Half of the runners followed the 80/20 rule while the other half maintained a 50/50 split (as many adult competitive and recreational runners do). This study involved 30 runners who ran fewer than 40 miles per week and had 10K times of just under 40 minutes. Intrigued by these results, Seiler and Esteve-Lanao conducted a follow-up study that was designed to determine whether 80/20 training also worked better for slower runners who trained less. On average, the runners in the 80/20 group lowered their times 36 seconds more than those in the 65/35 group. All 12 runners completed 10.4K time trials before and after the training period. Both groups averaged 50 to 55 miles of running per week. The other six runners did 65 percent of their training at low intensity and 35 percent at moderate and high intensity. Half of the subjects were placed on a training program that required them to do 80 percent of their training at low intensity and 20 percent at moderate and high intensity for five months. One of these studies involved 12 high-level male runners from Esteve-Lanao’s club who had clocked 10K times between 30 and 35 minutes.
#High intensity health series
In search of such proof, Seiler collaborated with Jonathan Esteve-Lanao, a club running coach and an exercise scientist at the European University of Madrid, to conduct a series of experiments.
The ubiquitous reliance of elite endurance athletes on the 80/20 training approach does not itself constitute conclusive proof that it is more effective than the alternatives for athletes of all abilities. The only explanation that made any sense was that this particular balance of training intensities had annihilated others (such as the interval-heavy approach that was dominant in the 1950s) because it did a better job of increasing aerobic capacity, a goal shared by elite athletes in all endurance disciplines. Seiler knew it was very unlikely that this pattern was the result of either random coincidence or copycatting. He found a remarkably consistent pattern: World-class cyclists, Nordic skiers, rowers, runners, swimmers, and triathletes all did approximately 80 percent of their training at low intensity. In the early 2000s, Stephen Seiler, an American exercise scientist based in Norway, embarked on a mission to determine how elite endurance athletes really train. If so, then the surest way for you to race faster is to train slower. Chances are you, too, are caught in the “moderate-intensity rut” without realizing it. According to a study by Muriel Gilman at Arizona State University, the typical adult competitive runner does only 46 percent of his or her training at low intensity and another 46 percent at moderate intensity. “But what I find with the overwhelming majority of adults who come to our camps is that they tend to do their daily runs too hard.” “You would assume that maybe most people wouldn’t train hard enough,” says Pete Rae, who coaches post-collegiate runners and Olympic hopefuls and hosts running camps for recreational runners at ZAP Endurance in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. Specifically, these studies have shown that runners of all ability and experience levels seem to improve the most when they do approximately 80 percent of their training at low intensity and 20 percent at moderate and high intensity.Ī look at training logs of runners of different abilities shows that nearly all elites follow the “80/20 rule,” but most other runners don’t-a discrepancy that is familiar to coaches who work with both elite and recreational runners. Such studies are difficult to do, so few have been done, however, a handful of researchers have completed experiments that have gone a long way toward pinning down this optimal balance. The only way to answer this question definitively is to rigorously compare the effects of different intensity distributions on real-world running performance.
So here’s the key question: What is the optimal balance of time spent at low, moderate and high intensity for runners seeking maximum fitness? Every training plan prescribes workouts of various distances or times in each zone. The border between moderate and high intensity falls at the second ventilatory threshold, which is slightly higher than the lactate threshold.Įach intensity zone affects a runner’s fitness differently. Exercise scientists place the border between low and moderate intensity at the first ventilatory threshold, the point where you have to start breathing harder, which is a bit slower than lactate threshold. Intensity can be classified into three general zones: low, moderate and high. In layperson terms, intensity is simply how hard you’re running relative to how hard you’re capable of running. It’s one of the most fundamental and important variables in the training of distance runners.
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