Coach Jack's Polarized plan and Intervals.icu

Training and Performance Fundamentals
#1

I started my first Polarized Coach Jack plan last week. I did the Serious Italian Plan last spring. I realized I was addicted to the HIIT adrenaline rush when I started Jack’s plans last winter. I sometimes bump up the intensity in the hard work intervals if I am feeling strong, but otherwise trying to follow the plan.

The plan has 4 rides per week - M/W/F and longer ride Sat. It is a 12 week plan. Here are the first 5 weeks:

2022-10-26 16_08_47-Trainer Day - Plan Details and 4 more pages - Personal - Microsoft​ Edge
2022-10-26 16_08_47-Trainer Day - Plan Details and 4 more pages - Personal - Microsoft​ Edge1463×1071 96.1 KB

My intervals.icu metric is hanging out in the Fresh zone. Is that appropriate? What should I expect it to show over the next 3 months? I am still trying to understand this style of training.

2022-10-26 16_11_36-Intervals.icu and 5 more pages - Personal - Microsoft​ Edge
2022-10-26 16_11_36-Intervals.icu and 5 more pages - Personal - Microsoft​ Edge1714×796 117 KB

Thanks.

#2

Yes, this is fine. That is what a polarized plan especially just starting out should look like. At the end of the training season (build/peak) you should have a bit more intensity more targeted to your goals.

1 Like
#3

Would it be possible to remove that “Recovery” day from my plan, as I already have two days off per week ? I’d prefer to have, at least, a Z2 session, as the next day is also a OFF day:

2022-11-10 10.16.38 app.trainerday.com 66fee3213480
2022-11-10 10.16.38 app.trainerday.com 66fee3213480988×747 74.5 KB

PS: in fact, I’d prefer to have the recovery day after the VO2Max day !

1 Like
#4

Yeah that’s an interesting one. I agree recovery on Friday looks better in this case. I have to look at the logic of why it put the recovery day on Tuesday. I am not sure if recovery is better on Fri or Saturday in your case. A lot of people do a bit extra on Saturday’s so usually not the best for recovery but in your example I am not sure. Friday seems definitly reasonable to me. I will ask Andrea what he thinks.

#5

I shared this with Andrea, he says 2-day blocks work well for many people so he suggests this idea below as “optimal” in his mind but realize it might not work for your life. Jack actually does this one “right.”

image
image2302×976 224 KB

In two day blocks that Z2 day after the vo2max day would be a little more beneficial in his opinion but your suggestion is reasonable also. Either way the current plan is not optimal. I will have to look at the rules to see why this occured. I don’t think we gave long rides Monday enough consideration. How big of rush are you to get this resolved? I will try my best to see if we can do a rules change to improve this soon.

If we can’t improve it fast enough there might be a work around but at the moment I can’t think of any simple ones with out manually moving all the workouts. I guess that should only take 10 minutes or so to swap tuesdays and fridays or tuesdays and saturdays in my plans as I believe you are pushing this to intervals.

#6

Late answer, sorry. Yeah, I’m swaping tuesdays and fridays, and will probably do my own recovery “workouts”: 45-60min at very low intensity (max 50% FTP), with a handfull of short sprints (6-8s). Duh, Winter is coming and rainy days will force me to train indoors. I will try to do my long rides outdoors and adapt the rest of my plan according to the weather forecasts.

1 Like