Rather too litle to keep 80/20. It should be polarized by number of sessions not TiZ. Second thing is that with only 3 days on the bike I would say that polarized is not good solution long term. But hey, see where it will get you.
Good to know! I haven’t finished reading the whole thread (yet). I was thinking I should probably be doing 2 VO2 Max workouts during the week, but for some reason I couldn’t find that in any of the plans at the time I set it up. If such a plan is there, I just missed it.
Similar here, but doing LV base instead of build.
This is the exact same for me.
I’m coming back from 6 months off the bike due to hip labral repair and only want 1 hard workout per week and a progressively longer weekend ride. I figured the polarized plans would fit that mold pretty well, but AT seems adamant that I shouldn’t be extending my long ride.
To be clear, I have 5 days on the bike. the lv plan is just for during the week. Then I have about 10-12 hours (5-6 hours per day) of endurance on the weekends, except for rest weeks when I take Sunday off.
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Then it changes the perception. So this seems like pretty resonable plan, as you should get proper stimulus from volume. When your body will adapt just mix in some sst/threshold for additional stimulus. Just saying as a suggestion for the future.
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I think some people are confusing PL’s with ride length. Personally, in a Polarized plan, I would not want to see the Endurance PL go up because that would mean my easy rides are getting harder. Instead, I would be choosing alternate rides to go longer rather than harder.
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You still end up with a 9.5 or whatever PL after a long ride if you associate it.
I do agree though, the danger is there that people ramp up PL with duration, and then assume they need to do a high WL Endurance ride even when they only have 90-120min.
Can you give me an example of what would lead to this? I’ve never seen a 9.5 Endurance level TR workout! (Edit: I just looked and I see TR has a couple 9.5 level 5 and 6 hour rides. Ouch! My butt would fall off)
The point I was making doesn’t relate to this though. People were saying something is wrong with the plan because their Endurance PL’s aren’t advancing, and I was saying I would not expect a polarized plan to advance my Endurance PL’s. In fact, if it did, I would choose an alternate.
Yeah, your point definitely carries. I just think it’s exceptionally easy to ramp Endurance PL once you push out to an endurance ride.
I think that’s where the real value in Pol lies personally.
Agree completely with your point about not continually ramping PL via increasing IF of a set duration.
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Sorry, I edited after looking at the library and we cross posted.
Did TR assign that workout to your Polarized plan?
I’d have to go back and look. I think it assigned Robinson. It started bouncing around adaptations all around that same duration and actually decreasing PL. In this instance I think the issue was the lack of different workouts at that level.
I was definitely missing some sort of Adaptation description at that point.
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Just for clarity (since I went off track there), what @mailman and I are saying is that for a polarized plan, we would want to see the Z2 rides getting longer over time, not more intense.
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Just for a quick N=1, I am currently at 6.4 Endurance and looking at MV Pol Base, I go from a 6.4 3:45 long in week one up to 7.4 4:15 long in the 5 weeks of loading. Presumably, if that continued into a Build Phase, it would take a similar trend in pushing out duration.
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Interesting points raised as to intensity and duration.
I’m just adjusting HV polarised to sit within my 1 hr commute either way. I’m going straight into build which allows 1 Vo2 max and 1 threshold session per week with one rest day and a 3 to 4 hour ride on Sunday morning. As I’m getting older I want to protect my Vo2.
This approach is a step change as the last three winters I’ve solely trained indoors with TrainerRoad.
I’m betting increased volume and consistency of 9-10 hrs per week of zone two , 1 hr of Vo2 and 1.5 hrs of threshold will be a good start point. Time will tell if this is sustainable for my health but I’m looking forward to finding out.
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Similarly mine goes +1 PL (from 1.7 to 2.7) over 5 weeks, despite my PL is 2.9 at the moment (due to manually picked longer weekend rides). I had expected the long ride to adapt to the higher level / to be longer, but that hasn’t happened.
I’m probably overthinking what AT will do and continue to use alternates to extend the duration of the weekend ride.
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you’re a hero just by doing this workout! 2 hrs and I’m completely done.
Last year I had a turbo burnout I couldn’t even look at it. Stooped riding and change for running outside. This year will be my first TR year, I’ll do a plan builder focusing on a peak in June, starting in early Feb, maybe late Jan. An overview of this plan reveals 2 2hrs SST/Threshold (high volume) and I’m already “afraid”.
Obligatory TR forum question: If it’s your first year using TrainerRoad, why are you jumping in to High Volume Plans?
It’s my first year using TR, not as a cyclist. I’ve been riding for about 8 years.
Point is, I changed country 2 years ago, Brazil to Canada. The former I could ride outside all year, no need for zwift, TR, whatever. The later though, I have to handle with 3/4 months of snow and indoor training, which I’m not a huge fan…
Good history, but my point is why did you pick HV specifically?
If it’s based on hours you typical do outside, that’s frequently a problem for many people who try it. Considering your less than stellar outlook for inside training, I’d think it a safer pick to do Mid Vol (less time overall and sometimes shorter workouts vs HV) and then aim for a more positive mental take on the future.
Perhaps better to nail the MV with some optimism vs dread HV even if it’s attainable?
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You’re absolutely right, and I’m seriously considering this.
My ideal/possible volume riding outside would be something around 12/14 weekly. In this case I’m “stuck” in setting the HV and maybe lower it a bit during winter, to then boost it during summer, or, the opposite.
You have a very good point. Maybe starting with the MV, once I see I can handle it, I can do some longer workouts just by replacing for alternatives. When summer arrives I’ll have flexibility to include group rides.
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