I have a block of freedom on friday and saturday morning to ride 2-4 hours each day (if I wish to do so), and now in autumn I really enjoy endurance rides alone. I’ve read enough to know that, in a polarized way of training, you combine interval training with endurance training. With that in mind, I’m looking to start a new plan, but I wonder if / how I could incorperate more endurance rides without overextending myself.
Anyone with any experience or ideas on how to do this? Do I choose a lower volume plan and add more hours? And do I use some kind op periodization?
Some more background:
Last summer I rode about 7-9 hours a week, but in september I started to feel fatigued so I dialed down to 4 - 5 hours a week with less intensity. Feeling fresh now and had some good test result last week.
I want to start with a building block FTP and then a general fitness plan with more hours, my idea being that I build up the hours toward the new season (starts in march for me).
I would do the low volume general purpose fitness plan(12 weeks) first where most weeks there are two days with no workouts. If you feel up to it you could add one longer endurance ride in as and when. The FTP plan could come in later as your fitness and stamina increases and then depending on your goals and what kind of racing/riding you do could do the more targeted plans at a higher volume. The plans here seem to be more pyramidal (a bit more tempo) than outright polarised ( easy vs Hard) If you want to do purely polarised then you could create a plan yourself from the vast choice in the library. Check out Stephen Seiler on Youtube for the correct application of polarised training
I’m currently basing my training about the base blocks, but substituting the temp ride for MAP. As I go in a second block I’m planning on making the weekday MAP one of the FTP progression workouts with a MAP ride at the weekend (Blender etc)
I’m sure you could look at something similar, and with a bit of planning you can move those rides around a bit to make the most of the time you have on a Friday and Saturday. Just be careful if doing too many back to back days without a rest. If you’re riding Friday and Saturday the man either take Thursday off or making it as easy day.
So what you do is a MAP focused and a FTP focused ride every week? Or how do you do this?
I was thinking about taking the general fitness plan, remove the tempo rides and add the two endurance rides. I would take the high intensity stuff from the general fitness plan and plan them on days I’m well rested. The base of the week would than exist out of two (sometimes three max) HIT days, two endurance ridea. After that I would add some small/tempo rides where needed.
At the moment it’s all base except for one MAP ride a week, and I’m basing that around the Base Block from the Building Blocks Section. Once I’ve done this 4 week block, I’ll repeat but do one FTP and one MAP block a week. I reckon this isn’t a bad base season. My MAP is weak so after those blocks I’ll do a MAP block, take a rest the go into one of the 12 week plans to take me into next season.