Polarized Training Question

[ShortAndStout]

This is more of a general question and not one about pace. I've been doing about 60 minutes of UT2 training now for about 3 weeks and have put in about 180k so far. Love the sport.

The thing I keep hearing is I should mix these up with either: Low intensity (rest days, is Zone 2 a rest day?) or high intensity (UT1 / AT+) to keep my adaptation in check and make sure I'm improving correctly. My question is, what does a balanced workout normally look like over a week, or over some month period?

As I said I've been doing sort of the same thing over and over, and while I do love it, I want to make sure I'm getting different types of training and am also taking adequate rest days, I just don't know what that looks like practically speaking. Maybe my UT2 sessions aren't hard enough to warrant rest at all, maybe they're so light I should consider adding higher intensity like once a week, or maybe they are across the board slightly too intense (UT1 maybe) and I should polarize MORE by going slower in general, dropping my UT2 pace from 2:16 to like 2:25 or lower, and doing higher UT1 or AT/interval sprints.

My stats for those curious: 24M 200lb 5'7 7:502k, HR60-200, UT2 usually done around 2:16 for 60m+ 16SPM. 2K a little weak because I havent done a proper one yet.

[Dangerscouse]

Imo, this is quite subjective as you can only train as hard as you can rest. I usually row sox days a week, but I know some people can't handle more than three or four days, so you'll get a variety of answers.

Broadly speaking, what you want to do is what the Pete Plan provides: one hard interval session, one endurance interval, ideally a hard or semi hard distance session, but this isn't essential and as much distance as possible. You'll know what you can handle as long as you're honest with yourself in terms of fatigue and laziness: both will interplay in your thoughts.

I need one complete rest day a week, but I know some consider active rest as a rest day eg 2k + 30 pace.

FWIW, I find the endurance intervals, or the hard / semi-hard distance mentioned above are great to do grey zone training ie not fast enough nor slow enough, which aren't really advised, but they do help to build mental robustness in terms of what you're capable of.

What is important is that you build up to it all, as you need to adapt on quite a few levels and going too hard too early on will be detrimental.

[jamesg]

24M 200lb 5'7, 7:50 2k, HR60-200, UT2 usually done around 2:16 for 60m+ 16SPM.

Since you can hold 2:16 (140W) at rate 16 (so stroke ratio 140/16 = 9W-min) for an hour, a 2k should be possible at say rate 30 and 10W which is 300W and close to 7 minutes. If not, it's endurance work that will help: low rate, long, hard.

In a 2k training plan the first three weeks look much like your work as described. After that in the three week blocks pieces get shorter and faster, including work such as 3x7'AT.

These are the first nine weeks of an Interactive 2k training plan, level 3, 5 day, 26 weeks:

1 TEST 1x20'UT1 2x12'UT1 2x15'UT1 2x10'UT1
2 40'UT2 2x14'UT1 2x16'UT1 2x18'UT1 2x15'UT1
3 45'UT2 2x17'UT1 2x19'UT1 4x10'UT1 2x18'UT1

4 30'UT2 2x7'AT 2x10'UT1 2x7'AT 2x12'UT1
5 45'UT2 2x8'AT 2x14'UT1 2x8'AT 2x16'UT1
6 50'UT2 2x9'AT 3x13'UT1 3x7'AT 3x15'UT1

7 30'UT2 2x7'AT 2x12'UT1 2x7'AT 3x12'UT1
8 2x14'UT1 2x8'AT 4x2'TR 2x7'AT 2x4'TR
9 3x13'UT1 2x9'AT 2x3'TR 2x9'AT 6x2'TR

These plans (there are more than 200 in total) were devised by Terry O'Neill, a UK Olympic coach. The training bands can be based on ratings (for rowing and erging), %2k test Watts (for erging) or HRRange for other activities where speed/power values are unknown or not pertinent so HR is used as a proxy.

All you have to think about in these plans is keep the stroke solid: it'll be needed in a 2k.

Watt percentages for aerobic (UT2 and 1) are up to 70% of 2k test W at ratings up to 23. AT might be rating 28 and 80% test W, on C2 ergs that measure power.

[iain]

You are still young, so will fairly rapidly be able to recover quicker than most on these boards. However it might take several months to get there as your muscles get used to the demands. You know if you are not recovered when your performance is below what you know you can achieve, but to test this you need to do some all out sessions with the benchmarks set when you are fully recovered. Hour rows can be very tough or very easy and paces are personal so it is difficult to know how hard your current rows are. But UT2 rows are only necessary when you have had a hard row or are doing very high volumes in my opinion.

What the body can take varies as does how fast we recover. Part of that is genetic, but a huge part depends upon what else you are doing, nutrition, sleep etc. Olympic rowers manage 3 sessions a day (mainly at low intensity), but they spend much of the rest of the time eating and resting! In short I would recommend adding some harder rows, these don't have to be all out 2ks, the BPP gives a good introduction into interval sessions starting easily. Personally I would say that your 2:16 may well be more UT1 than UT2 although it depends how soft your 2k PB is. As for Jame's predictions, unless the 2k was at <25SPM, you are producing more work per stroke at your 16SPM at 2:16 than you averaged in your 2k PB. This could demonstrate progress since the PB, or that you have adopted habits at low rating that you won't be able to maintain as you rate up (such as an exaggerated leanback), so it might not be possible to achieve the times he mentions without furter improvements. In particular he is assuming a 15% increase in work per stroke on a 2k. Many who have a strong stroke at low ratings don't achieve this, while others use a weaker stroke on longer rows that mean they can increase it at and above these levels.

[Elizabeth]

I second Stu's recommendation of the Pete Plan to get a feel for what a week of polarized training would look like. The three harder sessions per week got too intense for me after maybe 8 cycles; my current schedule is more like two hard, one medium, and then lots of easy. My easy is frequently around 2k+27 pace.

Are you using a heart rate monitor? I'm not clear on whether your current sessions fall mainly into UT2 or UT1 from your phrasing, but a heart rate monitor can be a great check on where the intensity is falling.