80/20 Running

Typically, these adjustments are achieved by increasing and decreasing overall running volume rather than by fiddling with the balance of intensities.

Seiler’s rule also helps runners by explicitly defining low intensity. The boundary between low intensity and moderate intensity, according to Seiler, falls at the ventilatory threshold, which is the intensity level at which the breathing rate abruptly deepens.

LONG RUNS WITH FAST FINISH A long run with fast finish is an extended run at low intensity with a relatively short effort at moderate intensity tacked onto the end. Like long runs with speed play, long runs with fast finish serve to further increase fatigue resistance toward the end of a training cycle after you’ve already developed basic endurance

High-Intensity Runs Speed play runs, hill repetition runs, and interval runs featuring long, short, and mixed intervals include high-intensity efforts in Zones 4 and 5.

There is a popular belief that Kenyan runners do much more training at moderate and high intensities than do elite runners from other places, but the hard data does not support this myth. In 2003, top French exercise scientist Veronique Billat collected training data from twenty elite male and female Kenyan runners. A subsequent analysis of the dat

RULE #6: PRACTICE STEP CYCLES Step cycles take the hard-easy principle to a broader time scale. Also known as mesocycles, step cycles are multiweek training blocks in which the running workload is intentionally varied from week to week. In a step cycle, each week of training is slightly more challenging than the preceding, until the last week of th

What’s more, the margin of improvement was even greater among six members of the 80/20 group who had adhered most faithfully to the instructions, completing an average of 78 percent of their training at low intensity. These runners had lowered their 10K times by an average of 7 percent, which was statistically significant compared to the 50/50 grou

TEMPO RUNS A tempo run is a sustained effort in Zone 3 sandwiched between a warm-up and a cool-down. Tempo runs are a very effective means of enhancing a runner’s ability to sustain relatively aggressive speeds. They are emphasized in the peak phase of training for races of all distances from 5K to the marathon.

MIXED INTERVAL RUNS Mixed interval runs are intended to sharpen runners up for racing after they’ve already built a solid foundation of fitness. Including efforts in Zones 3, 4, and 5, they serve to maintain the fitness gains that have been accrued through workouts individually focused on each of these zones.