So don’t stress about it, and just ride your bike. It doesn’t matter whether you always stay “in zone” or not, at least as long as you aren’t more tired at the end than desired.
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Initially I put a cap on my zone to stay under, which I still do, but I also let myself go above zone because it’s too impractical not to when I hit some steep pitches and it frankly gets too annoying over the course of 3-5 hours. Still, I keep an eye on HR and generally finish the rides feeling pretty fresh. Sometimes the heat takes a toll even though I’m riding pretty easy. Thanks doc.
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an overview of McNulty’s training when he did that:
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Right, you’re not really following the plan as TR wrote it. You’re doing what TR SHOULD have written it as, and that’s kinda the big point here: those “polarized” plans are based on a high volume of endurance riding (or at least they should be), and you’re doing way more of that than the plan says (which is 100% the right thing to do!). So kudos to you!
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FWIW, I had excellent results with a Polarized block. I’ve told this story before:
I started at 6 hours per week and finished 12 weeks later at 13 hours per week. I did all these miles at 125bpm plus one 2-3 hour group ride per week as my only form of intensity.
By week 8, I was busting all my PRs on key Strava segments.
I noticed:
Power and speed at 125bpm increased substantially. On the group rides, my HR was cruising at 10-15 bpm lower than it had been. FTP went up 20 points.
Conclusion? I was base deficient? Increased stroke volume from low intensity training while having very little fatigue?
Performance stalled out after 8 weeks. I got no faster. I should have switched it up to some extensive FTP training and then switched to intensive after that. I’d do a polarized block again as base training.
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Another possibility - maybe you needed a de-load.
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