Prompted by some interesting posts on our Facebook page, I hoped to clarify what the Polarization Level setting does with a visual example.
I’ve asked the new Forecast AI training program to give a 10W increase in 5 min power (Mixed Breakaway Specialist focus). I was able to generate two plans that both achieve that goal with identical training availability, etc… the programs only differed by the altering the Training Polarity setting to the maximum & minimum setting:
The left program uses 5:1 (83:17) polarization, which means that you would roughly have 5 days of low intensity recovery and/or rest after each high intensity session. You should notice the very tall yellow/red matchsticks, especially near the end of the program. These would be very intense training days - something similar to Ronnestads every 5th day!
The right program - which is projected to achieve the same 10 W increase - uses a 1:1 polarization setting, which means that you can expect to have high-intensity prescribed roughly every other day. In order for you to be able to achieve this without burning out or overtraining, it means that the overall dose of high/peak XSS in each high-intensity training session will need to be smaller. You should notice that the yellow/red are now distributed in smaller doses throughout the training program, but none of these sessions would accumulate as much strain as the infamous Ronnestad session.