πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰ Polarized Training Plans Are Here! πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰

going to try out these plans and see what happens. just added them via plan builder for the next 14 weeks.

Just did my ramp test yesterday.

8 week mid volume polarized plan (missed 2 workouts total)
FTP from 201 to 241
Weight from 171 to 166 (wasn’t actively trying to lose weight)

AT dropped all my levels to 1 after my new FTP and adjusted a ton of workouts (almost every single one for the next block). Back into base then build again but this time at high volume.

Polarized is interesting to me- on SS I struggled to hit 500 tss and not feel absolutely terrible. With polarized I feel great in the 400-600 range. Not sure why.

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When AT adapted your workouts did you find they have gone from a polarized to a more pyramidal or SS format instead of staying polarized?

Nope they’ve stayed polarized.

The threshold rises adapted to more difficult threshold rides (usually just longer intervals). The v02 adapted more aggressively to more difficult v02. It never swapped out a threshold or v02 to sweet spot.

The only time I really touched sweet spot was on the few outdoor versions of the workouts I did.

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That’s good to hear thanks :+1:

Started polarized hv this week via plan builder (6 week one and then 8 week one) and the at beta. So far so good. Had to move intensity down slightly on the 4x8 but got through it.

Really like the plan and my endurance and vo2 are good and always looking to raise those but sweet spot needs some work.

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I’ve just started a new plan builder and changed block 1 to polarized which I wanted to have a nice 8 week polarized plan in the calendar. However I have an B and A event at the end of Sept and mid Oct.

What plan builder seems to have done is added three polarized weeks and the rest rolling road race??

Is this expected?? I expected the 8 week polarized to be inserted for 8 weeks??

If the pic above is associated with the A event, that seems to follow their typical approach. That is because it is aiming to hit you with a Specialty that includes the taper into the A event.

It’s possible to tweak these results when in the Plan Builder setup, but choosing different β€œExperience” level. Lower Experience will emphasize Base and Build, and higher Experience will emphasize Build and Specialty. It’s always worth testing the results of all 4 Experience options to see the potential plan suggested. I usually see 2-3 different scenarios even when using all the 4 options, so there is some overlap in the middle.

Thanks Chad, for now I’ve removed my A and B events which gives me something a bit more like what I want to achieve!

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Looking to use the β€˜hack’ to add base and build POL plan - is there an update on how AT and PLs are currently working with POL plans that have been added in this way?

The POL plans aren’t officially supported in AT yet, so the suggested adaptations may not always stick with the POL ideals. Some users have reported generally good experience, but some mention notable changes in the direction of the suggested adaptions. So, it’s a bit of an unknown really.

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I have been looking at using the high volume polarized plans and bumping up the z2 duration so it’s around 12 hours per week.

But as these plans are really simple (in a good way) with one threshold workout and one vo2 workout a week plus a load of endurance rides, I figure it’s way more flexible to just use TraininNow, picking one β€œclimbing” and one β€œattacking” workout per week and then just going out riding steady on the other days while keeping an eye on TSS/CTL trends and taking rest weeks.

Is this a worse idea? Someone talk me out of it. :slight_smile:

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I had thought about doing that too! The only downside I can think of is that there will not be a periodization/specialization to training. You would have to build into your own rest and recovery, and if you are training for a specific event you will have to choose workouts tailored to your event.

Judging by the screenshots included on some of the earlier posts in this thread, I feel like I should be able to see the polarized training plans, yet all that is showing up on my browser and app are plan builder, base, build, and specialty. Have the polarized plans been removed? Am I looking in the wrong place?
Thanks
John

This is what I have via the web:

You need to go to your Account and click the Early Access menu and activate the polarized plans. Then they show in the list below the Speciality list.

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Looking at the plans there doesn’t seem much in the way of periodization/specialization. The TSS and time gradually increases but that’s about it. I think the TrainNow approach might be better because you get the benefit of the AT system ensuring that the key workouts are productive.

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Thank you!

You are correct. The plans do have rest weeks, but not much else. I was thinking that if you were going to use them to train for a specific event you may need to modify them slightly as you get closer to the event.

These are identified as Base (6wk) and Build (8wk) phases, so that is as designed. Like any other full TR plan, you’d pick a Specialty phase appropriate for your event.

Doing that with POL may not be practical for a range of reasons. So people may need to look at the existing TR Spec phases or do something of their own ceeation.

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