I ran my first two half marathons following a free training plan from the awesome site trcanje.rs, which is a great source of information for the beginner runner.
After the calf injury I had about a month off and it coincided with buying a new watch, the Polar Vantage M2. I generated a training program for a half marathon on their Polar Flow app, about 5-6 months before the race I had planned.
What does the Polar half-marathon preparation program look like?
The program I followed for two and a half years was based on distance and pace. So, the trainings were of the following type:
- 10 km at a medium pace
- 16 km at an easy pace or
- 6×1 km at a fast pace
So, based on your feeling, determine what is medium, what is easy, and what is hard pace and keep that pace for the given number of kilometers.
The Polar running program works on a completely different principle, which is the time spent in a certain heart rate zone. So, the trainings according to the Polar program are of the following type:
- 10 minutes of warm-up in Zones 1 and 2 – 55 minutes in Zone 3 – 5 minutes cool down in Z 1 and 2
- 16 minutes warm-up in Z1-3 – Intervals of 5 minutes in Z 4-5 and 2 minutes in zone 3 (then repeat three times) – 5 minutes cool down in Z 1-2
- 1:45 in Z 1 and 2 (long run)
Everything is based on a certain time in a certain heart rate zone, not related to the mileage you will cover or the exact pace at which you will run.
This is how creating a half marathon program on the Polar Flow app looks like:
I also showed what the descriptions of some trainings look like. The entire program is divided into three phases:
- Base building
- Build up
- Tapering
During these three phases, the trainings differ in intensity, but also in frequency. In my case, I had three training sessions a week in the first weeks, and then four until the Tapering phase, when the intensity is reduced again so you are not tired before the race.
How I trained according to the Polar Running Program
I started using the Polar Flow Running program about five and a half months before the Belgrade Marathon, for which I was preparing. I got a list of all the training sessions and I followed the program very disciplinedly. I only made changes on a few occasions, where I replaced the long run training in zones 1 and 2 with hiking or snowshoeing. I’ve done that maybe three times and a couple more times there are longer bike rides instead of training.
Is the Polar program difficult?
Compared to the previous running plan I followed, the Polar Flow program is much easier. Of the four workouts per week, only interval training requires greater efforts in zones 4 and 5, but it is also the shortest training in terms of duration.
I had my doubts about this program because it seemed easy to me, but I decided to stick with it until the end to see the end result.
What was the end result?
The Polar Flow application gives you a Running Index for each workout you do, which is a kind of rating based on the collected parameters (speed, heart rate, etc.). And based on the Running Index, it gives an estimate of how long you can run your half-marathon for which you are preparing.
The estimates I used to get were below 1:30, which is absolutely impossible. My previous best time was 1:42 and I felt that at best I could be around that time. In the end, with a huge effort, I managed to improve my time by about twenty seconds. My main goal was to go 1:40, but somewhere around 13-14km I could no longer maintain that pace.
What I think is wrong with the Polar Flow Running Program
What bothered me the most about the Polar Flow Running program was that it didn’t give me a single tempo workout. Under the previous program, I ran 10 or 12 km once a week at the pace I planned to run in the race. In a few months I developed such a sense of pace that without a watch I could hit that exact pace and hold it for the next hour.
According to the Polar program, I always ran either a lot slower or a lot faster (with intervals), but never at this pace, which was my goal.
I think that’s a big shortcoming of the program. On race day, the body is simply not trained to maintain a certain pace for a long period of time. I came to the starting line not knowing at all how it would feel to run at 4:44/km, which was my goal. In the previous half marathon, I knew exactly what was waiting for me, because week after week I ran at the pace I was preparing for and I knew exactly when the crisis would come, when I would break through it and how I would feel during the run.
When I created a new program to make a video, which I posted above, I saw that the program now includes tempo training, but I didn’t have it.
Conclusion: Is the Polar Flow running program good?
Although I followed the program, and I did not manage to achieve my goal, I do not think that the Polar Program is not good. It is especially good for beginners who are preparing for their first races.
All runners with a little more experience can also use it as a base, adding some more specific training.
I will continue to use the workouts from the Polar Flow program for running, but I will also add some additional workouts. Primarily:
- tempo training
- hills
- progressive running
Any plan is better than no plan. The Polar Flow running program gives a good structure for planning preparation for a half marathon, and my experience is that it is good to add some more specific training. Also, the way of training according to this program is sustainable in the long term, because the trainings are not such that you are exhausted after them. And exhaustion leads to injuries, and injuries lead to setbacks and regression. All this makes Polar running program generally good, with the exception that you have to do some fine-tuning yourself in the process of preparing for a particular race.