I have done one 6-week block of polarized training before starting this year’s Plan Builder training plan. This was in part to gain first-hand experience after all this hot discussion on the forum. My idea was to have a pre-base base period that emphasized endurance more. This was because last season I intentionally chose the Crit Plan to increase the height of my power tower at the expense of a shallower base. This year I wanted to dedicate more time to the base.
Here are my thoughts:
- It did exactly what I expected: it gave more emphasis to endurance and strengthened my base. This was my intention, so it did its job.
- The threshold intervals really prepared me well for sweet spot intervals, which are now a piece of cake (I’m oscillating between PL 8.5 and PL 9.2). My next sweet spot workout has 150 % FTP spikes in them to induce fatigue
- I don’t think the Polarized Plans are any easier than the Sweet Spot Base and Build plans. The long Z2 rides during the week were difficult because I had to get up much earlier. And the hard days are HARD, not just because the workouts are hard and the progression steep, but the workouts are boring (I think the warmup is identical for all workouts and there is zero variation among the workouts). So you need to bring your mental A game to the hard days.
- My increase in FTP was moderate, but I emphasize again, that this was not my goal.
- “My edge is quite blunt” if that makes any sense. But again, this was pre-base base training for me, so it was perfect for my use case.
So overall, I think they are a useful addition to my toolbox, but I don’t think they will replace the existing plans for me. Instead, they will augment the default TR plans for me. It is neither a panacea nor is it bad. I reckon some people are better off with a polarized plan while others aren’t.