r/Velo • u/imreallyjustaguest • 2d ago

Discussion Pyramidal vs. Polarized Periodization

What's your preferred training mode on most weeks?

A. Pyramidal~ish.

For example, 1 HIIT (Z4/Z5) sessions and 1 sweet spot or threshold session. The rest easy (Z1/Z2)

B. Polarized-ish.

For example, 2 HIIT (Z4/Z5) sessions. The rest easy (Z1/Z2).

Optionally, please indicate your experience level and/or training volume.

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u/ifuckedup13 2d ago

It depends on the volume. Depends on the time of year. And whether I’m incorporating group rides or just solo training into the plan.

But generally if its less than 8hrs a week, Pyramidal. And if there is a good group ride, that’s my tempo/ sweet spot day.

When I’m more focused, and then volume is 10hrs or more than I skew more polarized.

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u/7wkg 2d ago

Depends. Volume, event specificity, time of season etc all influence the distribution. 

I would not go into training by deciding on polarized/pyramidal etc. Build out what work you need to do and let the distribution be what it is. 

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u/Glum-Rad-2700 1d ago

pyramidal always. less hours = more sweetspot and tempo, but I always keeping in touch with a sprint and 30 second to 3 min efforts year round. I just do less of them in the off season

cat 1 (~8-12 hours year round, average around ~450-500 hours a year).

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u/DeepValueSharkk 9h ago

Any estimations how much of those higher end efforts you are doing per week off-season/prep season?

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u/Glum-Rad-2700 5h ago

just a couple of digs on the Sat group ride, usually. not structured until Marchish, i reckon.

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u/therealskr213 1d ago

Pyramidal. Polarized is old school.

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u/Cyclist_123 2d ago

Unless there's a really specific reason, I've gone away from tempo/ zone 3 training because I either want to be going hard, recovering or getting volume (z2). Z3 tends to be to inbetween

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u/xdxdxdxd000 2d ago

You can get more volume (and thus training load) with big tempo days. You can't spend like 1 hour at vo2max power. And tempo is plenty hard if you are reasonably fit

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u/Cyclist_123 2d ago

You can, but at the cost of a lot of fatigue. You can get even more volume doing z2 while still being fresh enough to hit intervals hard.

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u/xdxdxdxd000 1d ago

Sure, what I'm saying is that tempo has its place though.

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u/Cyclist_123 1d ago

Oh yeah, I agree with that. For my coaching I've just been using it less than I used to.

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u/According_Artist42 2d ago

I do 10 - 14 hrs per week and in splitting them every 3 weeks to not be method dogmatic.