The 3 Hour Cycling Week - Is polarized training optimal for the time crunched?

[baldheadbiomed]

@bbarrera

FWIW and counter-intuitively, my best 1-4+ minute power came after doing a LOT of aerobic base work (6-10 hours/week total riding). So if you only have 4 hours/week for cycling, I’d go with the 3rd workout being a long zone2 ride with or without 5-sec all-out sprints every 6-8 minutes. Just like in your original post. You can play around with different intervals for the vo2 workouts.

You know that’s what my low key hero Callum Brown says too “I was close to doing it last year but honestly the training to add an extra 100w was doing loads of zone 2 (5 zone model).” He hits >1000w for 1 minute 10 kg under my bodyweight 1000 watts for 1min proof

@AJS914

You probably do want a polarized plan for your purposes. Sweetspot and threshold will detract from your sprinting abilities.

Yeah seems a bit counter-intuitive but might turn out to be correct. So basically 2 x strength workouts a week with heavy squats and lunges followed by 2x VO2 max workouts and 1 x 2 hour zone 2 ride for a total of 4 hours of training pr week incl strength. 4 full rest days.