Have they actually changed or have they just changed because they’re taking your personal PLs into account? That’s one thing now with all the plans, the overall structure is the same but the actual workouts will vary person to person. I think this helps not make plans look as daunting in some areas as they did before since they’re more tailored to your skill level, IF your PLs are in line with your skill level–if they aren’t then things may look “too easy”.
Yeah, I like the “adapted” plan previews on one level… but it makes it essentially impossible to know what the “default” plans actually look like. It has already lead to plenty of confusion when people start talking about what “the plans” look like since they can no vary drastically between any users and their relative PL differences.
We might be able to learn that if we happen to have 1.0 for all PL’s, but I’m not even certain that is how it would work these days.
Yeah, it’s very hard to compare between people now and knowing what the original plan was designed as (maybe there isn’t an actual “default” at this point and it’s completely reliant on PL levels?). You’re basically stuck with looking at the number of rides per week, how many of each type are included and the default order they’re in–times, TSS and PLs will vary (and likely change along the way).
This. Plus Polarized Plans is still something you have to turn on in the ‘Early Access’ section so it looks to still be in beta. Just curious when they plan to consider this stable.
Yes I think they changed taking into account my personal PL’s. For me the progressions for the interval days are 4x3 and decreasing the rest interval as the plan goes on. The second high intensity workouts are 4x8 intervals with decreasing rest interval and culminating with one 2x16 workout at the end of the 6 week block (high volume). This is more inline with the prescription from the Fast Talk crowd, repeating the same workouts over and over until you perfect them.
No updates yet as of today, the team is still collecting data! Thank you for your patience.
Do you see any improvements after completing the program?
Yes, my FTP rose from 272W to 288W. Whether that’s because of the Polarised plan itself or just a change in stimulus is hard to tell.
Is it a good idea to do 2 endurance workout in a day? instead of doing 1.5 hrs each day?
It shouldn’t be a problem to split endurance workouts like that. The training load is more or less the same. You might consider some extra rest if the following workout is a very intense one, otherwise you’ll be fine.
This link can help you make an informed decision if it is something you could consider:
I scrolled through the whole thread but could not find my answer, so here’s my question:
Is there a reason / what is the reason the polarized plans do not have short/short intervals (30/15’s, 20/10’s, etc.) but only the “longer” VO2 intervals?
I know, the best thing to do is to FTP (Follow The Plan), but yeah…why not do some 30/15’s?
They wanted to replicate somewhat close Seiler’s study. If you want do short-shorts, it does not matter how your hard day looks like, as long you treat it as hard day.
No it’s not. The best thing is following the plan that reflects your needs and limitations, not generic plan. The plan gives you structure but generic plan will never be a definitive answer in terms of workouts composition.
Almost a year later, are there plans for the podcast to take a look back at the POL plans and the information gained thus far?
I think this would be really interesting, especially because I vaguely recall @Jonathan using one, at least for a while
To give this thread another bump…and looking for some advice.
I have used Sweet Spot to good succes in the past, but it did proof to be very taxing, and too often i would be overreaching (?). So i want to try a more polarized approach. When i mention Zones, i am referring to the Polarized 3 zone model.
I train about 8-10 hours a week.
Majority of it will be outdoors on my CX or XC bike. Most of that I can do in Zone 1
On Tuesday and Thursday, i can hop on the trainer during my lunchbreak for 45 minutes.
With my current plan:
Tuesday lunchbreak: 45 minutes Zone 1
Thursday lunchbreak: 45 minutes Zone 3 (i.e. 30/15s, 4 min, 8 minute intervals)
Tuesday and Thursday evening I will be on my CX or XC bike for 3h:45m from sept till may to give a CX/XC training for my club members, so plenty.
Is there any value in doing a 45 minute Zone 1 workout?
I would claim there is, sort of; If you are fatigued from previous training your legs might feel better with some activity but not always. Sometimes rest is is the way to go.
If you want to add volume I would suggest to increase the intensity to z2. You could possibly do 45 minutes of z2 every day if you like. The risk of accumulated fatigue is almost non existent at such a low TSS.
Your trails may be very different than mine, but I find it extremely hard to stay in Z1 on the mtb. YMMV - just food for thought
keep in mind, zone1 polarized is zones 1 and 2 by TR’s standards. That’s up to around 235 watts for me. Yes, still hard to not stomp up that little kicker, but not infeasible to ride everything on a mountain bike trail at 235 watts or less.
Not my trails. We have lots of short steep inclines. If you don’t hit them, you’re walking up. Plus, we have lots of twists and turns that require coasting.
its definitely more challenging, perhaps impossible on certain climbs. Not sure the coasting is a problem, just won’t help much. Overall, I think you can still get the same effect. Spiking up to 300watts or something for a short climb probably wouldn’t negate the effect assuming you drop back down at the top.