’m going off memory and it’s been awhile since listening to that podcast.

Personally I’ve seen a lot of value training in zone 2 of polarized model, so I don’t pay a lot of attention to the details of polarized model.

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I love when people blow off inconvenient facts. So its really a 4 zone model :thinking:, with the ā€œgrey zoneā€ being the top end :crazy_face:

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Can’t find the reference at the moment but yes I seem to recall there is a level that is not productive for any positive adaptation. The cost is too high and gain too small.