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Polar Running Program

Polar Running program is a personalized program based on your fitness level, designed to make sure that you train right and avoid overreaching. It’s intelligent, and adapts based on your development, and lets you know when it might be a good idea to cut back a little and when to step it up a notch. Each program is tailored for your event, taking your personal attributes, training background and preparation time into account. The program is free, and available in the Polar Flow web service at www.polar.com/flow.

Programs are available for 5k, 10k, half marathon and marathon events. Each program has three phases: Base building, Build-up and Tapering. These phases are designed to gradually develop your performance, and make sure you’re ready on race day. Running training sessions are divided into five types: easy jog, medium run, long run, tempo run and interval. All sessions include warm-up, work, and cool-down phases for optimal results. In addition, you can choose to do strength, core, and mobility exercises to support your development. Each training week consists of two to five running sessions, and the total running training session duration per week varies from one to seven hours depending on your fitness level. The minimum duration for a program is 9 weeks, and the maximum is 20 months.

Learn more about the Polar Running Program in this in-depth guide. Or read more about how to get started with the Running Program.

Create a Polar Running Program

  1. Log into the Flow web service at www.polar.com/flow.
  2. Choose Programs from the Tab.
  3. Choose your event, name it, set the event date, and when you wish to start the program.
  4. Fill in the physical activity level questions.*
  5. Choose if you want to include supporting exercises in the program.
  6. Read and fill in the physical activity readiness questionnaire.
  7. Review your program, and adjust any settings if necessary.
  8. When you’re done, choose Start program.

*If four weeks of training history is available, these will be pre-filled.

Start a running target

Before starting a session, make sure you’ve synced your training session target to your device. The sessions are synced to your device as training targets.

To start a training target scheduled for the current day:

  1. Enter the pre-training mode by pressing and holding OK in time view.
  2. You'll be prompted to start a training target you've scheduled for the day.

  3. Press OK to view the target information.
  4. Press OK to return to pre-training mode, and choose the sport profile you want to use.
  5. When the watch has found all the signals, press OK. Recording started is displayed and you can start training.

Follow your progress

Sync your training results from your device to the Flow web service via the USB cable or Flow app. Follow your progress from the Programs tab. You’ll see an overview of your current program, and how you’ve progressed.