After following this thread since the beginning I just want to chime in… trying to be a bit objective…
Background: Did TR LV, got good gains as a noob, wanted to ride more, tried MV and got burned out. This winter I really wanted to ride more structured, and also more consistent, but knowing that I got burned out from the MV plan, I was lost…
And I think that being lost is worse than anything, since I was quite new to the sport (started in 2018, just noodling around, 2019 got a watt meter and went hard allt he time, 2020 I was a bit lost).
Fast forward to October 2020:
Got a coach who setup a polarised schedule, did 2 intensity days per 8-10 days maybe, with some tempo intervals thrown into my zone 2 days. All in all I rode about 7-9 hours a week.
For me this has worked perfectly due to the following very simple reasons:
- I am way more motivated to get on the bike because every workout is not a mental test
- I spend more time on the bike
- When I need to go hard, I feel motivated to do that because otherwise its usually just volume which is mentally less fatiguing
- I sleep better
- I never feel wrecked after a workout, the only time is when I have done testing…
My highest FTP on TR was last summer I believe, 290w @ 81kg ish. It is now 285w @ 77,5kg… and its just February…
The past 2 weeks I have been riding 40 hours while on vacation, and being able to do that is completely new to me… and my subjective feel about this is that TR doesn’t prepare you for spending a lot of time on the bike, but rather just how intensity feels on the bike…
Yesterday I did 3x20min (8 min rest in-between) @ 270w in 32c sun (combined with around 2,5hr of zone 2 before and after intervals). This is after 36 hours on the bike the last 10 days… something that I honestly feel is something that I couldn’t have done if all I had with me going into vacation was TR LV plan…
Take away:
I feel that the take away is a little bit like rolling resistance when discussing tires… You want to feel the road buzz (intensity) because you feel that its fast (making you fast)… while a lower pressure (polarised) on a wider tire might be as effective, it doesn’t give you that buzz… hence you choose what you feel is giving you more… And this ends up burning people out…
And if the only response people get when they burn out is “are you sleeping enough and drinking 120g carbs per bottle / workout?!” its gonna lead to a lot of people who are lost…
Now this is of course just N = 1, but I honestly think that TR would gain a lot more by introducing a polarised plan, and picking up those who doesn’t fit in the square box otherwise…
Like some have mentioned before, telling someone to just substitute their Sunday ride with a z2 ride, or doing other changes to the plan, is not why people pay for TR… the product is mainly the plans (and more)… and its not as simple as just changing things on your own… If people had the knowledge for that, they probably wouldn’t pay for TR in the first place 
Looking forward to the podcast in 43min!