Polarized training: how it works for a season?

Hi,

I am thinking to apply Polarized Trainin for the whole season. But on the other hand, I d like
to do some blocks of 2-3 consecutive weeks of mainly HIIT throughout the sessons.

Theorically, does it makes sense ? Will i benifit ?

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What’s the problem with HIIT? HIIT is at the end a good example of “Polarized Training”, as far as i know. But wait for someone with more exp. :slight_smile:

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In this case I think we are differentiating between differing Training Intensity Distributions (TID) of which POL and HIIT are both examples.

This recent blog post might be of general interest on that matter: Polarized Training For Cyclists: What It Is and How To Try It - TrainerRoad Blog

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Theorically, does it makes sense ? Will i benifit ?

Depends on the level you’re currently at, what structure, what you’re going to do in the blocks and how you’re going to measure improvement.

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i have an ftp of 220w currently, and a 3.1 w/kg.
In the HIT block Id like to do 30sec, 1 min and 5 min HIT intervals because I want to improve my weak points (30sec, 60sec and 5 min in RED in the screnneshot) according to this graph in the power page

Thats why I want to add a 1 week block of HITs with 3-4 days of 30, 1 min and 5 mins HIT session followed with a week of active recovery.

I am just asking myself by adding 1 week of HIT , how it will impact the Polarized training in the long run ?

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3-4 days of just HIIT/week… You mean a HIIT only block? What amount of time allottment/week of HIIT does that equate to?

Sounds strangely familiar to a recent study where they had participants do extreme training with just HIIT all week long. But extreme meant they had something like 150min equivalent of HIIT on the menu. They suffered for it and whilst the power numbers were great, the aerobic cellular machinery started breaking down.

If your plan is reaching that level, you might want to have a re-think.

I mean just one week of just 3-4 session of HIT .
So the whole training block will look like:

week1 to week 3 : polarized
week4: active recovery
week5: HIT, 3-4 session of 1 hour each (30 min of V02Max)
week6: active recovery

week7 and+ : repeat week 1 to 6

Week 4 = 4 hours of HIIT training = 4 x 60 = 240 minutes. Out of this, I’m not sure how much time you will spend in Z5+. The limiter here is recovery between sessions.

So with your training, you might find you’re getting to each session a little tired and sore (depending on what you aim to do). If you’re cool with that, nothing stopping you. Everyone’s body is different.

The week of recovery is good. Might reverse the ill-effects of the HIIT week.

Repeating the same cycle from Week 7 is an unknown. Chances are, you’ll quickly find out if this is for you after the first cycle.

Interesting. What is the background motivation behind this?

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Week 4 = 4 hours of HIIT training = 4 x 60 = 240 minutes. Out of this, I’m not sure how much time
you will spend in Z5+. The limiter here is recovery between sessions.

my 1 hour HIIT session is about 30 min in total of Z5-Z6

The week of recovery is good. Might reverse the ill-effects of the HIIT week.

Ok, So I will put 1 day of rest m and then repeat the whole block (week1-6)

Interesting. What is the background motivation behind this?

I do not race , and I do not have any special motivation other than testing that polarized training and trying to improve my 30sec, 1 min and 5 min power since I notice I have a big drop in power at those times as shown in the graph in previous message above.

I do not race , and I do not have any special motivation other than testing that polarized training and trying to improve my 30sec, 1 min and 5 min power since I notice I have a big drop in power at those times as shown in the graph in previous message above.

If you’re testing efficacy of Polarized training, you wont be able to isolate its effects from the HIIT stuff you’re doing in between.

If you want to improve 30s power, not sure VO2max session is going to tick specificity checkbox. 30s uses the PC system and you need to do several repeats of that with full recoveries in between. Its a long sprint. Its mostly all neuro and mechanics.

Shouldnt you be able to just target it in the Polarized week as opposed to a special block of 30 x 4 = 120 minutes of HIIT? Also I’m not sure you will reap the rewards of HIIT with no background low intensity activity.

This looks like a bit like block periodization, which is also not without its controversies.

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Indeed Ron, I could target that 30s , 60s, 5 min within the HIT session of my polarized block instead of adding a week of hard HIIT within the polarized block.

As for the long low intensity activity, i think i am good for that , i am training since december , with multiple session of 1h30m to 2h30 min sessions at low intensity.

Tanks for your info !

I honestly think that it is the better way to improve…
Don’t forget that if you have a total weekly training time of ~10hrs, you can safely do 1hr-1.5hr of high intensity when following Polarized. And 1 hr of high intensity is A LOT when you do it as intended, at least for me…
Adress the 5 min “weakness” with some VO2 work and the shorter ones with Anaerobic workouts. Work both capacity (lower intensity-shorter rest) for a couple of weeks and then Power (higher intensity-full recovery rest) just one week before returning to work capacity.

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