80/20 Training

[wawa]

Weirdly nothing is coming up when I search, though I could swear we've talked about this before.

Any strong opinions on the 80/20 training approach? Pro or con? Favorite resources for training plans/approach?

[melmel48]

I bought the book and am reading it now. I don't have any experience with it and am struggling, because I am so super slow to begin with... it is kind of hard to go easier for 80 percent of my runs when I am struggling as it is.

[foundmylazybum]

Personally I'd say 90% of people are running their easy runs too fast and its impacting every single thing they do. (90% is observation and based on no scientific facts lol)

I put myself in this category. 🙋‍♀️. I'd say that most people, if they want to improve at running need to consider this as an option and they need to learn about "effort" vs "pace."



When we run our easy runs too fast, it impacts how well (effort and pace) we can do our workouts and basically what happens is all our runs end up being in the middle and you end up on a plateau. It also impacts the phases of recovery, speed and strength building.

A second thing that happens is people dont truly understand physiological systems that are engaged while running. If you run too fast you could be constantly engaging anaerobic which comes with it's own set of issues.

Another poster mentioned that they already feel they are "slow," so they dont know how they would go easier than they already are.

Well, now we are talking about effort vs pace.

If an easy run is called for, and let's say a person runs..15 min miles and feels the EFFORT at that pace is "moderate" to "hard"

It's likely that to get to easy effort, their runs may be run/walk.

The thing this athlete has to get to is that this is FINE! Each session is serving the purpose, and that by slowing down the athlete is actually giving space for other efforts. Things like longer sessions, speed work (short sprints), or power (hills) to work those specific systems. By doing 80/20 they are breaking out of the middle and recognizing that it actually takes that long TO recover and build.

Its important to remember that we are all at different paces, experiences and abilities. But also remember that this method is really popular and works for tons of people (it's a primary training method for east Africans, especially kenyans). What constitutes your easy effort shifts and changes but its important to use it.

[sadlebred]

foundmylazybum - Exactly! It doesn't matter the sport-cycling, running, tri. This is where a coach and a training plan are really helpful. I've always been able to do slow (rides, obviously), but I learned what hard really is for intervals. I highly recommend a sport specific coach to anyone that wants to get better and go faster.

[reginaphalange72]

Jan 11, 2020 16:34:21 GMT -5 sadlebred said:

foundmylazybum - Exactly! It doesn't matter the sport-cycling, running, tri. This is where a coach and a training plan are really helpful. I've always been able to do slow (rides, obviously), but I learned what hard really is for intervals. I highly recommend a sport specific coach to anyone that wants to get better and go faster.

Seconded.  I'm going through this now.  My coach is a big fan of easy runs should be EASY, and I've been trying to embrace that and not always trying to push too hard.  This was something I started paying attention to in early December and I'm already feeling a difference in my running economy. I find now that when I DO have a harder run, it feels so much better!

[foundmylazybum]

A few other thoughts:


I read a post from Sage Canady, who is a pretty good runner (he can blow up sometimes but still good).

He says that you need to run your easy and recovery runs at a pace that allows you to:

1. Not get injured
2. Build time on legs and endurance.

A LOT of people get wrapped up on pace of easy runs and if they are getting faster over time on these endurance building runs. It represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the sport.

The place where paces begin to matter and where we need to be evaluating is in workouts! And, we can still evaluate by multiple measures beyond just pace!

When thinking about the 80/20 rule, think of that 80% as like..strong strong foundation work. If you blast it out it cannot support the 20% STRESS that has a lot of impact.