Polarised Vs Sweet Spot For Time Crunched Cyclists, Base Miles, Ramp Test Vs 20 Minute Test And More 

Joe is great and I like that his philosophies never change. Listen to the video maybe 4 or 5 times before the key messages sink in with regards to 5 days, 2 days and the different intensities on those two days. Joe explains it well, and it's working very well.

The joe friel! Legend!

I've been doing a variation of that type of training for a decade or so- 5 easy days a week, with the other 2 days inserted that are even slower and shorter than the other 5

I'm proud to own a pair of Favero Assioma Duo pedals and see an expert in training with a power meter like Joe Friel on their channel explain such an interesting topic. A proof that Favero Assioma is a serious and committed power meter manufacturer.

RE: ramp test vs 20-minute FTP test, use whichever gives you the higher number. obviously :P

When will favero have an SPD pedal power meter?

Thanks Joe! In general would you advise to pick either one of the Sat & Sunday fast group rides (3-4 hours usually, 200+ TSS) as one of the hard efforts and a Wed or Thursday as the other for a 1 hourish Interval workout or go easy all week and hard on Saturday and Sunday (Weekend Warrior 💪). Also how would adding two - three days of weights in there work (could I do squats and leg presses too?) My weeks vary 6-12 hours riding and I'm 55. If going easy on one of the weekend days could the other be long 3+ hour zone 1-2? Wanting to get as strong and fast as possible.... with work, wife and kids ;-)

Joe's explanation of Polarised and Sweet Spot training is really good. I have read around this (a lot) and I'm still confused! A background note: I have power for cycling and for running, and I use a chest strap for both, so when I refer to Z1/Z2 I mean heart rate or power (my zones more-or-less match up). Joe (and Stephen Seiler) seem to suggest that if I do an interval session which includes a lot of baseline cycling or running (e.g. running 40-min each way in Z1/Z2, to the venue where I do running intervals), the whole workout should be classed as a "hard" workout. For sure, the hard parts are going to need extra recovery time! Naively though, I would have thought each workout would have the exercise intensity components proportioned, and these would invidually contribute to my Polarised, Pyramidal, Threshold training (whichever system I'm using). Garmin does this for me as a matter of course - showing the components accumulated as "low aerobic", "high aerobic" and "anaerobic". I absolutely agree with the comments about the necessity for base miles and HIIT not being a substitute for them (probably a bitter pill for those who really are time crunched though). I also know that training needs a suitable sprinkling of nearly all the intensity components (together with a suitable sprinkling of rest). Finally, off-topic now: I'm also struggling with the intricacies of Performance Management metrics and how they should be applied through the year (e.g., how easy and how long should the "off-season" or "de-load period" be, etc.). I get how they are used for planning microcycles, but I'm currently missing the longer term view. Notwithstanding these further puzzles, a great talk and, as you can tell, it's opened up more lines of research for me to follow... 🤔

Wat you tink about establing your FTP wit a ramp test and mutiply by 83.33% of your max power of the ramp test done on 1 minute icrement by 10 watts

I have been listening very carefully to your answers. It seems to me you implicitly recommend what The Sufferfest are doing. I am still quite new to cycling as an amateur starting road bike riding at the age of 47. Thanks to The Sufferfest method I could improve my FTP in just one year by about 60 watts.

Soo.. You clearly explained the difference between polarised and sweet spot training, but I didn't understand what your advice is. If I have 4-6 hours a week, what should I do? Imagine I want to train for a 70.3 Ironman. 90 km bike ride, aerobic. Should I still include sweet spot training or HIIT training? or purely aerobic? Thanks!

Mountain Bike🤷🏽‍♂️

The Jack Daniels of cycling.