While I’ve been lost in the training-video/podcast forest these past few days, I came across a new guy – the guy who actually coined the phrase ‘polarization’, pertaining to training at least. His name is Dr. Stephen Seiler and, apart from his calming southern drawl, he has a lot of good things to say. He even has good things to ask, as evidenced by this interview with ‘El Tractor’, Tim Declercq.
There’s a lot that I’ve learned from my time on the couch with Stephen – of course he is a proponent of the 80/20 philosophy towards training for endurance athletes – including this revolutionary idea:
Training volume is a key contributor to performance improvement
Obviously it’s fine to train 4 hours a week if you want, but if you are doing so in the hopes that you have found a magic shortcut because you are ‘time-crunched’ (as an aside, I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard how ‘time crunched’ people are ‘these days’. This is most definitely not my reality, so I’m curious to know if it’s true or just something you are supposed to say ‘these days’), you might be disappointed.
If you can’t take his usual hour and a half videos, here’s a compact TED talk.
The Vicious Cycle 
I’m at the bottom end of Time Crunch = Zero cycling. The bike does look good against the wall in my kitchen though.
Pierre, you will rise again…and all you need to do is grab that Italian bici and head out the door 😉
Training volume sure seemed to work for Merckx! Recommend that you have a look at the book The Midlife Cyclist by Phil Cavell.
Sam, I’ve got that book’s name open in another tab right now. Can never have enough cycling books!
It is all theoretical to me now. Just getting on a bike is a triumph of will some days.
Your e-bike rides look great. Is that a road bike?
No, it is a French folding bike so that we can get it into our tiny car. My model is the Eovolt Afternoon. I think it is probably meant to be a city bike but it is very comfortable and I don’t mind people laughing at me.