That is a very good point and would be interesting to see.

Only experience I have of training like this was in my rowing days. During autumn/winter/spring we'd do training more like triathletes - lots of volume, threshold work, long intervals, etc. From April onwards as we got into the shorter racing season our training would be pretty much polarised - nearly all training would be done at either race pace or fairly gentle paddling. Obviously our races were much shorter than triathlons (~6 minutes), but when the race season finished I used to do a few longer events like cycling or tris, and I do remember being surprised at the fitness I had over longer distance.

Out of interest, what would a polarized training plan look like for somebody currently doing a "normal" 10 hour triathlon week? i.e. a mix of long, recovery and threshold paces.

9 hours zone 1, with 1 hour total of high intensity work? More? Less?

Seiler uses a 5 zone model common with Olympiatoppen. It can be simplified to three zones, but most are using it as a 5 zones model.
http://www.sportsci.org/2009/ss.htm

I wouldn't necessarily split it by time but by sessions. If you say for example that you'd do 2x20 on the bike and 20 minutes of VO2max running then that would add up to an hour, but it's obviously highly variable. Percentage-wise 10% is about the level of high intensity stuff that was done in some of the studies I think.

Sorry, may have phrased it badly - didn't mean how much intensity would a normal 10 hour a week triathlete be doing now, meant how much intensity would they be doing if they switched to a polarized plan. My understanding of polarized is that intervals would be much shorter and more intense than a 20 minute VO2max/threshold session.

Yes, exactly, shorter and more intense. However I don't think anyone completely ignores the more middle-of-the-road stuff. Might do 10-15% at very high intensity and 5-10% of tempo and threshold work. With the rest essentially as easy as possible of course.

I think Friel is mistaken here...he keeps referencing AeT, when the study shows lactate around 2.0mmol, which would be closer to LT/VT1. This would be the start of zone 2 in the 3 zone approach.

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Mat Steinmetz

51-SPEEDSHOP.com - instagram - @matsteinmetz - facebook

A lot of the Seiler's research has been done on Norwegians. They are following Olympiatoppen's zones and easy workouts are done in zone 1.

http://www.olympiatoppen.no/fagomraader/trening/utholdenhet/fagartikler/oltsintensitetsskala/page594.html

I liked the Friel blog, but I agree he gets the zone 1 thing wrong. The Seiler 3 zone model starts at 50% VO2 max which is pretty much the middle of zone 1, but it goes all the way up to LT1/VT1 which is zone 2. The easy stuff could be zone 1 or zone 2 on the 3 zone Seiler chart. That chart pretty much says everything should be zone 1/2 or zone 4+, no zone 3 work. I wonder if the athletes referenced in the Friel blog did any zone 2 stuff, or just stayed in zone 1?

Personally I will be doing some zone 3 stuff in the early season and then looking to move to the hard/easy model heading towards race season. I think I will include some zone 2 for the easy stuff though, zone 1 for months on end would drive me bonkers!

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He who understands the WHY, will understand the HOW.

As Friel has discussed in the past in terms of periodization for a long course athlete, you would be better doing more polarized training in the earlier base periods and then more specific work with long zone 3 efforts closer to the race as zone 3 better simulates the race conditions.

I think some of this tends to "sort itself out". Meaning you will struggle to do "good" quality intervals at zone 4-5 if you try and do zone 3 rides in between. It almost forces you to ride zone 1-2 to recover, or simply drop your overall volume.

For me, that means hammering some sufferfest videos, then easy spins listening to podcasts or watching movies on recovery days between.

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TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

I think you are right. The Sieler paper has a section titled Training intensities of elite endurance athletes. Their early phase is 164 hours zone 1, 42 zone 2 and 5 zone 3 (zones based on Seiler 3 zone model). The later phase is 182 hours zone 1, 57 hours zone 2 and 21 hours zone 3. The zone 2 and 3 work ramps up more in the later phase than the zone 1 work.

For me I still think that amount of zone 1 stuff early doors would be boring and with the hours I have available not best use of my time. I guess I am saying there is a limiting factor to the model for me with the number of training hours I have available.

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He who understands the WHY, will understand the HOW.

This is the attraction to more intensity in the off-season if you must train indoors in the winter. If I lived in SoCal or Florida where you an ride year-round I would gladly go on some Z1 rides and enjoy the sights and sounds. If you're in your pain cave no matter how nice it may be its boring as all hell pedaling along in z1 when you have to do so much of it to get the desired effect. Training to maintain or raise FTP in the cold dark winters of New England is a great approach IMO. You can take the famous Kevin Metcalfe approach of lots of sweet spot with bits of rest and still ride long on the weekend, Motoguy's approach of hammering some Sufferfest videos then making sure your easy spins are easy short or not or a mix of your own. Where many of us are not taking a true "off-season" I don't think there is as much as a need to "build a base" we have a base it doesn't errode that quickly and doing work that starts to use the anaerobic system doesnt mean your aerobic system shuts off. At that point you're taxing the whole system more and recovery needs to be considered.

As for me I just did my first 2x20@ss of the trainer season last night, I will probably do a few of those a week and maybe add it a sufferfest video 1x/week too then as long as I can get out on the weekend it will be a slower social ride which works out well when its 35degrees out.

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"Base training is bull shit" - desertdude

The point I was making, is that if the quality session are done correctly and especially if you add a 3rd weekly quality session in the form of running, then you won't be able to do anything else by zone 1-2.

I do "break" the rules slightly and when stuck indoors, my long ride is zone 3 so I can keep it around 2-1/2 to 3 hours max. I refuse to ride over 3 hours indoors.

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TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

I agree. People treat it like gospel truth that a person should just do base riding once it gets cold. That might be a good prescription for someone in the first few years of building fitness, but the trainer is so effective to intense workouts that it is a lost opportunity to do z1/2 stuff for the majority. I know from experience that my endurance suffers over the winter, but I also know that it bounces back quickly. Intensity on the other hand requires much more care and tending to maintain. Maybe it is an age thing too. In my 20s I could loaf around through the winter and whip it into shape in the spring, but now over 40 if I did that I would spend half the year making up for it so I need to keep my edge dialed in through the winter. Base isn't for everyone.