Seiler’s 8-minute intervals (Polarized)

I’m doing 3 a week for 4 weeks of just pure 4x8. Let’s see how it goes. A week in and its been pretty great

I started with 5x6m last week to test pacing strategies and that went quite well, so am building on that again and going to work to 4x7 and 4x8 in the next 2 weeks, and add to my 40/20’s as the 2nd interval session for the week. Feels odd to say I’m looking forward to more of these…

Look what I found :smiley:

We have already established that you need 4x8@120% :slight_smile:

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I will do another one tomorrow… watch me fail at holding 108%

If you search for the ramp test workout and look down the list of all the plans it is in, you will find links to all the Pol plans :wink:

6 week HV base Log In to TrainerRoad

8 week HV build Log In to TrainerRoad

Didn’t light my fire with basically just 4m and 8m intervals, but I’m sure others will have views!

But this is the request from all pol fans. How would you like to make it more impressive when people wanted exactly this :slight_smile:

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A few points:

I think this thread is proof that weeks of 4x4, 4x5 @ 103-105% probably are far too easy to do much for almost anyone. As somebody that really doesnt like over threshold work I jumped in at 5x6m at 105% and managed it with little issue. 4x4 would barely have warmed me up.

Secondly they are very one dimensional with only 4 & 8m steady state intervals. In one plan it adds a couple of 16m for 2 sessions. Nothing over 108%, no over-unders, no hard starts, no short effort vo2… There are a huge number of ways to approach z3 (pol) work and this seems really one dimensional and unimaginative.

I’m not sure we have been asking for Pol plans that really only use 1 type of intensity session have we? I think the majority of have been asking for plans that have 2 quality z3 sessions and the TR plans show they are already excellent at creating superb progressions of z3 intervals utilising lots of different approaches. They just didnt use any of them in Pol plans for some reason…almost like they dont want these plans to show they work :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

So I wonder if they are intending for AT to modify the plan as you are going to to make it harder and replace workouts.

But secondly, speaking as someone who’s pretty polarized at the moment, I would say that plan is pyramidal, NOT polarized. Also is that all the volume?

Also, why so much threshold work. Contrast with what I’m doing for instance:

Mon: rest
tuesday: morning 2h z2, evening 4x8
wednesday: 2hr z2
thurday: morning 2hr z2, evening 4x8
friday: 2hr z2
saturday: 4x8 + SS
sunday: 4hr z2

Even with the sweetspot that works out to be polarized properly. The thing with polarized is also the volume from my understanding. I spend 12 hours pedalling z2 every week.

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Really can’t win with some people can they? Sheesh.

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yep - I have more time than most for sure, so am at 15hrs av recently, but its a day of progressing 40/20s up to 3x12(40/20) and a day of 4x8 and 1 or 2 long rides (4+hrs now) and the rest 2.5-3hr endurance. Trying to plan for high volumes of endurance work on an indoor plan is always going to be the elephant in the room though - what % of TR users would even consider 3hrs on a turbo or rollers? I’d bet <1%…

We’re getting O/T for this thread, but what I really miss is how they would periodise the intensity as race/GF/TT season approaches. Seems obvious some different and more event-specific intervals would be optimal - o/u, repeated much harder efforts etc etc.

I still recommend not doing the 4 x 5,6,7,8 at a fixed percentage of ftp. Getting a feel for what power you can hold across all 4 intervals and complete them and maximise the average power is quite engaging.

I’m up to 2 x 8 so far just gently building these up. When I go to 3 x 8 I will need to drop the power a bit. But I can have a play to see how I’m going.

If I’m having a good day I’ll just push more power that day. I think it’s easy to become a slave to erg mode when it perhaps isn’t always the best approach.

What I do is create custom workouts with the 8 mins as 5% slopes and the recovery as flat. The 5% allows me to push as much power as I can manage for those 8 mins through changing my gears.

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I started these with 5x6 last week and took a little time to dial in the number. Today I did them at what I thought was my target and I think I nailed it - last couple of reps needed focus to get them done and HR was bumping up at 92% for a lot of those two. Plenty of time >89%. 5 reps within 4w AP of each other so I think I targeted and paced it pretty well.

Next focus is 4x7 and then 4x8… Strangely looking forward to them :smiley:

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Also been following a similar progression, 4 x 6 min @ 108% (fail) then 4 x 6, 4 x 7, 4 x8 completed @ 105% over the last 4 weeks. HR @ 96% Max by end of the last interval so maybe overdid it a bit.

I’ve been progressing 30/15s in my other weekly VO2 Max workout. 3 sets of 13 this week @ 120% but had to skip one in the last set.

I also finding myself looking forward to them. The Z1 efforts the rest of the week are a nice lead-in to the big days.

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im finding i enjoy the easier days more, and look forward to seeing how i go on the hard ones.

Opposed to a more constant grind kind of feeling

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$100 says that you’ll look back in a couple of months and realize that you can no longer grind when you need to.

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possibly, so far the results suggest the opposite, but its early days

TBH ive never been good at grinding, always been a peaky repeated VO2 rider, so im embracing that this year and focusing on crit/CX type efforts and races

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Agree! For fysiological adaptations I would aim for accumalated time in high heart rate(>90%hr max). Maybe start interval at high % FTP to ramp oxygen demand and reducing power output to grind 6-8min. No ERG mode, no pwr target, focus on high hr and heavy burn. Rest between intervals could be extended just to be able to reach and maintain that high hr.
I tried to get that kind of workout done with TR Workout creator, but there seems to be problem refreshing and uploading workouts.

Interesting - my experience well into a second month of POL training is the opposite; I can go harder when I have to. This is because, I suspect, I am not mentally fatigued from brutal intervals (at an excessive FTP from the ramp test, but that’s a side issue) 3x/week. Instead, when I know I have 1 really hard session for the week/3 in 2 weeks, I find it easier to empty the tank and really dig in, which has resulted in power and HR PRs from 5 minutes and up.

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One of my mates has been spinning away merrily at 110rpm on a set of rollers all winter. We did our first proper hills (5-12%) today and he said he didn’t know what had hit him!