80:20

Last month on my Facebook Group, I talked about the 80/20 approach and the importance of easy sessions making up the bulk of your training so I thought it would be best to give you some more information on this.

So, what is it?
Research has shown that elite athletes train at a low intensity 80% of the time and the remaining 20% at a high intensity.   For example back in 2003 when Paula Radcliffe was at her peak, 12 of her 15 runs (160 miles per week in total) over an eight-day cycle would be at a low intensity.

For the average endurance athlete getting in these training miles would be a pipe-dream however the principle works even if you only train 4-5 times a week; in fact it’s probably even more important for recreational athletes who think that they need to train hard every time they go out.  This often leads to being too fatigued to do high intensity sessions.

The 80/20 principle should act as a guideline so if you run 4 times a week, then 1 run is hard and 3 are easy giving a 75:25 split.  In terms of heart rate, think of your easy sessions in zone 1-2, moderate sessions in zone 3 and higher intensity sessions in zone 4+.
 

This principle isn’t just important for the average triathlete either as a week’s training for an elite triathlete shows that 81% is easy and only 8.6% is hard. 


So think about last week’s training, how much was in the green zone and how much was in the red?