If I have a 8/9h week, in order to follow a polarized model, I need to do around 45 to 55 minutes of Z5/Z6 which means it is around 20/30 mins per session if I do two hard sessions per week.
The thing is that I read somewhere that vo2 max sessions should be around 15 to 20mins (time in the zone) and I started thinking on how does this interacts with the polarized model.
I’m already doing 25 mins at z5/z6 so, in theory, I’m at max time for vo2, but what if I could train 15h a week?
If you progressively add more time on your sessions, you will start at about 10-12 minutes and add more time up to about 25 minutes. There’s no hard rule that dictates you must do an exact amount to be polarised.
Are your 5x5 efforts the maximum you can sustain across all 5 intervals sets? Is the power erratic or fairly constant? Can you do another interval? 6x5min.
The 30/30 efforts, what power are you doing?
I have pushed a few athletes, and myself, to do 3 sets of 13x30x30 or 4 sets of 10x(30x30) at the end of the progression. Power would be about capped at 120%, keeping it above 110% while the easier efforts are about 80%.
I would say that adding another interval seems easier than increasing the power output in the interval.
I’m doing a 30s burst of 350W, followed by 4:30 at 290/280W, with 5 mins rest at 50%.
And for the 30/30s I’m doing 350w (120%) and 150w (50%) when resting.
For both of them I feel that increasing power taxes me more than adding a few more minutes/intervals.
The extra interval will build capacity, that’s good preparation before increasing wattage.
How about also reducing rest periods? To increase time at high HR, rest periods in VO2 workouts are usually only about 25-35% of the work intervals.
VO2 workouts are usually 1:1 work to rest, or a little longer rest if you need the extra recovery.
Threshold is usually 2:1 reducing to 4:1 work to rest.
That’s what I’ve been doing since I started in september. I even started with 6 min rest periods because I wanted to make sure that I was able to finish the workout.
For the next week should I increase the power to 300W for 4:30 and reduce the number of intervals to 4?
Gerald’s advice is solid. Don’t skimp on rest as you want to have all good efforts, 1:1 is recommended. Also the idea of VO2Max intervals is not to absolutely obliterate your muscles, it should feel 7 out of 10 to provide adequate stimulus but not put you in a hole. If you go too hard all you will do is overtrain, it took me a few years to learn that.
